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It's good that he's highlighting the potential issues with the eSim. To me, forcing every new iPhone user to go all-in with eSim is ridiculous. That will work f

It's good that he's highlighting the potential issues with the eSim. To me, forcing every new iPhone user to go all-in with eSim is ridiculous. That will work for many, yet it could be a painful issue for some. Given that they still sell iPhone 14 with regular SIM cards, why wouldn't they allow that option in the US ¯\_(ツ)_/¯!?

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> forcing every new iPhone user to go all-in with eSim is ridiculous. That will work for many, yet it could be a painful issue for some Floppy disks. Java. Disk drives. Headphone jacks. This is Apple’s M.O.
- unstatusthequo 4y ago
  You forgot power cable. Inductive for the win. I figure the cable is just a backup for real problems
  - MBCook 4y ago
    The cable is still good for charging (if you need fast) and I like it a lot for CarPlay because in my experience wireless CarPlay has a ton of lag to it. I do wonder what they do if they remove the port completely, how do they fix the phone if it gets truly messed up? Does it become like the watch where they just have to swap it out with a different one and send it back to Apple?
  - mr_toad 4y ago
    Unless they’ve changed it you still need a USB cable to sync directly from finder for the first time.
roberttod 4y ago
I recently tried buying an esim while travelling to Sweden because I always forget to buy one at the airport, or in advance. It actually worked out very well, and it was nice not to have to swap out my existing sim and take on a new phone number across all the messaging apps while I was there.
GeekyBear 4y ago
If you wait for the carriers to do something as consumer friendly as supporting eSIMs, you're in for a very long wait. It's not in their best interests to allow friction free price shopping.
trevor-e 4y ago
It will be painful for an incredibly tiny number of people, and vastly superior for basically everyone else. Plus, it frees up valuable physical space inside the phone. another counterpoint: I just got back from a trip in Europe and had to swap my sim card back when we landed. I forgot to ask for the small (and easily losable) tool they give you to pop open the tray, but luckily my SO had an earring that was able to fit.
- alistairSH 4y ago
  How do you buy/activate a temp e-sim when traveling? And as most shops capable of doing so? My family goes to the UK often and usually get a local sim.
  - ramraj07 4y ago
    You just do it online. In the Wi-Fi the airport offers. I did just that with Ubigi. Far more convenient.
    - alistairSH 4y ago
      Just pick a random cellular provider, visit their website, and that’s it? Do they have the cheap pay as you go plans available? Honestly don’t know - we’ve always gone to the local Tesco and asked the sales clerk for a sim on whatever service works best in whatever town we’re in.
      - girvo 4y ago
        Pretty much. For example, if you were coming to visit me in Australia, you could get an Optus eSim for the days you are here: https://www.optus.com.au/prepaid/esim https://www.optus.com.au/prepaid/esim Annoyingly, its not yet perfect. Vodafone for example can do prepaid, but requires the prepaid physical SIM to be activated first then transferred: a Vodafone store can do it of course, but that's a pain. https://www.vodafone.com.au/support/device/esim?accordion-id=can-i-use-a-prepaid-plan-with-esim%3F https://www.vodafone.com.au/support/device/esim?accordion-id... I imagine this will get better as time goes on, though. Woolworths can do pure online eSim only prepaid: https://mobile.woolworths.com.au/mobile-phone/esim https://mobile.woolworths.com.au/mobile-phone/esim
criddell 4y ago
I switched to T-Mobile last year and they basically insisted on a physical SIM card. They told me I wouldn’t get 5G with an eSIM. That sounded like BS, but I was never able to figure out why they would care what time of SIM I used.
- musictubes 4y ago
  Bet there was some sort of commission thing involved.
warning26 4y ago
The thing that strikes me as ridiculous is that in the US on CDMA carriers, there was the exact same thing as "eSIMs" for years. You had to beg and plead with your carrier to set up and provision your phone, since there was no physical SIM. So for Apple to pitch this as "wow, it's a new system where instead of just putting in a sim card you have to grovel to your carrier to set up your phone", it hardly strikes me as better UX.
- musictubes 4y ago
  Carriers have been fighting sims for years because it makes it too easy to switch carriers. I think TMobile is the first one out of the gate to do this. You can download their app, try the service for a month or two by activating the esaim. If you like it, you can transfer your service right from the app. Not having to talk to sales reps or go to stores is a big win for customers. Granted, this is mostly hypothetical at this point but it is coming.
- cmelbye 4y ago
  Have you tried eSIM? It’s dependent on carrier, of course, but it’s actually an incredible UX. My partner lost his phone (and SIM) recently and I was able to transfer his T-Mobile line to a different iPhone in a few minutes using eSIM. It was totally automated using the T-Mobile website — enter the IMEI then scan a QR code with iPhone camera. I saved a trip to the store to get a new SIM card and didn’t have to talk to a human.
  - mr_toad 4y ago
    What sort of security is there? How do they prevent anyone from registering your number to a new phone?
    - cmelbye 4y ago
      The usual: My account password, two factor auth, account security PIN. Additionally, an SMS is sent to the number that’s being transferred giving a chance to block (with a timeout to auto-approve if the device is lost). I haven’t explored it but I would assume there is also an optional “high security mode” lock — something like requiring account changes to happen in-store with physical ID.
denkmoon 4y ago
Why is an esim a problem?
xuki 4y ago
I’m not in the US and I’m happy with this new change. Local telcos have eSim support but only for postpaid. Now US iPhone users will come and demand eSim for prepaid, it should finally force them to support prepaid users (or lose out to competitors).
synicalx 4y ago
As someone who switches between two phones somewhat regularly, eSim is just not doable for me. Thankfully I'm not in the US so this specific iPhone 14 situation doesn't effect me but I can totally see them forcing this on us here in Australia as well.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> forcing every new iPhone user to go all-in with eSim is ridiculous. That will work for many, yet it could be a painful issue for some Floppy disks. Java. Disk drives. Headphone jacks. This is Apple’s M.O.

