ARM has come up with an even smaller SIM card, called iSIM, which is barely a fraction of a millimeter squared in size.
Smartphones are getting increasingly complex to design each year. Adding additional electronic components is tough, especially when every bit of space matters.
Headphone Jack Crisis
This often results in smartphone makers either removing unnecessary components (like the headphone jack on iPhone) or shrinking them down even further. Yes, iPhones have plenty of space to add a 3.5mm jack but that’s beside the point.
Anyway, ARM says that the new iSIM will be so small that it can be integrated directly into an SoC.
Currently one of the smallest SIM card standards being used is Nano SIM, which is 12.3 x 8.8mm in size. This doesn’t include the size of the slot that houses the SIM card.
Cheaper and Smaller
This will not only save space, leaving room for more electronics, it will also be cheaper than regular SIM cards. ARM adds that these will cost a few cents at most, compared to “tens of cents” that Nano SIMs cost.
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The technology is far from ready, and is currently being developed for Internet of Things. Their goal is to bring down their costs as much as possible as the market for IoT gadgets balloons in the next few years.
Mainstream Adoption
That’s all well and good but the real problem is, will the carriers or network operators embrace the new iSIM?
According to ARM, they will. The iSIMs meet the required credentials and standards. However the same cannot be said for smartphone users in Pakistan, at least for the time being.
We have yet to see the eSIM’s adoption on a large scale, which is another alternative to Nano SIMs and Micro SIMs that we see in most smartphones sold here.
In any case, we will see the results by the end of the year, which is when ARM expects its partners to release the first products with iSIMs.
eSIM support in Pakistan?