21–30 of 191 posts
I admit, as an European, I see no point to this. If you want a new SIM card, and you don't have a contract, just buy a new SIM card and put it in your phone / tablet. If you have a long-term contract, this won't help you anyway. Where is the catch? (Sorry if I am sounding stupid)
I admit, as an European, I see no point to this. If you want a new SIM card, and you don't have a contract, just buy a new SIM card and put it in your phone / tablet. If you have a long-term contract, this won't help you anyway. Where is the catch? (Sorry if I am sounding stupid)
The catch is Apple's supply chain management just got a ton simpler as they don't have to maintain separate SKUs by carrier for each iPad variant.
For all 3 major carriers, you just get your phone and in a separate envelope, you get your SIM card.
So with this tech, how long until Apple starts offering MVNO services? And eventually completely destroys whatever profit margins the current operators have?
I admit, as an European, I see no point to this. If you want a new SIM card, and you don't have a contract, just buy a new SIM card and put it in your phone / tablet. If you have a long-term contract, this won't help you anyway. Where is the catch? (Sorry if I am sounding stupid)
If switching, a user no longer has to wait on delivery of a small physical item from the new carrier. The user doesn't have to fiddle with a paperclip to pop out the SIM. (Average user could be scared to do so, or could scratch/bend the rather fragile SIM tray). It could all theoretically be done from a settings menu.
Does it work with prepaid, or just contracts? If you could just temporarily swap over to T-Mobile's $30 prepaid unlimited data, that would be a big deal.
I'm sure it's technically possible but the carriers could just as easily make it only work with certain plans. I remember needing a SIM activation kit to get on that $30 plan when I first got it. You couldn't just use any TMo SIM without some code from the kit and you couldn't get it in any TMo store. No idea if the adding of the code needed to activate the SIM would work with this new thing.
So with this tech, how long until Apple starts offering MVNO services? And eventually completely destroys whatever profit margins the current operators have?
MVNOs still pay bulk data fees to real MNOs. And their traffic gets lower priority on the network. So the only current operators they could challenge is other MVNOs.
I admit, as an European, I see no point to this. If you want a new SIM card, and you don't have a contract, just buy a new SIM card and put it in your phone / tablet. If you have a long-term contract, this won't help you anyway. Where is the catch? (Sorry if I am sounding stupid)
My parents couldn't change a SIM card to save their lives - they couldn't open the phone to get the card out, they'd have trouble holding the micro SIM card if they did get it open, and they'd probably put it in backwards and just scratch the hell out of the contacts if they made it that far. Why should they have to? Oh, sure, they can go to a store. That works if switching networks is something you only want to do very occasionally with plenty of time to plan, but if you can make it easier why not? It's all software, why are we authenticating it by a tiny fiddly piece of plastic? I mean, I do this often enough myself that I carry a little Nokia pin for the tiny hole that triggers the SIM card slot to open on my Nexus, but why should I have to?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The catch is Apple's supply chain management just got a ton simpler as they don't have to maintain separate SKUs by carrier for each iPad variant.
Hm. In here, we don't have separate packages for separate carriers. For all 3 major carriers, you just get your phone and in a separate envelope, you get your SIM card.
In US you just get a phone with everything pre installed and sim tool :). So this thing does make it easier for Apple and a bit more convenient for users
I admit, as an European, I see no point to this. If you want a new SIM card, and you don't have a contract, just buy a new SIM card and put it in your phone / tablet. If you have a long-term contract, this won't help you anyway. Where is the catch? (Sorry if I am sounding stupid)
> If you want a new SIM card, and you don't have a contract, just buy a new SIM card and put it in your phone / tablet. My parents couldn't change a SIM card to save their lives - they couldn't open the phone to get the card out, they'd have trouble holding the micro SIM card if they did get it open, and they'd probably put it in backwards and just scratch the hell out of the contacts if they made it that far. Why sh…
They are not solving a problem that has been unsolved before. Instead, they are providing a more streamlined and hassle-free solution.
I admit, as an European, I see no point to this. If you want a new SIM card, and you don't have a contract, just buy a new SIM card and put it in your phone / tablet. If you have a long-term contract, this won't help you anyway. Where is the catch? (Sorry if I am sounding stupid)
> If you want a new SIM card, and you don't have a contract, just buy a new SIM card and put it in your phone / tablet. My parents couldn't change a SIM card to save their lives - they couldn't open the phone to get the card out, they'd have trouble holding the micro SIM card if they did get it open, and they'd probably put it in backwards and just scratch the hell out of the contacts if they made it that far. Why sh…
I don't want to say it from a position of superiority or anything, just different mobile culture, but in here, changing SIM cards is normal. It's what you do when you buy a new phone, because - as I said below - you get a SIM card separately, even when you buy it right with the operator with the contract.
But I guess it's a different culture