Apple Proposes Even Smaller Micro-SIM Card

Users with fat fingers beware, as Apple has proposed an even smaller SIM card for its future devices.

Apple of course already utilises a micro-SIM for its iPad and iPhone 4. This tiny card is much smaller than the traditional SIM cards usually found in mobile phones, which measure 15 x 25mm. A micro-SIM is almost 52 percent smaller than that, measuring just 12 x 15mm.

And now Apple is planning an even smaller card card than the micro-SIM, after it submitted the concept to the European standards body ETSI.

Space Saving

The news was confirmed by an Orange executive, who told Reuters that a smaller SIM card will allow it to produce thinner devices.

“We were quite happy to see last week that Apple has submitted a new requirement to (European telecoms standards body) ETSI for a smaller SIM form factor – smaller than the one that goes in iPhone 4 and iPad,” Anne Bouverot, Orange’s head of mobile services, was quoted as saying.

“They have done that through the standardisation route, through ETSI, with the sponsorship of some major mobile operators, Orange being one of them,” she said.

It is thought that it will take a year or so for the standard to be agreed. This agreement is needed if the new SIM card is going to be acceptable to the GSM standard.

However this time frame means it is unlikely it will appear in the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4GS, which is now expected to arrive some time in September. However it may well make it to the iPad 3 when it arrives.

Bypassing Operators?

A smaller SIM will of course free up more valuable space in a phone or tablet, but the micro-SIM is already tiny, and is already difficult for ham fisted users to handle.

Of course the real fear, from the operator stand point, is that a new SIM card would allow Apple to bypass them completely and allow it to offer operator-independent SIMs. This would mean that Apple could theoretically rent mobile network capacity from an existing operator.

However that route would jeopardise the subsidy Apple currently receives from every operator when it sells Apple’s devices.

SIM Rumours

The news that Apple has proposed a new SIM standard follows months of rumours on the subject.

Last October reports indicated that Apple was working with Gemalto, in an effort to create a special SIM card for the iPhone. But then in November reports suggested that mobile operators had vetoed Apple’s plans for proprietary SIMs in its iPhone 5.

Apple’s decision to use micro-SIM slots in its devices has not proved universally popular with users, as it forces potential customers to acquire a micro-SIM from Apple’s list of approved mobile operators rather than using an existing conventional SIM card.

In May last year for example, John Benson demonstrated how he had used a pair of scissors and a meat cleaver in order to trim down a conventional SIM card to make it fit in the micro-SIM slot of his iPad.