4 ms·

> If you want a new SIM card, and you don't have a contract, just buy a new SIM card and put it in your phone / tablet. My parents couldn't change a SIM card t

> If you want a new SIM card, and you don't have a contract, just buy a new SIM card and put it in your phone / tablet. My parents couldn't change a SIM card to save their lives - they couldn't open the phone to get the card out, they'd have trouble holding the micro SIM card if they did get it open, and they'd probably put it in backwards and just scratch the hell out of the contacts if they made it that far. Why should they have to? Oh, sure, they can go to a store. That works if switching networks is something you only want to do very occasionally with plenty of time to plan, but if you can make it easier why not? It's all software, why are we authenticating it by a tiny fiddly piece of plastic? I mean, I do this often enough myself that I carry a little Nokia pin for the tiny hole that triggers the SIM card slot to open on my Nexus, but why should I have to?

koliber 12y ago
Apple doing this does solve the issue for some people. However, as the parent poster mentioned, it is not as revolutionary as some make it out to be. They are not solving a problem that has been unsolved before. Instead, they are providing a more streamlined and hassle-free solution.
- jacalata 12y ago
  Isn't that exactly what they did when they released the original iPhone? Isn't that basically their entire existence?
maximumoverload 12y ago
That's totally weird to me. I don't want to say it from a position of superiority or anything, just different mobile culture, but in here, changing SIM cards is normal. It's what you do when you buy a new phone, because - as I said below - you get a SIM card separately, even when you buy it right with the operator with the contract. But I guess it's a different culture
- jacalata 12y ago
  I'd be willing to bet that most people wherever you're from also can't change their own SIM and have the store employees do it (which is how it worked when I bought a SIM card in both London and Seattle in the last two months).
- malyk 12y ago
  Different cultures for sure. I've had 5 mobile phones...some candybar in the early 00's, a flip phone in the mid 00's, and iphone 3g, 4s, and now 6. I've never even /seen/ a sim card in person. It's a piece of tech that I shouldn't have to every even know exists. I just want my phone to work. I shouldn't have to play around with a microscopic piece of plastic and metal for that to happen.
  - maximumoverload 12y ago
    Hm. Interesting. If you want to buy a new phone and keep your number.... what do you do? Well I guess you can just ask in the store to move it to the new one, that's true. It's just... strange.
    - rblatz 12y ago
      You don't ask, they hand you a phone and it just works.
      - untog 12y ago
        Unless you want to buy an unlocked phone, etc. etc.
        pessimizer 12y ago
        Why would you want to do that? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World
        nknighthb 12y ago
Nullabillity 12y ago
Same reason that you still keep credit cards around; security. When money becomes involved you don't want the device doing the authorization to have any way to be influenced by the one requesting it.

koliber 12y ago

Apple doing this does solve the issue for some people. However, as the parent poster mentioned, it is not as revolutionary as some make it out to be. They are not solving a problem that has been unsolved before. Instead, they are providing a more streamlined and hassle-free solution.

jacalata 12y ago
Isn't that exactly what they did when they released the original iPhone? Isn't that basically their entire existence?

maximumoverload 12y ago

That's totally weird to me. I don't want to say it from a position of superiority or anything, just different mobile culture, but in here, changing SIM cards is normal. It's what you do when you buy a new phone, because - as I said below - you get a SIM card separately, even when you buy it right with the operator with the contract. But I guess it's a different culture

jacalata 12y ago
I'd be willing to bet that most people wherever you're from also can't change their own SIM and have the store employees do it (which is how it worked when I bought a SIM card in both London and Seattle in the last two months).
malyk 12y ago
Different cultures for sure. I've had 5 mobile phones...some candybar in the early 00's, a flip phone in the mid 00's, and iphone 3g, 4s, and now 6. I've never even /seen/ a sim card in person. It's a piece of tech that I shouldn't have to every even know exists. I just want my phone to work. I shouldn't have to play around with a microscopic piece of plastic and metal for that to happen.
- maximumoverload 12y ago
  Hm. Interesting. If you want to buy a new phone and keep your number.... what do you do? Well I guess you can just ask in the store to move it to the new one, that's true. It's just... strange.
  - rblatz 12y ago
    You don't ask, they hand you a phone and it just works.
    - untog 12y ago
      Unless you want to buy an unlocked phone, etc. etc.
      - pessimizer 12y ago
        Why would you want to do that? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World
      - nknighthb 12y ago

Nullabillity 12y ago

Same reason that you still keep credit cards around; security. When money becomes involved you don't want the device doing the authorization to have any way to be influenced by the one requesting it.