If you were one of the people who were miffed at having to get a filed down, Apple approved micro-SIM for your iPhone 4, well prepare to be annoyed again. It looks as though Apple is set to miniaturise SIM cards even further for future iOS products.
Speaking at Reuter’s Global Technology Summit, Anne Bouverot Head of Mobile Services for Orange, said that “last week… Apple [had] submitted a new requirement to ETSI for a smaller SIM form factor – smaller than the one that goes in iPhone 4 and iPad.”
ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute) is a body which oversees “globally applicable standards” for telecoms products in Europe. 
This suggests that other manufacturers could follow suit with smaller SIM sizes in phones.
Hopefully, this will mean a little more room inside phones for things like additional antennas, camera components, bigger batteries.
It potentially paves the way for even skinnier phones than the ones that we’re seeing now. Phones that’ll make the likes of the Optimus Black and Xperia Arc look like proper bricks no doubt.
Reuters quotes a spokesman saying that the “process may take some time, up to a year or more, if there is strong disagreement between industry players.” So we could see nano-SIMs or super-mini-SIMs (or whatever they’ll be called) as early as next year.
This suggests that the iPhone 5, due to arrive this year, probably won’t feature the new mini-er SIM cards. So at least those who get an iPhone 5 this year won’t have to wait around for their networks to send them another new SIM in the post.
Source: Reuters via Unwired View
Leave a Reply