[Michael Johnston]

Ever since the iPhone was announced at Macworld in January, there have been tons of questions about what it will and will not have or do. Things like whether it will have it's memory upgraded, if it will have 3G, if it has a vibrate feature, and it's battery life, to name a few. One rumor that has been going around lately is whether or not it will actually have an accessible SIM card even though Steve Jobs said it would.

If you remember, just recently the Internet was abuzz with rumors that a SIM card slot was completely missing from the iPhone. However, upon closer inspection of the photos we personally took of the iPhone in January, it seems that there is in fact a very slim SIM card "tray" at the top of the phone. From what we can tell, this would come out in the same way a battery for the Apple Remote does by pushing into a small hole and having the tray pop up holding the SIM card.



While this doesn't mean much to people who don't care about what carrier they use, for those that feel the need to experiment with SIM cards from other carriers (read: hack) or travel to other coutries, this is a big deal.

[Thanks to my good friendOmar Jasso for the pic]

But what do you guys think? Is it relevant that the iPhone has a SIM card tray?

Is the SIM card tray relevant?
	Yes, for traveling
	Yes, for hacking
	Yes, for both of those things
	It's not relevant
	What's a SIM card?
pollcode.com free polls

Can we see the series of pictures taken?

[Michael Johnston]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Can we see the series of pictures taken?

Great suggestion! We'll have one up by the end of the day!

Originally Posted by Michael Johnston

Great suggestion! We'll have one up by the end of the day!

Just talked to an AT&T rep about pricing and upgrade policies on the iPhone, and she mentioned that the SIM card for the iPhone will be slightly different than regular SIM's and that you would not be able to swap your sim card in and out of other GSM phones. Any one heard anything about this?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Just talked to an AT&T rep about pricing and upgrade policies on the iPhone, and she mentioned that the SIM card for the iPhone will be slightly different than regular SIM's and that you would not be able to swap your sim card in and out of other GSM phones. Any one heard anything about this?

I'm going to make a guess. Very recently I had to 'upgrade' my Cingular SIM card in order to receive the latest data plan (the $20 unlimited data plan included HSDPA access which iPhone doesn't use.) This just took a minute in the store, they just looked up my account and popped out a new SIM from a machine. The card looked exactly the same, but it had more RAM than my old one, and it said "3G" on the card. So this might be the upgrade they are talking about. Maybe it needs those new cards even though it is using EDGE.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Just talked to an AT&T rep about pricing and upgrade policies on the iPhone, and she mentioned that the SIM card for the iPhone will be slightly different than regular SIM's and that you would not be able to swap your sim card in and out of other GSM phones. Any one heard anything about this?

Some GSM phones can be SIM locked, that it, they can be locked to a specific SIM. It's not common; usually the phone is only locked to the carrier (network lock).

[abgould]

I have been using my old (2 year old) sim card in my Treo 750 which is 3G. Since it seems to be working correctly and I do utilize the 3G capabilities, I am wondering if it will be fine for the iPhone. Also does anyone know if the Apple Stores will be able to move current AT&T subscriber numbers to iPhones or would it better to go to an AT&T store?

Originally Posted by Un-registered

Some GSM phones can be SIM locked, that it, they can be locked to a specific SIM. It's not common; usually the phone is only locked to the carrier (network lock).

I worked my way backwards in order to get to my theory. For Apple the end result is to have a 3G compliant/capable phone. This could only mean that you would either need to get a new iPhone at the end of your two year contract when the standard changes or upgrade to the new standard. Why produce a phone with a technology that will soon be obsolete? As opposed to making one that uses current technologies(GSM, GPRS, EDGE), with future technologies dormant!(WCDMA, 3G)

Maybe the iPhone is a GSM/CDMA hybrid and has a virtual sim-card. This makes the most sense to me because of what I have red on many other websites about the inability for anyone to remove the 'sim-card' and the indication that the iPhone will have, in the near future, 3G capabilities. Some website and reviews of the iPhone claim that there is no 'sim-card'.

It is possible for the chip-set for the iPhone(which is not talked about - at all)to have the features for GSM, GPRS, EDGE and CDMA coexisting. If you pop over to QUALCOMM you could find out more about WCDMA technology and chipsets that make it possible for a device like the iPhone to not warrant a 'sim-card'. This would explain why it would make sense for Apple to use a WCDMA chipset(which would extend the iPhone's abilities to work with 3G technology)with dormant features, until they are ready to offer this service to their new iPhone consumer base, with only just the GSM, GPRS and EDGE available now.

From my non-technical understanding of CDMA, you don't need a 'sim-card' like with a GSM phone because the security features and storage capabilities rely on the handset and the network of the CDMA platform which does not need a third component like a 'sim-card' for sending or storing any data specific information that may or may not be needed by your handset or network for a call to be made or for data to be transfered.

So the question of whether there is or is not a 'sim-card' in the iPhone and whether you can remove it or not is still speculative but the fact that this is not talked about from Apple's side is interesting given the future prospects of the iPhone.


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I seriously don't get the fuzz about this sim tray rumors since Steve Jobs specifically showed the sim tray at the Macworld 2007 keynote presentation when he first introduced the iPhone. As far as I can recall anyway, I'll look again but I'm almost certain that he does point it out.

[Michael Johnston]

Originally Posted by David

I seriously don't get the fuzz about this sim tray rumors since Steve Jobs specifically showed the sim tray at the Macworld 2007 keynote presentation when he first introduced the iPhone. As far as I can recall anyway, I'll look again but I'm almost certain that he does point it out.

He does show the SIM tray, but 9 to 5 Mac said there was none.

Originally Posted by abgould

I have been using my old (2 year old) sim card in my Treo 750 which is 3G. Since it seems to be working correctly and I do utilize the 3G capabilities, I am wondering if it will be fine for the iPhone. Also does anyone know if the Apple Stores will be able to move current AT&T subscriber numbers to iPhones or would it better to go to an AT&T store?

You can use your old plan to upgrade to an iPhone. You'll have to pay for the data to upgrade though, which is $20 on top of your current voice plan.

[doggiedoc]

Hi All! Nice site BTW -
I am trying to swap my SIM card into the phone. Anybody had any luck getting this "SIM tray" open yet? Admittedly I am being more "gentle" than usual.

Take the longest part of a paper clip and insert it into the tiny hole and the tray will pop out, hope this helps

[acebox5115]

everyone please help..i lose of my sim tray and where can i get it back.now can use my phone please help thanks