From the birth of communication technology to the present, mobile phone SIM cards have gone through many iterations.
From Mini SIM card, Micro SIM card to Nano SIM card, the most intuitive change is that the size of the SIM card is getting smaller and smaller.
At last fall's conference, Apple directly cut the SIM card slot on the US version of the iPhone 14 series and adopted eSIM card technology.
This move is undoubtedly revolutionary.
For users, it is more convenient to switch carriers and packages at any time.
For mobile phone manufacturers, it can also save more costs, improve the innovation of equipment, and bring users a better experience.
After all, the internal space of the mobile phone is expensive, and it can save a little.
But in the final analysis, even if the eSIM card is very small, it is still a physical chip after all, and it is not completely card-free in the strict sense.
Recently, some technology giants have directly integrated SIM cards into chips, truly realizing "card-free".
News on February 28, Qualcomm and Thales announced that they completed the world's first commercially deployable iSIM card certification on the second-generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2).
Qualcomm said that the iSIM card recently passed the GSMA (Global Mobile Communications System Association) security certification.
iSIM will support the same standard network protection as the latest eSIM cards, with secure connectivity anytime, anywhere.
Compared with eSIM cards, iSIM cards do not take up any space, and mobile phone manufacturers and operators can directly integrate the chip and mobile phones after reaching cooperation.
This will further save mobile phone space and reduce manufacturing costs.
As mobile phones become thinner and lighter, it is foreseeable that iSIM cards will become more and more popular.
Having said all this, most readers must be expecting when eSIM or iSIM technology can also be used in China.
Unfortunately, not only does there be no such trend in China, but it is also vigorously developing and promoting physical SIM-related technologies.
For example, a super SIM card.
In 2019, Unigroup and Unicom launched a 5G super SIM card, which has both storage and SIM card functions.
A few days ago, Unigroup Super SIM announced the latest list of compatible mobile phones, including Honor, ZTE, OPPO and many other recently listed 5G mobile phones.
As for why China has been slow to keep up with the pace of the international community, there are many reasons.
At present, the mainland has formed a mature operator and consumer system, and if eSIM or iSIM technology is used, it is bound to break the current balance.
When this balance is disrupted, domestic operators will face problems such as user loss, so they must roll each other's service quality and package content.
At present, counting the only four major operators in China in radio and television, it is more realistic to lie down and collect money than to break the existing situation and take risks.
Of course, this is only one reason why there is more speculation from the outside world, and it is unknown whether there is a deeper reason.
It is worth mentioning that aside from the operator, mobile phone manufacturers have also begun to consider this matter.
Recently, a patent by Xiaomi for a communication method, device and medium for one card and multiple numbers has been granted.
Simply put, a SIM can register multiple mobile phone numbers, and dual-SIM dual-standby may become history in the future.
Of course, compared with eSIM and iSIM technology, one card and multiple numbers are still very far behind, and they still can't bypass physical cards.
If you want to realize the card-free mobile phone, the key depends on the face of the operator.
All in all, I hope that eSIM and iSIM technology can be slowly popularized in China!
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