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Apple’s Nano-SIM is the new Black

Just when we thought that microSIM design is the smallest that we’ll see on a mobile phone, a new reduced design has been approved to take over its place as the industry standard — the nano-SIM.

ETSI (European Telecommunication Standard Institute) has recently approved Apple’s new smaller SIM card design dubbed as the 4FF (4th Form Factor) or Nano-SIM. As the name implies, the new SIM design will be 40% smaller than the current 3FF (3rd Form Factor) Micro-SIM design which is a third smaller than the conventional SIM card.

Amongst the company who submitted their nano-SIM proposals were Apple, Motorola, RIM and Nokia. Much like the politics here in our country, the other three who lost the approval of ETSI felt like their design is much superior to the one who won. The most bitter of them all was Nokia who thinks that Apple’s nano-SIM design is inferior and is not suitable for a number of applications. In March of this year, they also said that they wouldn’t pattern their relevant patents to Apple’s nano-SIM design if ever it’s selected.

So what’s in it for us? I mean, we were just adjusting to the fact that our beloved device/s (and those devices that we’re eyeing to buy) use the micro-SIM design and now we’re faced with another SIM design that would become the industry standard. Users who have transitioned to conventional sized SIM card to micro-SIM have tried all sorts of things (either cutting their SIM themselves or have it cut by someone else) just to be able to use their new device while keeping their old number or having their telco transfer their old number to a new micro-SIM.

Whichever method you opted for, it is indeed a ROYAL PAIN IN THE NECK and anyone of us would’ve just preferred for those devices to have an old-school SIM. When faced with this question, here’s what ETSI has to say:

“Today’s SIM card designs take up a significant amount of space inside a mobile device and this space is more and more valuable in today’s handsets which deliver an ever-increasing number of features.”

Here’s our thought about it — more space for other phone components means more device capability. Fitting several components in a below 9mm thin body is not an easy task, especially when manufacturers try to squeeze in more and more feature to a device making it smarter and faster than its predecessor. A smaller real estate for the SIM card is an advantage to everyone as manufacturers has more space to work with which in return makes for a more powerful device with the same form factor if not slimmer. And because of the additional room, a bigger battery can also be expected out of newer smartphones that translates to longer device usage.

Given the aforementioned benefit amongst other benefits (if there are others) we can say that the Nano-SIM is geared for the betterment of future devices. Though some of us (like me) would still prefer the conventional SIM, at the end of the day we really don’t have much choice but to stick with what manufacturers are giving us.

On the side note, since Apple’s proposal was chosen to be the next industry standard for SIM card design, it’s highly probable that iPhone 5 (assuming that it will be named as such) will be the first device to sport the Nano-SIM technology. Let’s wait and see how it will turn out.

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Avatar for Ronnie Bulaong

This article was written by Ronnie Bulaong, a special features contributor and correspondent for YugaTech. Follow him on Twitter @turonbulaong.

20 Responses

  1. Avatar for jopat jopat says:

    Another “innovation” Apple had stolen.
    This nano sim was already used for dual-sims.

    http://i.imgur.com/SFQwe.gif

  2. Avatar for epol epol says:

    wow.. seems like the apple will produce iphone 6 with the size of an ant.

  3. Avatar for Billy Billy says:

    It is one nifty thing but what if my devices has different sim card size slots

  4. Avatar for IC DeaDPiPoL IC DeaDPiPoL says:

    seriously at 40% the size of a micro-sim I’m afraid I’ll inhale the darn thing

  5. Avatar for Mr. Curious Mr. Curious says:

    is that the REAL design and size of nano sim??? sorry to ask ’cause I still haven’t read the whole article, got a bit lazy hehehe… It looks very odd and lame. Plus it is very easy for someone to loss it. Especially if someone is changing his/her SIM.

    • Avatar for Mr. Serious Mr. Serious says:

      You don’t hear much complains about ‘loss’;) sim cards because it was intended to be kept inside the phone. It was really intended to be kept that way, and not be switching sims all the time (that’s what dual-sim phones are for). The reason they want to make smaller sims is that they would have more room for future innovation and features. One good example at the moment is LTE. pushing an LTE-capable phone would not only require more juice (battery), but also a new (possible bigger) set of antennae system. (Thus what happened to the ‘new iPad’ it became thicker.)

    • Avatar for Turonbulaong Turonbulaong says:

      Nope. That’s not the actual design of the Nano-SIM approved by ETSI. We don’t have an actual SIM at hand so I thought of cutting my old SIM following the “40% smaller” concept. I did this just to show the difference in size compared to the old SIM and Micro-SIM.

  6. Avatar for CarlosJhunie CarlosJhunie says:

    Can you convert microSIM to nanoSIM? (to keep my number when I buy a device that use nanoSIM)

    • Avatar for Hh Hh says:

      i once asked smart if i could convert my micro sim to old sim size coz i wanted the sg note. they said yes but i have to pay 800 pesos. screw it, im sticking with micro and wait for sg note 2. goodbye iphone 5.

    • Avatar for Calvin Calvin says:

      to Hh… ganun sa Smart? I went to Globe to had mine converted to microSIM and wala namang bayad. binagay pa yung shell in case i want to go back to regular SIM.
      http://www.calvinshub.com/2012/06/converted-my-regular-sim-to-microsim-from-globe-for-free/

    • Avatar for H H says:

      baliktad kasi sa kin. from microsim gusto ipaconvert to regular sim, unlidata kasi plan ko. i wanted to try it sa note or galaxy tab 7.7. thanks for the link hanapin ko nga sa box ang simpack kung pwede maregular sim.

    • Avatar for Benchmark Benchmark says:

      I was charge about 40 pesos at Globe telecoms for converting my regular sim to micro sim (for my motorola droid razr).

      I didn’t know if my micro sim has that adoptor in it. But I will check it out.

      Also smart cost you 800?! wowa! its like buying a sim pack way back 1990’s! HAHAHAHA

  7. Avatar for Iyan Sommerset Iyan Sommerset says:

    I don’t see the point. Original SIMs seem small enough for the task they’re expected to do. Smartphones rely on internal memory and memory cards anyway, really don’t see the point in making SIM cards any smaller than they already are.

    Do we *really* need even smaller phones?

  8. Avatar for Miss Call Miss Call says:

    Awful tech write-up. It’s like an op-ed from some tabloid lacking technical and non-technical information.

    • Avatar for unggoy unggoy says:

      +1. di rin binaggit na revised ang final design. kaya di po 100% apple nag-design ng nanosim.

  9. Avatar for Amiboshi Amiboshi says:

    Is it really about innovation or just to monopolize the market? Just something to think about :P

  10. Avatar for itachi1 itachi1 says:

    Whichever method you opted for, it is indeed a ROYAL PAIN IN THE NECK – AMEN!!!

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