Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

bmyvalntine t1_ityth2o wrote

Why didn’t apple consider such people before removing it. What real advantage are they getting by having that blank space instead of a sim slot even for US region. It’s not like they’re removing it for all the regions and using that space for some other component.

7

Quiet_Independent930 t1_itz99te wrote

Because it was a tactic to force the issue and make it mainstream so they can remove physical sim slots from all models internationally. They extra space will get used. Just not yet, next year though I suspect we will see then move the board down a bit in the phone to make room for the periscope camera.

You have to watch where the target is going, not where it is at.

22

MadMarioMax t1_ityttv6 wrote

People will pay Verizon's $10/day for international data, or similar with other USA carriers. Maybe the carriers paid Apple to remove the SIM.

8

art_of_snark t1_itzkx3d wrote

yes, that’s why their esim implementations were so quickly rolled out and well supported.

I spent an hour in a T-Mobile store teaching their staff what esim even was so I could activate mine, and they still charged me $25 for the privilege.

2

gregra193 t1_itzs8we wrote

You spent $25 for something that can be configured without the involvement of any staff via the T-Mobile Website. Or for free via a phone call or T-Force on Twitter/FB.

7

p-rking t1_itywqri wrote

I think that people who travel a lot have moved to global traveler sims which tend to be e-sim. So you’d have your main domestic e-sim and a global traveller e-sim

But of course there will be people who do things the more traditional way of getting a local SIM and their main e-sim and they will need a different phone not a US Apple model.

3

trevor3431 t1_itzgip0 wrote

innovation can't be held back because some people want to do things the traditional way. I still remember when people complained about Apple removing the headphone jack, and said they weren't going to buy iPhones anymore.

​

The pros of e-sim greatly outweighs the cons. Now iPhones are completely useless if stolen, there is one less hole in the phone to seal for water resistance, and Apple reclaimed a descent amount of space for future use. The only con is you won't be able to use the phone easily in countries without e-sim, and this will change since Apple has now forced the carriers to implement this.

3

scroll_responsibly t1_itzj2ga wrote

Yeah, the reason why Apple removed the headphone jack was to get you to buy $200 AirPods from them (that you will have to replace in a couple of years when the battery conks out/they push a firmware update to break noise cancellation) as opposed to $10 wires earphones from someone else. Don’t kid yourself about removing features like the headphone jack to promote more expensive options being innovation.

−1

kelljames t1_itzmkcb wrote

iPhones work with any wireless headphones not just AirPods. And if you’ll remember the first iPhone without a headphone jack came with an adapter AND a pair of lightning headphones.

The AirPods line up speaks for itself. They would sell just as well even if the iPhone still had a headphone jack. You can easily buy a 10$ adapter to use traditional headphones. So you aren’t forced to buy a more expensive anything.

4

MangyCanine t1_itz2khv wrote

As others have said, many international travelers are willing to pay the $10 per day (max $100 in a billing cycle for some US carriers). It’s just easier.

For people in the US, it’s not hard to find a data-only international eSIM for many countries. Yeah, you can’t make traditional phone calls with these, but it’s not hard to get a VOIP phone number from Skype, WhatsApp, or others. These eSIMs might also limit you to a specific country (no roaming) and be more expensive than physical SIMs, though.

Once carriers realize how eSIMs can save them money, they’ll switch to them.

1

[deleted] t1_iu0d6hn wrote

I am paying the $100 max with AT&T while in England for a few months. It seemed easier to me because I can keep my US number. The alternative of getting a UK eSim and dropping my AT&T plan to just calls and texts, is not that desirable because I actually use the HBO Max that comes with my higher-tier AT&T plan. So if I were to pay for HBO Max, then the difference would come out to like $30/month, which just doesn’t seem that handy to me. If I were travelling for only 1-2 weeks, that would be different…

Am I making a mistake here?

1

nrron t1_iu0rvmk wrote

Not yet, they'll do something with the space after they continue to force the issue and remove physical sims from all iPhones.

1