Amongst the constabulary of Mac scuttlebuttheads of which I am an earnest member, that the iPad 2 will ship with a built-in SD card slot — all the better to allow people to edit photos and video on the device, if not increase their storage capacity — is held in consensus.
The prediction is based upon the appearance of numerous iPad 2 cases coming out of Asia that not only have appropriate holes for front and rear-facing cameras and a slot for the iPad’ 2s beefier new speaker, but also a slot that seems just the right size to slide in an SD card.
AppleInsider is now throwing some cold water on those of us expecting to read SDs on the iPad 2, though, instead positing that it’s just a slot reflecting the relocation of the iPad 2’s SIM card slot.
Sadly, that makes sense. Apple has historically been unwilling to bring expandable storage to iOS devices, and if the SD card slot is just an opening for the SIM, it explains why some of the cases we’ve seen haven’t had that slot. After all, for most people, accessing their iPad’s SIM is going to be a rare enough occurrence that they can justify removing their case for it.
On the other hand, as you can see in the image above, the iPad’s supposed new SIM slot is actually pretty huge. In fact, it’s much bigger than the 3G microSIM that the iPad currently uses for data. If the SD card slot rumor isn’t true, could the largeness of the opening imply that Apple’s switching away from microSIMs?
