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The Slow & Awkward Removal of the SIM Card Slot Has Begun
Apple has decided that eSIM is the future, but have they ventured too far into the realm of being anti-consumer?
As a company, Apple has never been afraid to make a hardware choice that will raise eyebrows. This is the company that is constantly removing port options from the MacBook, the company that killed the headphone jack on smartphones, and the company that helped to kill the removable battery on phones. Some might argue that these removals came about before the industry and the world was ready for them to go away.
It seems that Apple’s current goal is to create a portless iPhone, the realization of the ultimate minimalistic design aesthetic and wireless technology. Many feel that the final step in this vision will be to kill off the lightning connector in favor of using the company’s proprietary MagSafe technology. But another port had to be removed first, and with the iPhone 14 series, it has been eliminated. With these new iPhones, Apple has killed the SIM card slot in favor of an embedded SIM card, also known as eSIM. While many in the tech community brushed past this detail in their analysis of the new phones, this move is indicative of Apple’s future but also the alliance that it has made with wireless carriers.