I'm constantly chuckling at the underestimation of Apple's influence in the US and worldwide. Do you really think all of the cellular providers and resellers are not at this moment reviewing their business model and giving strong consideration to supporting eSIM activation?
The folio of "stupid" ideas that people claim Apple adopted which are now readily adopted by many Android phone purveyors is substantial.
No one spends more money on all consumer products domestically and internationally than Apple users especially folks with a new phone.
We shall see how many "cheap" SIM purveyors suddenly figure out a way to go eSIM. In the meantime I'll take the increased security (now my SMS 2FA is a lot more secure than before) and one less opening for dust and moisture to get inside.
I can't wait to send my first Satellite message...
> I'll take the increased security (now my SMS 2FA is a lot more secure than before) and one less opening for dust and moisture to get inside.
There was so much esim fraud in Austria via customer support attacks and the online self management interfaces that they removed the ability to get an esim QR online. Some carriers are bringing it back but jusr yesterday A1 (the largest carrier) had to admit that customers got their esim stolen through attacks of their processes.
IT has nothing to do with carriers supporting eSIM or not. With eSIM comes activation processes where carriers can make pricing decisions. Have an iPhone or coming from the US? There's a different higher price for you. Today you can buy a sim at any carrier store or cell shop around the world and insert it into your phone. Zero hassle. Fair pricing. eSIM opens the floodgates for carriers to lock you in or implement stupid rules. I bet Verizon and ATT are salivating the ability to lock down the eSIM. Also eSIM being less hackable than the SIM? Time will tell. Im sure the NSO Group is already working on that.
> Today you can buy a sim at any carrier store or cell shop around the world and insert it into your phone. Zero hassle.
The exact same is possible is with an e-sim. Have you ever used an e-sim? It's literally a QR code the carrier hands you that you need to scan. You can scan it with any e-sim compatible phone. This is the equivalent of "inserting the sim into any phone" except without the actual insertion.
> I bet Verizon and ATT are salivating the ability to lock down the eSIM.
Assuming you are a new iPhone user? ATT locked the sim down for iphones in the first few years. Not sure how it is now, but earlier I couldnt use my phone with any other carrier unless I begged ATT to unlock it. I once had to show them my travel documents to say that I just needed it for a short while so I can use a foreign sim on what they considered their phone. So this is nothing new, and e-sim doesnt improve or worsen the situation.
> I bet Verizon and ATT are salivating the ability to lock down the eSIM.
I already have to deal with this bullshit. ATT has a device whitelist that they refuse to deviate from - you cannot just put a SIM into any device you want.
ATT also will not give you a physical eSIM (they deliver their eSIMs on cardboard cards as QR codes printed; I have not been able to remotely provision one, they charge for these, and stores run out frequently)
All this is possible with standard SIMs. The SIM is just a trust anchor, a token. What that token means for the telco in terms of services and pricing is entirely up to the telco. eSIM is just a way to connect to the HSM that is already soldered on the phone at manufacture. The only problem is that if you damage your phone you have to bootstrap a new “onboarding” and cannot just extract the SIM and put it in a new phone.
You mean yo can't wait to be stranded in a remote place, severely injured and having to maybe get help by pointing your phone to the right place in the sky? That's the oddest FOMO I've ever seen.
In Japan, eSIMs are exclusive to Japanese citizen and permanent residents. Not sure about the reason behind this but I don't think they're going to change policies just because Apple is pushing.
It’s unclear what you mean by eSIM and SMS being more secure. It’s not, as other commenters noted.
Also, the international SIM card thing is still an issue. It could take 2-4 years for carriers to pick up, and the buyer needs to beware and it’s silly for Apple to not provide the workaround. I won’t opt for an iPhone 14 as this is exactly my use-case
Also the Satellite messages is for emergencies. Are you planning to be in an emergency or just abusing the service?