unstatusthequo 4y ago
You forgot power cable. Inductive for the win. I figure the cable is just a backup for real problems
- MBCook 4y ago
  The cable is still good for charging (if you need fast) and I like it a lot for CarPlay because in my experience wireless CarPlay has a ton of lag to it. I do wonder what they do if they remove the port completely, how do they fix the phone if it gets truly messed up? Does it become like the watch where they just have to swap it out with a different one and send it back to Apple?
- mr_toad 4y ago
  Unless they’ve changed it you still need a USB cable to sync directly from finder for the first time.

roberttod 4y ago

I recently tried buying an esim while travelling to Sweden because I always forget to buy one at the airport, or in advance. It actually worked out very well, and it was nice not to have to swap out my existing sim and take on a new phone number across all the messaging apps while I was there.

GeekyBear 4y ago

If you wait for the carriers to do something as consumer friendly as supporting eSIMs, you're in for a very long wait. It's not in their best interests to allow friction free price shopping.

trevor-e 4y ago

It will be painful for an incredibly tiny number of people, and vastly superior for basically everyone else. Plus, it frees up valuable physical space inside the phone. another counterpoint: I just got back from a trip in Europe and had to swap my sim card back when we landed. I forgot to ask for the small (and easily losable) tool they give you to pop open the tray, but luckily my SO had an earring that was able to fit.

alistairSH 4y ago
How do you buy/activate a temp e-sim when traveling? And as most shops capable of doing so? My family goes to the UK often and usually get a local sim.
- ramraj07 4y ago
  You just do it online. In the Wi-Fi the airport offers. I did just that with Ubigi. Far more convenient.
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    Just pick a random cellular provider, visit their website, and that’s it? Do they have the cheap pay as you go plans available? Honestly don’t know - we’ve always gone to the local Tesco and asked the sales clerk for a sim on whatever service works best in whatever town we’re in.
    - girvo 4y ago
      Pretty much. For example, if you were coming to visit me in Australia, you could get an Optus eSim for the days you are here: https://www.optus.com.au/prepaid/esim https://www.optus.com.au/prepaid/esim Annoyingly, its not yet perfect. Vodafone for example can do prepaid, but requires the prepaid physical SIM to be activated first then transferred: a Vodafone store can do it of course, but that's a pain. https://www.vodafone.com.au/support/device/esim?accordion-id=can-i-use-a-prepaid-plan-with-esim%3F https://www.vodafone.com.au/support/device/esim?accordion-id... I imagine this will get better as time goes on, though. Woolworths can do pure online eSim only prepaid: https://mobile.woolworths.com.au/mobile-phone/esim https://mobile.woolworths.com.au/mobile-phone/esim

criddell 4y ago

I switched to T-Mobile last year and they basically insisted on a physical SIM card. They told me I wouldn’t get 5G with an eSIM. That sounded like BS, but I was never able to figure out why they would care what time of SIM I used.

musictubes 4y ago
Bet there was some sort of commission thing involved.

warning26 4y ago

The thing that strikes me as ridiculous is that in the US on CDMA carriers, there was the exact same thing as "eSIMs" for years. You had to beg and plead with your carrier to set up and provision your phone, since there was no physical SIM. So for Apple to pitch this as "wow, it's a new system where instead of just putting in a sim card you have to grovel to your carrier to set up your phone", it hardly strikes me as better UX.

musictubes 4y ago
Carriers have been fighting sims for years because it makes it too easy to switch carriers. I think TMobile is the first one out of the gate to do this. You can download their app, try the service for a month or two by activating the esaim. If you like it, you can transfer your service right from the app. Not having to talk to sales reps or go to stores is a big win for customers. Granted, this is mostly hypothetical at this point but it is coming.
cmelbye 4y ago
Have you tried eSIM? It’s dependent on carrier, of course, but it’s actually an incredible UX. My partner lost his phone (and SIM) recently and I was able to transfer his T-Mobile line to a different iPhone in a few minutes using eSIM. It was totally automated using the T-Mobile website — enter the IMEI then scan a QR code with iPhone camera. I saved a trip to the store to get a new SIM card and didn’t have to talk to a human.
- mr_toad 4y ago
  What sort of security is there? How do they prevent anyone from registering your number to a new phone?
  - cmelbye 4y ago
    The usual: My account password, two factor auth, account security PIN. Additionally, an SMS is sent to the number that’s being transferred giving a chance to block (with a timeout to auto-approve if the device is lost). I haven’t explored it but I would assume there is also an optional “high security mode” lock — something like requiring account changes to happen in-store with physical ID.

denkmoon 4y ago

Why is an esim a problem?

xuki 4y ago

I’m not in the US and I’m happy with this new change. Local telcos have eSim support but only for postpaid. Now US iPhone users will come and demand eSim for prepaid, it should finally force them to support prepaid users (or lose out to competitors).

synicalx 4y ago

As someone who switches between two phones somewhat regularly, eSim is just not doable for me. Thankfully I'm not in the US so this specific iPhone 14 situation doesn't effect me but I can totally see them forcing this on us here in Australia as well.