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News January 29, 2010
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Why DID Apple Choose the MicroSIM for the iPad?

Gear Diary Why DID Apple Choose the MicroSIM for the iPad? photo

The iPad is making a unprecedented change, and instead of using a standard SIM like the iPhone does, they are using a 3FF or MicroSIM card.  This card is half the length of the normal SIM card, and it pretty much guarantees that you won’t be able to grab any old SIM and stick it in your iPad for some 3G goodness.

Adam Turner from Hydrapinion says that this is Apple’s and AT&T’s way to keep the iPad under their control when it comes to getting broadband on the go.  Also, you should consider that the frequencies the iPad deals with manage to exclude T-Mobile as well.

Wired reports that until Apple announced the iPad, the only other product that uses the MicroSIM was a Children’s GPS watch sold by Lok8u.

Is this Apple trying to lock you in to AT&T or Apple trying to innovate?  Why haven’t we heard much about the MicroSIM until now?  No one knows.  The one good thing about the MicroSIM is that the contacts are exactly the same as a regular SIM, the card is just smaller.  So you could take a regular SIM and shave it down.  However, you’d still be stuck with AT&T, since the frequencies the iPad uses only works with them.  So in reality, like the Nexus One, the iPad isn’t locked, but it might as well be since you can’t use it anywhere but on AT&T.

This kind of weirdness is only going to continue unless the FCC puts a stop to the nonsense.  A GSM/HSDPA device should work on ANY carrier, and until the FCC puts a stop to it, we’ll continue to be at the carriers’ mercy.

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About Joel McLaughlin

View all posts by Joel McLaughlin
Joel is a system admin for a local college in Columbus, OH. While he loves Linux and tends to use it more than anything else, he will stoop to running closed source if it is the best tool for the job. His techno passions are Linux, Android, netbooks, GPS, podcasting and Amateur Radio.
  • SamP

    Joel: I think there’s a simple reason why T-Mobile is on different frequencies than AT&T: the more standard (well, US standard…) frequency bands are already being occupied by other networks.

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  • Joel McLaughlin

    SamP: I realize AT&T and T-Mobile don’t use the same frequencies. I don’t have a beef with them. My beef is more with Apple. Unless AT&T talked Apple into making the iPad with ONLY their frequencies.

    Apple really should investigate moving to multiple carriers. At this point, people AREN’T going to switch to get an iPhone. They might want one but they can’t get one. So they will be a Droid, a Hero, or a Nexus One because they look enough like the iPhone and run many of the same apps. Many people don’t CARE if they have the iPhone. They just want one that works like it.

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  • SamP

    We could always hope that Qualcomm would produce a new generation of Gobi that was cheap enough and low power enough that more devices would use it… (I assume that its anemic adoption rate is mostly due to those two factors)

  • Drew Guttadore

    Hi All, Its much bigger than AT&T and the USA… In many other countries there are multiple telecoms selling the iPhone today and presumably the iPad service in the near future. They will all need to alter their SIM practice towards this service. Another question is, will this drive the telecoms to structure their new data offerings along this new format.. Maybe the idea of a netbook or an iPAD with a GSM SIM can be in this new format. Time will tell. Drew