Nano-SIM Decision Delayed

judgecorp writes "The decision on the next generation of even-smaller SIM cards for phones and other devices has been delayed by standards body ETSI, and the issue (which should have been settled this week) is nowhere near resolution. Apple wants to trim the existing micro-SIM further, Nokia wants to move to something like a micro-SD card which may involve patents. Meanwhile RIM has complained about Apple's approach."

Why a SIM?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd honestly prefer not to have a SIM and do some form of activation either OTA (over the air) or tethered. I do see the benefit of a card that can be swapped for obvious reasons such as going to a water park (where you take the ultra cheap, who cares if it dies phone), or travelling to a different country where you might buy a prepaid SIM on a local carrier. However we should be able to solve that OTA in some fashion. Perhaps the phones come up with the ability to connect to a clearing house for personalization similar to how they come up able to make emergency services calls? Enter your credentials and they get hashed and sent to the service which then presents back your options "activate device on existing plan, disabling existing phone", "purchase a travel pre-paid account", etc. Why must we have physical cards to prove identity?

Slashdot hypocrites

[vijayiyer]

Tme for all the hypocrites to come out against apple who is offering a free, perpetual license for the relevant patents, in favor of those who won't do the same, only because they have an irrational hatred of apple. Just look at the first post.

The real problem isn't that they are too big

[Anonymous Coward]

It's that they aren't very usefull. Give them a bit more storage capacity, and make a proper, full-featured, standardized format for storing contact data and the like on it. Last time I moved a sim card from one phone to another, I ended up having to manually edit all of the contact details to fix things because phone manufacturers can't get their shit together.

Re:Fingers

[buybuydandavis]

Maybe that's the point - they don't want *you* to be able to change it yourself. That seems like Apple's style.

I agree. Micro sim cards are bad enough already. If they get smaller, I'll need tweezers and a jeweler's loop to deal with them.

Re:Fuck Apple.

[erroneus]

Except that Apple didn't do anything except trim down the current version of the SIM card leaving only the metal contacts. There's nothing in the proposal by Apple that Apple actually created. They are essentially saying "I'll license 'trimming a normal SIM down to size with a razor blade' for free! All we ask is that you offer the same deal if your proposal is adopted."

It's... weird.

Of course it's "royalty free." There's nothing about it which is worthy of collecting any royalties.

Re:Fuck Apple.

[narcc]

The space trade-off isn't significant.

Tiny SIM's do punish people who use multiple SIM's, common in the third-world. If you're going to trim down the SIM, you'd better use that space to add extra spots for SIM cards!

Re:Whats wrong with the current SIM?

[icebike]

My guess is the amount of space they take up in the phone is the problem. Basically, between the SIM itself and the hardware for reading it, that's a good amount of real estate.

Exactly.

But the problem is the insane rush to thinness. Devices are already too thin, and making them thinner just makes them harder to use, hold, and keep rigid enough to prevent glass breakage.

The problem is that current battery technology wants to be in regular shapes, and in order to allow for a sim socket you have to surrender the entire width of the phone even though the sim only takes a portion of that width. I suspect Apple would like to insert the sim in a slot that sits perpendicular to the slab. These nano-sims are also thinner.

Molded batteries would allow the use of irregular areas inside of a device, and such batteries could better use empty space.

Linear sims (toothpick) are another possible design. The phone need only read them upon insertion via a collar around the insertion hole. Nobody bothers to write to the sim any more.