I’ve been using Airalo for a couple years now to get cheap data during international travel. I’m sure there are cheaper local/physical store options, but the ease of getting access to local cellular network with a couple of clicks cannot be understated. Airalo supports 190+ countries via esims, it’s amazing
This is an extremely short-sighted move by Apple with no upside to the customer:
- Traveling abroad will be a hassle: Multiple countries (and especially smaller carriers) *do not* offer eSIM functionality (and/or it is more cumbersome to get than advertized). Planning a trip to a developing country? You're in for a surprisedpikachu face when your expensive device $800-1000 can't use basic phone functionality compared to a basic $100 phone. Step outside the international airport in Cambodia (like I did just a few days back) and ask for eSIM - and you're going to get stares. Physical SIM is the way to go in developing and under-developed countries.
- "But I can just use an app!" argument does not work: Sure you can. There are apps like Airalo and others but - they're often targeted around offering data only and are often more expensive than buying a local physical SIM.
- Moving abroad with new iPhone will be a challenge: Good chunk of regular business travelers or expats living in developing countries. I actually know a girl who moved to India for a couple months' project and was trying to set up eSIM with a carrier in India for days. Physical SIM took 5 minutes to swap!
It is very naive to think it will stay this way. Now that Apple made this move, cell providers in any country will be forced to provide e-sims to stay in business. Apple has such a huge influence it won't take years but months even if it only targets us smartphones.
Other phone manufacturers will follow this decision sooner than later.
That's a very North-American-centric view.
You're overestimating influence of iPhone customers on telecom providers - especially in developing countries where they're often <5% of the users.
How large of a market share do you think "immigrants from the US who recently immigrated but still use the iPhone 14 they bought in their origin country" makes up? My bet is that it's quite small in a whole lot of places. Will cell providers really scramble to appease them?
I don’t know what kind of problems the person you’re referring to faced in setting up an eSIM in India, but I wanted to point out that eSIM has been available in India for at least four years or so, with the three major carriers (airtel, Jio and Vi) offering it for postpaid connections. For prepaid, only airtel and Jio offer it. Vi doesn’t offer eSIM so far for prepaid. Perhaps the new iPhones that people in India get from the US (because it’s a lot cheaper) will change that.
Apple is also quite stubborn in most of its decisions. So it will be up to the carriers around the world to support eSIM and improve the experience. If I were to guess, I’d say there won’t be physical SIM slots in all iPhones from 2023 (iPhone 15*) unless legally mandated in certain countries. Apple does not like ports and holes on its smartphones and smartwatches, and it will continue eliminating them at its pace.
If you call Airtel to get eSIM OTP or whatever, the answering machine warns in 2-3 languages that "Airtel does not support eSIM".
You'll need to have KYC done anyhow but you can't realistically rely on local vendors to help you with that either. Physical SIM takes 5-10 minutes at best.
We're talking about one of the largest telecom providers in the second most populated nation on Earth. Most populated country - China - equally does not have adequate eSIM offering either. So you've two nations already with combined 3 Billion+ people who don't have robust eSIM offering.
And God forbid if you actually decide to go to some parts of the world (as in Africa), where eSIM is just not supported.
Many that do offer eSIM have stringent process, or aren't cheap/no option to call (if you decide to use Airalo and other such apps).
So much for a "mobile" phone, especially in our post-Covid world with rising number of digital nomads and people who move countries.
There's no upside to customers in this and this isn't about "courage" this time.
One implication not considered with eSIM is that not the SIM is indeed virtual. if something happens to the device... you need to do much more to get yourself up and running.
An example, my wife dropped her phone and her screen is now completely broken. phone unusable. When the phone has a physical SIM, I can simply take out the SIM and put it in a backup/older phone.
With eSIM only, I need to:
contact the carrier or have an additional phone with additional "backup" sim.
Some carriers (for example, all the major carriers in the U.S., Telekom in Germany, and Vodafone in Australia) have eSIM "Quick Transfer", which requires no contact with the carrier at all:
Same happened to my sons phone, but it has an esim. I pulled out the original sim paper, scanned the QR code, entered the confirmation and SIM pin. Bam, it was transferred instantly to the new phone. It was easier than a traditional sim, simply because I didn’t have to create or find a tool to open the sim tray.
The author seems to be unaware of the large market for travel data esims. Airalo and Ubigi are two examples of user-facing resellers of these, which make buying a physical prepaid sim near obsolete.
