The iPhone 14 reinvents form to order
Oct 04, 2022| The iPhone 14 reinvents form to order
Kill the SIM card slot and reinvent the phone, which is what Jobs planned to do with the original iPhone. His starting point was the integrated beauty of the phone. As mobile technology evolves, it makes more sense to kill the SIM card slot. The extra space can be used to increase batteries, enhance chips, cameras, etc.
Apple has not forgotten Jobs's obsession. With the iPhone Xs series released in 2018, Apple introduced eSIM for the first time and supported dual SIM through eSIM. At the time, only 14 carriers in 10 countries supported eSIM, so Apple took its time and introduced physical dual SIM support for the Chinese market.
Starting with last year's iPhone 13, Apple supported multiple eSIM cards on a single phone, paving the way for an all-ESIM phone. In its latest press release following the launch of the iPhone 14, Apple said it now has 29 carriers worldwide that support ESIM-activated iphones, half of which are based in the US. The U.S. is ripe for killing physical SIM cards.
Is Apple killing the physical SIM card just to reinvent the phone? Not at all.
The traditional mobile phone market order is dominated by carriers. From design, production to sales, operators have an absolute right to speak. Even in the age of smartphones, carriers force users to use their services through network locks. The gray market with the lock machine, is built for this purpose.
With eSIM, users are free to choose and switch services without being limited to carriers. In order to compete or retain users, operators are also bound to come up with more affordable services and tariff packages.
In this way, when consumers choose a phone, they can just pick the one they want, without having to worry about the carrier.
In other words, with the release of the first iPhone, the mobile phone market began to shift from operators to Oems. Starting from iPhone 14, Apple needs to further rewrite the market order and strive for more say for Oems, so that operators are no longer the threshold for users to buy mobile phones.
