Did Apple want to sell iPhones with carrier-independent SIM cards?
By Florin on 22 Nov 10It looks like Apple may have had plans to sell iPhones with pre-installed, programmable SIM cards in Europe – this would allow users to choose any mobile carrier they wanted.
However, major European carriers (Vodafone and Telefonica / O2 included) strongly opposed to the idea, so the Cupertino company had to give up on its plans.
According to The Street, carriers went as far as threatening Apple to scrap iPhone subsidies – which does make sense, since the only reason telcos are subsidizing the iPhone is because they want to offer their own SIMs with their own services to customers.
Sure enough, all this may have actually not happened – there are no official details to confirm such SIM card plans from Apple. And I don’t think we’ll see any, anytime soon.
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