Sundays and Mark Gurman… they go together like ketchup and mayonnaise, peanut butter and chocolate, Hall and Oats… but what about iPhones and SIM cards? Maybe not, after Wednesday!

In the latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says Apple is working on moving away from physical SIM cards and fully into the world of eSIMs, and it could happen soon:

Apple will give eSIM a bigger push this time around, with carriers preparing to steer users toward the digital, embedded SIM cards rather than physical ones. In fact, Apple has considered removing the physical SIM card slot altogether beginning either this year or next for some models. 

Mark Gurman

Mark believes we could see SIM slot removal on iPhone 14 for some models, but a full on switch won’t happen for some time. Carriers are already making a big push, due to the cost savings and general environmental favorability of eSIM tech.

For those unaware, an eSIM is just a less wasteful, electronic version of the SIM cards we all know and hate. They allow for cool features such as seamless switching between eSIM profiles allowing users to change their cellular plan with a single tap – invaluable for travel. This tech is already pretty widespread but for a full removal of physical SIM slots by Apple, it would have to be done incrementally due to lack of eSIM availability in some markets even in 2022.

This would be a major overall gain for iPhone. Losing the SIM slot would do a number of things, like freeing up more internal space for goodies and even increasing water resistance due to the device having one less orifice for liquid to penetrate. I retract my usage of the words “orifice” and “penetrate” in the previous sentence, it made us all uncomfortable.

We already have the ability to buy SIM-less iPhone 13’s from Apple’s website, and to activate the device with eSIM is literally just following on-screen prompts, so the company is familiar with the technology – we just need them to pull the plug on the decrepit SIM slot.

Come on Tim, do it! We’re steering ever closer to a future with a port-less iPhone, isn’t that exciti- wait a second… hang on, I don’t know if I like that idea. Maybe just bring the headphone jack back for a second?

Source - FrontPageTech