I would say that for travel, esim is much better than sim. Given that seamless data roaming is one of the main features of Google Fi, this opinion is not uncommon.
Eh, although the travel data eSIMs are better than travel data SIMs, it still doesn't beat local SIMs.
For example, anytime I go back to Romania I pick up a ~6EUR prepaid Orange SIM card which has 2000 minutes, unlimited texts, and 6GB data with a bonus 120GB data on activation.
I have found that having a local number when I go to a new place is a big convenience. Doing things like ordering takeaway food online or trying to contact a hotel or some other service is a lot easier when not having to deal with an international call.
Most of the travel eSIMs don't provide a local number (esim.net is the only one I can think of off the top of my head) but getting a SIM at a corner store after getting out of the airport always does.
Orange is a huge company that supports eSIMs already in their major markets. I'm not exactly sure about Romania, but this page does exist which leads me to believe they do support it. https://www.orange.ro/servicii/esim/
I'm not sure I understand your position. eSIM has been present in iPhones since the XS model. You were free to use it over a physical sim wherever supported. What's happening with iPhone 14 is they are upselling eSIM while reducing flexibility by eliminating the physical sim option. It's a feature reduction, not a feature addition. eSIM was there either way.
It's not a large market. I've used them myself on iPad when I travel (as they don't do voice or SMS, just data). Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Pain to move them to other devices or to recharge sometimes. Many are dirt slow as they're basically foreign carrier roaming SIMs rather than native local SIMs.
It works but I certainly wouldn't want it to be my only choice when abroad.
Travel SIMs are great but so are options. One issue with outfits like Airalo is they often give you an eSIM from a random third country carrier that happens to have a cheap roaming agreement in the country you are in, resulting in your data being routed around the world and 300ms+ pings.
There are countries either not available through Airalo et al or their offering is simply not price competitive with local SIMs (and in some cases even roaming prices with home carriers). I went to New Caledonia recently and looked into a vast range of eSIM options. Most could not offer access in New Caledonia at all (as the local telco seem to be very selective to whom they have roaming agreements with) and the few that did (IRRC) was priced in such a way that buying a local SIM was significantly cheaper. I did a quick look at pricing for other countries where they did offer service and I must say I was not that impressed with the prices compared to what I get via local SIMs and in some cases roaming agreements through my home carrier was cheaper. YMMV especially when it comes to smaller countries and destinations not usually frequented by tourists.
> Since then, all iPhone models launched since then have eSIM support.
Slight nitpick: Except those in Greater China which ship with dual nano-SIM slots and have no support for eSIM (even on iPhone 14).
iPhone 14 shipped in the rest of the world have 1 physical SIM slot and support for either physical + eSIM or two eSIMs.
I don't know engineering wise why China model phones can't ship with both dual physical slots and support any combo of two physical/eSIM. There doesn't appear to be any obvious technical limitation.
> I don't know engineering wise why China model phones can't ship with both dual physical slots and support any combo of two physical/eSIM. There doesn't appear to be any obvious technical limitation.
As far as I know Chinese carriers don't support eSIMs for smartphones yet. I'm not sure if Apple would have been able to legally ship eSIM support in China, but even if they would be able to do that it would be an additional cost for a feature that nearly none of their customers there would use.
I see a lot of concern here and elsewhere about getting local pre-paid SIMs when traveling. Wouldn't widespread eSIM support be a boon for those carriers? As I understand it all they need is a thin app and a sign-up process. It's not a high barrier to entry and most pre-paid markets are very competitive, so I think there soon will be many choices. (The iPhone won't be the last to drop the physical SIM port.) The real losers will be the corner stores.
A physical SIM requires no data connection to use.
You can collect it from a vending machine, put it in your device and it works immediately.
Carriers often don't let people outside of the country sign up for service - even prepaid.
Perhaps in the long run we'll see consumer-friendly options, but so far, carriers all over the world have shown how anti-consumer eSIM can be. They have many new found opportunities to restrict competition, consumer choice, and make additional profit from unfair charges.
