Apple said to be preparing for iPhones without SIM card slot in 2022
I don't like it.  Having a physical object the embodies your phone's identity is a lot easier to deal with in <i>many</i> ways than an ethereal emulation of said object.  For instance, if I'm traveling I can just buy a SIM card at a kiosk and pop it in, even if I can only communicate through little more than pointing and grunting.  Another example: I got a new phone recently, but since all my stuff was still on my old phone, after the new phone was activated I told the clerk to put the new SIM back into the old phone.  It was painless and literally took a minute.  I'm sure dicking around with eSIMs would have taken far longer, and I'd have spend even more time dicking around to transfer things back.<p>> Apple's former design chief Jony Ive once envisioned the iPhone as becoming a "single slab of glass," and the SIM card slot's removal would be another step towards a seamless design...<p>I really do hate purist visions like that.<p>> Taking out the slot would also free up some valuable internal space in the iPhone — every bit counts.<p>And my money is that they'll use whatever volume they free up to mindlessly make the phone thinner.