Because in our view at that time, this function is likely to be blocked by all parties in the domestic market, and it is difficult to really achieve it. Therefore, even if the technology is advanced, it is of little significance to consumers.
However, we have to say that the changing speed of the industry wind direction far exceeds our imagination. Just at the end of 65438+February last year, a news that the iPhone may launch a card-slot-free model in 2022 made us quickly realize that in the current domestic market operator environment, technologies like eSIM are likely to be popularized soon.
By June, 2022, 65438+ 10, with Qualcomm, Vodafone and Terez jointly releasing the first prototype with new technology, we think it is time to introduce the real terminator iSIM technology for SIM cards.
This time, it really eliminated the SIM card from the physical level.
As we all know, since the birth of SIM card, "slimming" it has been a trend in the industry. In fact, the earliest SIM card was almost as big as everyone's bank card, but now the familiar nanoSIM is smaller than fingernails.
Why does the SIM card have to be smaller and smaller? Because the performance of mobile phones is getting stronger and stronger, the integration is getting higher and higher. This means that the space in mobile phones is getting more and more tight, and manufacturers must spend a lot of space to install enlarged cameras, stereo dual speakers with outstanding effects, large-capacity batteries supporting fast charging, coils for wireless charging, and large-area steam chambers and heat pipes necessary to "hand over" the flagship SoC.
Knowing this, let's take a look at the mainstream SIM card at present, and we will find that it is essentially a microchip with contact circuits on the substrate of a plastic card. In other words, in the space occupied by the whole SIM card, the plastic substrate without any function actually accounts for the majority. The chip part that really works is actually only a little bigger than mung bean.
Cato and SIM cards take up too much space for modern mobile phones.
Because of this, eSIM technology began to rise in the industry a few years ago. The so-called eSIM is to cancel the base plate of the SIM card and directly weld its main chip to the main board of the mobile phone to make an internal integrated shape. This not only saves the plastic substrate of SIM card, but also solves the problem that Cato and metal contacts occupy too much internal space of the fuselage, which can save more internal space and be used for various really practical chip, circuit and battery designs.
However, even eSIM is not a perfect solution in the strict sense. The reason is actually very simple, because although the eSIM chip is small, the semiconductor technology it uses is still too backward compared with SoC. This leads to the fact that although eSIM is much smaller than SIM card in volume, it will not bring much improvement in power consumption compared with SIM card.
Then, if the latest technology of 5nm or even 4nm is adopted and the relevant functional circuits of eSIM are directly integrated into the SoC, will it not only make room for the inside of the mobile phone, but also make the relevant circuits of the SIM card "save energy and reduce consumption"?
Yes, this way of making SIM card circuit directly inside the mobile phone SoC is a new technology introduced by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-ISIM.
It is difficult to go from card to no card, but it is very simple to go from eSIM to iSIM.
Friends who care about the communication industry may know that the biggest difference between eSIM and iSIM compared with traditional SIM cards is the need to issue cards in the air. In layman's terms, they can apply to the operator for changing the number, changing the package, or even changing the operator through the software without changing the SIM card (of course, there is no way to change it).
For regions where eSIM has been commercialized, it is very easy to switch operators among machines.
Obviously, this will be a problem in the past, because on the one hand, air card issuance requires the support of operators with relevant technical platforms, on the other hand, it also means that for eSIM and iSIM, "network transfer" does not even require users to run the business hall at all, just click on the device a few times. In this way, operators will definitely try their best to hinder the popularization of this built-in SIM card technology in order to ensure that their users are not lost.
However, things are different now. On the one hand, "port number transfer" itself has been normalized in the system, consumers have the right to freely transfer the network, and operators have no reason to hinder it. On the other hand, in fact, eSIM technology has been running on various IoT devices for many years, including the three major domestic operators. In fact, they all have mature over-the-air card issuing platforms, and there is no technical obstacle to meet the requirements of "mobile phones without card slots".
For this reason, at the end of last year, we pointed out that once Apple really launched an iPhone without a card slot, there would be a high probability that an operator in the domestic market would choose "Chong" and take the lead in supporting the use of eSIM on the iPhone. Because other operators are not ready at this time, there is no need to worry about the hidden danger of users' "network transfer".
At the same time, although iSIM has changed in the process, form and underlying technology of the equipment itself, it actually plays a greater role in e SIM than SIM card. However, from the operator's point of view, as long as the precedent of "air card issuance" is set, there is obviously no difference between eSIM and iSIM, so the probability will soon adapt.
The pictures in this article come from the Internet.