It already exists. There is both Truphone and Airalo that I’ve used and actually quite liked. Much easier than finding a store to buy a sim. You can literally just activate it at the airport with WiFi. Also how I tested a domestic carrier before switching over, I didn’t have to order a sim and wait 10 days.
The markets where physical SIM swapping is most entrenched are exactly the markers where iPhones are minority products, i.e. the places that Apple has most potential for growth. Is the SIM tray really so important that that Apple is going to sacrifice those markets? I doubt it. So if Apple is tied to physical SIM for the foreseeable future, why bother trying to kill it? Feels like a butterfly keyboard moment.
My problem with eSIM only is as a private network architect (working with open source LTE EPC stuff, for instance), I don't know exactly where the hell I can go to get an eSIM cut for our test networks.
I can't figure out what eSIM personalization/etc providers will even take on such a small use case like myself where I just need to have an eSIM provisioned and get my authentication values to throw into the core network.
This is going to screw over a lot of private LTE deployments on CBRS if there's no good way to cut eSIMs for this use.
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The folio of "stupid" ideas that people claim Apple adopted which are now readily adopted by many Android phone purveyors is substantial.
No one spends more money on all consumer products domestically and internationally than Apple users especially folks with a new phone.
We shall see how many "cheap" SIM purveyors suddenly figure out a way to go eSIM. In the meantime I'll take the increased security (now my SMS 2FA is a lot more secure than before) and one less opening for dust and moisture to get inside.
I can't wait to send my first Satellite message...
There was so much esim fraud in Austria via customer support attacks and the online self management interfaces that they removed the ability to get an esim QR online. Some carriers are bringing it back but jusr yesterday A1 (the largest carrier) had to admit that customers got their esim stolen through attacks of their processes.
doubtful. insecurity of sms has always been on carrier side. this does not solve fundamental problem.
The exact same is possible is with an e-sim. Have you ever used an e-sim? It's literally a QR code the carrier hands you that you need to scan. You can scan it with any e-sim compatible phone. This is the equivalent of "inserting the sim into any phone" except without the actual insertion.
> I bet Verizon and ATT are salivating the ability to lock down the eSIM.
Assuming you are a new iPhone user? ATT locked the sim down for iphones in the first few years. Not sure how it is now, but earlier I couldnt use my phone with any other carrier unless I begged ATT to unlock it. I once had to show them my travel documents to say that I just needed it for a short while so I can use a foreign sim on what they considered their phone. So this is nothing new, and e-sim doesnt improve or worsen the situation.
I already have to deal with this bullshit. ATT has a device whitelist that they refuse to deviate from - you cannot just put a SIM into any device you want.
ATT also will not give you a physical eSIM (they deliver their eSIMs on cardboard cards as QR codes printed; I have not been able to remotely provision one, they charge for these, and stores run out frequently)
You mean yo can't wait to be stranded in a remote place, severely injured and having to maybe get help by pointing your phone to the right place in the sky? That's the oddest FOMO I've ever seen.
Also, the international SIM card thing is still an issue. It could take 2-4 years for carriers to pick up, and the buyer needs to beware and it’s silly for Apple to not provide the workaround. I won’t opt for an iPhone 14 as this is exactly my use-case
Also the Satellite messages is for emergencies. Are you planning to be in an emergency or just abusing the service?
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Yep. Apple is silly. You'll make note of this claim chowder for us won't you?
And right in the keynote was the comment "And for more casual uses also". Why don't you watch it before you comment?
Sounds like you don't understand how eSIM and/or SMS works.
- Traveling abroad will be a hassle: Multiple countries (and especially smaller carriers) *do not* offer eSIM functionality (and/or it is more cumbersome to get than advertized). Planning a trip to a developing country? You're in for a surprisedpikachu face when your expensive device $800-1000 can't use basic phone functionality compared to a basic $100 phone. Step outside the international airport in Cambodia (like I did just a few days back) and ask for eSIM - and you're going to get stares. Physical SIM is the way to go in developing and under-developed countries.
- "But I can just use an app!" argument does not work: Sure you can. There are apps like Airalo and others but - they're often targeted around offering data only and are often more expensive than buying a local physical SIM.
