“The operators are privately saying they could refuse to subsidise the iPhone if Apple inserts an embedded subscriber identity module, or Sim card,” Parker reports. “The operators are accusing Apple of trying to gain control of their relationship with their mobile customers with the new Sim. The technology could allow customers to buy the iPhone and sign up for service on Apple’s website and start using it immediately.”
Parker reports, “Closer to the operators’ hearts, it could allow customers to switch more easily from one to another or insist on shorter-term contracts. It could even set the stage for Apple to resell connection service on its own, although the company has not indicated such plans.”
Read more in the full article here.
Let us eat cake!
By now it should be clear that subsidized phones and SIM locks are not in the interest of the consumer.
Apple Technology and Telecommunications, the new new AT&T.
I love how Apple wrestles control away from the establishment to put the power in the hands of the people. Go Apple! The carriers can kick and scream all they want, but if they don’t accept progress and figure out how to adapt to new market conditions due to innovation, then they can’t die soon enough.
If and when Apple considers implementing this, they will be ready and prepared to undertake carrier substitution and control to the fullest extent. Apple’s days of being dependent on the whims and incompetence of others are over. Apple will do what it believes is in it’s and it’s users’ best interest.
Dammit! For once I thought I would be the first one responding to this news item.
BTW, I have no objection against incorporating the SIM as a fixed feature inside phones, as long as they remain… snappy.
Just like here, the carriers want to own the experience they had no hand in developing. How do you say “dumb pipe” in Spanish, French, German, and Italian?
Oh boo hoo. You mean technology and innovation just might upset your perceived right to an unsustainable business model. Gee, can’t think of where THAT has happened before.
Where’s that Norwegian ombudsman now? Aren’t these European carriers violating the rights of the consumer in Europe by trying to block this?
Not that it matters, the phone companies will just find another excuse to screw the customer.
Example #3,672 of how Apple is the only corporation left that goes to bat for you, the consumer, the little guy.
“The operators are privately saying they could refuse to subsidise the iPhone if Apple inserts an embedded subscriber identity module, or Sim card…”
As Br’er Rabbit said, “Don’t throw me in that briar patch!”
@m159
Dummez pipello, le peep Dumas, gedumbstern pippenhammer, pippella dumella
Why don’t they refuse to subsidize anyway? Europe is always complaining about US farm subsidies whilst turning a blind eye to subsidies to their own farmers.
This could be the beginning of a true market economy where people buy into products and services without being tied to skewed contracts that favor the vendor.
If they go ahead with their threat, they will end up as they truly should be, dumb pipes charging for volume carriage only. Charges being levied to the phone manufacturer’s who in turn passes the cost break down to individuals.
What about easy potability of the SIM card to another phone. We will loose that ability by not having it removable. So if your iPhone broke, you can just get a new one and plug in your SIM card and keep going. By doing this, we will have to go through the whole process of porting the numbers to a new phone. It does give the ability to switch carriers, which I guess is wanted more by customers than switching phones and staying with the same carrier. But every 2-3 years when everyone usually gets a new phone, its going to be a pain.
Ironic that the whole purpose of the SIM was to break the model of carrier subsidies and lock in. Now that the carriers have subverted the SIM card, someone has to try and break their hold by effectively eliminating the SIM.
The scope of this issue is HUGE for Europeans. Over here, we have multiple carriers in each country, and on most countries the iPhone isn’t exclusive to one operator. People frequently shuttling to different countries may have multiple SIM cards, because roaming charges are severe.
And on a general note, leaving a carrier for another should to easier, but it quite a few cases it isn’t.
Having a single universal SIM card would be a big improvement, and would force the telecom carrier to be more transparent and lower their ridiculous charges.
The technology could allow customers to buy the iPhone and sign up for service on Apple’s website and start using it immediately.
What horrific idea. Clearly Apple is a monster that must be slain, siding as it does so often with the consumer.
No, I am not unaware that Apple is serving it’s own interests here. But service providers are just that: service providers. Do we have to buy Dell to connect to Shaw high speed? Are we forced to use and Acer laptop if we want to use Telus as a service provider for our home Internet? Then why do these service providers get to dictate (outside of radio technology) what hardware we use to access their systems?
Fsuck em.
Customers will threaten the carriers. Operators are in NO POSITION to threaten Apple. They said the same about branding, iTunes store, built in features, etc.
You operator morons, fsuck off!
What iPhone owner cares about “subsidies”?
Really!
What we want is reliability of the phone and network.
Apple is on the right track. Put the CONSUMER in Control!
Time to point out that another definition of carrier has a medical connotation.
And, no, I don’t know what I mean by that
There is a major difference in the way people use phones in US vs. EU. In the US, almost nobody is even aware of the existence of the SIM card in their phone. In the rest of the world, people often have several phones and move their SIM card from one to the other. I have known many women who own six or seven phones of different colour, to match their different outfits, and move their SIM card from one to the other.
In most of the world, it is very easy to buy a SIM card with a phone number and some pre-paid minutes. In many places, they are sold by street vendors. In America, it is practically impossible to buy just the card; you have to buy some phone with it (at least from T-Mobile and AT&T, the two GSM carriers).
Eliminating the ability to move SIM card from phone to phone will be a major inconvenience for many people. This may work perfectly smoothly in America (where most are oblivious to the existence of that SIM in their phone), but in EU (and elsewhere), switching different SIM cards (with numbers from different countries), or moving a SIM card from phone to phone is an important convenience that can easily turn into a major annoyance, if it is taken away.
This is unbelievable and a result of that fact that our business leaders (both in the US and Europe) are a bunch of Adult Children. They are performing the equivalent of holding their breath until they get their way, or rolling around on the floor kicking and screaming.
When will reason prevail? Last time I checked, Apple products were optional and voluntary purchases. You have to willingly hand over your money in order to use one of their products. If you don’t like they way they build them… I have an unique solution that you probably have never heard of… DON’T BUY THEM!!! This is un-f*&k-ing believable and I hope Apple tells the carrier’s where to shove it. They don’t have to carry the iPhone… but, of course, THEY KNOW that if they just refuse to sell it, or support it on their network, then their competitors will be glad to take their customers who are willing to use the best smartphone on the planet, even if it has a “built-in” Sim.
“What iPhone owner cares about “subsidies”?”
Because if there weren’t for subsidies, you’d be paying $700 for that iPhone. How many would have Apple sold if people had to pay $700 up front?
The irony is, carriers usually collect much more through that subsidy portion of your monthly bill than what the phone would sell at retail.
Vast majority of people let their contract expire. In fact, they are often happy (even proud) that they are no longer ‘locked in’ by their carrier, and can leave whenever they can. However, they continue to pay the full monthly plan, and that plan includes the subsidy portion, even though they had paid their phone off months earlier. Carriers love these customers; they are getting free money from them.
If you are on a two-year contract (on a standard plan), make sure you get a new free (or subsidised) phone on the first day you are eligible for it. Otherwise, you are donating money to your carrier for every month that goes by.
So what happens for those folks who remove the SIM to replace it with another while traveling? With a non-removable SIM, wouldn’t you be at the mercy of the cell provider, e.g. “We won’t enable your service on a foreign SIM.”? If Apple does as good a job negotiating on this as they have with US Video providers, it’ll be “a bag of hurt”.