Even though Apple hasn’t confirmed the iPhone 5, nor whether it will use the mini SIM card it won the design proposal for, many European mobile carriers are placing orders for the tiny little smartphone cards in anticipation of the iPhone 5 launch, which is rumored to drop in September or October of this year.
The nano-SIM cards aren’t even on the market, yet, but Apple’s proposal to use the technology won out over Nokia’s proposal with the industry standards group, paving the way for its use in iPhone and other future smartphones and devices. Carriers are said to be stockpiling the cards – the only part of modern smartphone technology controlled by carriers – in European warehouses.
The Financial Times reports that “sources with knowledge of the situation” expect the iPhone 5 to have a slimmer hardware design that makes a smaller SIM card like this necessary. The carriers in question do not want to get caught out without enough stock, as they did when the micro-SIM was used in the iPhone 4 and the iPad.
The “informed person” told the Financial Times that “the iPhone 5 was likely to be similar sized as the iPhone 4 although slimmer and with a fully metal body.”
It’ll be pretty funny if Apple uses the current micro-SIM card in the iPhone 5, and not the new nano-SIM. Apple has been known to play the long game, gaining patents and making design choices far ahead of actual to-market devices and technologies. While this seems to be a pretty good bet, I’ll still giggle a little if my new iPhone 5 shows up with a micro-SIM this fall.
Source: Financial Times
Via: MacRumors
