The iPhone 14 killed the gray market by itself

The iPhone 14 killed the gray market by itself

With this year's iPhone 14 in the United States, Apple has once again taken up the machete and hacked away at an obscure but almost universally used component: the SIM card slot.

What, no SIM card slot? That's an iPod Touch?

Apple's aggressive approach is directly aimed at promoting eSIM, or embedded-SIM. By integrating a chip inside the device, users can use the mobile network without inserting a physical SIM card.

Some smart watches, such as Apple Watch and HUAWEI Watch, are equipped with eSIM function. You only need to open a separate number for the eSIM smartwatch. The watch can also receive calls, send and receive text messages and browse the Internet just like a mobile phone without inserting an extra SIM card.

That's true of watches, but it's a different story on phones. In mainland China, eSIM is not yet available on smartphones.

So when you buy a new iPhone, you'll need an old, honest, practical SIM card. Chinese users can use SIM cards to bypass authentication on American models that previously had Internet locks for daily use. Now, without a SIM card, these iphones can only be bought as iPod Touches.

Then again, it's surprising that the solution to the smuggling problem of gray market iphones is not law enforcement, but Apple's ruthless killing of the SIM card slot.

Some people will say, it's just the American version, why don't you just buy the version of other regions?

True, the full eSIM iPhone is currently limited to the U.S. version, and even the Canadian version next door has a SIM card slot. But Apple's ambitions are not limited to the US market, and there will certainly be more pure eSIM versions to come. This is a big game.