- Moving abroad with new iPhone will be a challenge: Good chunk of regular business travelers or expats living in developing countries. I actually know a girl who moved to India for a couple months' project and was trying to set up eSIM with a carrier in India for days. Physical SIM took 5 minutes to swap!
Other phone manufacturers will follow this decision sooner than later.
Apple is also quite stubborn in most of its decisions. So it will be up to the carriers around the world to support eSIM and improve the experience. If I were to guess, I’d say there won’t be physical SIM slots in all iPhones from 2023 (iPhone 15*) unless legally mandated in certain countries. Apple does not like ports and holes on its smartphones and smartwatches, and it will continue eliminating them at its pace.
You'll need to have KYC done anyhow but you can't realistically rely on local vendors to help you with that either. Physical SIM takes 5-10 minutes at best.
We're talking about one of the largest telecom providers in the second most populated nation on Earth. Most populated country - China - equally does not have adequate eSIM offering either. So you've two nations already with combined 3 Billion+ people who don't have robust eSIM offering.
And God forbid if you actually decide to go to some parts of the world (as in Africa), where eSIM is just not supported. Many that do offer eSIM have stringent process, or aren't cheap/no option to call (if you decide to use Airalo and other such apps).
So much for a "mobile" phone, especially in our post-Covid world with rising number of digital nomads and people who move countries. There's no upside to customers in this and this isn't about "courage" this time.
Deleted Comment
An example, my wife dropped her phone and her screen is now completely broken. phone unusable. When the phone has a physical SIM, I can simply take out the SIM and put it in a backup/older phone.
With eSIM only, I need to:
contact the carrier or have an additional phone with additional "backup" sim.
https://www.t-mobile.com/support/tutorials/device/apple/ipho...
It's just a series of steps that you do on both phones, not that different than transferring a physical SIM.
I would say that for travel, esim is much better than sim. Given that seamless data roaming is one of the main features of Google Fi, this opinion is not uncommon.
For example, anytime I go back to Romania I pick up a ~6EUR prepaid Orange SIM card which has 2000 minutes, unlimited texts, and 6GB data with a bonus 120GB data on activation.
According to https://esimdb.com/romania, that same 6EUR offers 1GB of data.
Is it more convenient? Sure, a bit. But it's nowhere near as cheap for most local SIMs.
Most of the travel eSIMs don't provide a local number (esim.net is the only one I can think of off the top of my head) but getting a SIM at a corner store after getting out of the airport always does.
It works but I certainly wouldn't want it to be my only choice when abroad.
Slight nitpick: Except those in Greater China which ship with dual nano-SIM slots and have no support for eSIM (even on iPhone 14).
iPhone 14 shipped in the rest of the world have 1 physical SIM slot and support for either physical + eSIM or two eSIMs.
I don't know engineering wise why China model phones can't ship with both dual physical slots and support any combo of two physical/eSIM. There doesn't appear to be any obvious technical limitation.
As far as I know Chinese carriers don't support eSIMs for smartphones yet. I'm not sure if Apple would have been able to legally ship eSIM support in China, but even if they would be able to do that it would be an additional cost for a feature that nearly none of their customers there would use.
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1O1O
3
csl
China Mobile Hong Kong
SmarTone
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Taiwan
APT
Chunghwa Telecom
Far EasTone
Taiwan Mobile
Taiwan Star
Truphone
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Macao
CTM
A physical SIM requires no data connection to use.
You can collect it from a vending machine, put it in your device and it works immediately.
Carriers often don't let people outside of the country sign up for service - even prepaid.
Perhaps in the long run we'll see consumer-friendly options, but so far, carriers all over the world have shown how anti-consumer eSIM can be. They have many new found opportunities to restrict competition, consumer choice, and make additional profit from unfair charges.
This is a non-issue.
I can't figure out what eSIM personalization/etc providers will even take on such a small use case like myself where I just need to have an eSIM provisioned and get my authentication values to throw into the core network.
This is going to screw over a lot of private LTE deployments on CBRS if there's no good way to cut eSIMs for this use.