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...
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 pretty hard to find places you can order in Korea, or from Korea, that don't require a Korean phone number. There are services and stores that exist just to buy things from other places in Korea and reship or resell them to people both in and out of the country, just because people don't have Korean phone numbers.
Even online purchases like audiobooks often requires a local phone number.
They sure make it hard to spend for any non Korean to spend money.
And it's not every site, there are some huge retailers (www.aladin.co.kr for example) that do not require it. So it's got to be just that most websites never bothered to build a checkout process that works without a phone number?
What I heard was that payment providers charge higher fees for allowing foreign cards, so website owners (who focus on domestic business anyways) just won't bother.