The Verge - The nano-SIM standard: manufacturers take sides over the shrinking SIM card

Vodafone stockpiles 500,000 nano-SIMs, hints at imminent iPhone 5 announcement

2012-09-11T16:37:06Z

We've seen plenty of evidence suggesting the iPhone 5 will ditch Micro-SIM cards in favor of the Apple-designed nano-SIM standard, and now Vodafone UK has made that switch a near certainty. Just one day before the latest iOS handset is expected to make its debut, the carrier mistakenly posted a blog article titled "First photos of Vodafone nano-SIM cards." In the post — which was quickly deleted but preserved thanks to Google Cache — Vodafone reveals it presently has a huge stockpile of 500,000 nano-SIMs in stock and says "the first devices have now been announced." We find it hard to read that as anything other than a thinly-veiled reference to the iPhone. Why? The nano-SIM standard was approved back in June, leaving little time for...

Carriers ordering nano-SIMs ahead of next iPhone launch, FT reports

2012-07-16T22:44:06Z

The Financial Times is reporting today that European mobile carriers are "stockpiling" the recently-approved 4FF nano-SIM card in anticipation of the next iPhone's launch later this year, implying that Apple's next handset will use the updated chip — a piece of plastic that's around 40 percent smaller than the existing 3FF micro-SIM used in the iPhone 4 / 4S and recent models from Nokia, Samsung, HTC, and others. Though it's technically possible for SIM makers to pump out the nano-SIM en masse in time for a late 2012 commercial launch, the most surprising thing is that today's rumor would imply that Apple had designed the latest iPhone around it even before it was approved by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)...

Apple wins the nano-SIM fight, says SIM card maker Giesecke & Devrient

2012-06-05T00:38:06Z

The long and contentious battle for the exact shape of the nano-SIM / Fourth Form Factor (4FF) technically came to a close on June 1st. However, the standards body behind the decision, the ETSI, didn't actually announce which of the competing designs had actually won out, preferring to put forth a message of unity after a process that was anything but unified. Whatever the ETSI's intentions, the design firm Giesecke & Devrient came out and told MacWorld that Apple's design is the one that was chosen by the ETSI. Giesecke & Devrient actually gave us a firsthand look at Apple's design at CTIA last month, and as you can see above the tiny SIM card lacks the notch that Nokia, Motorola, and RIM were all pushing for. Nokia, at least, has...

Nokia acknowledges nano-SIM decision, now says it's 'prepared' to license essential patents

2012-06-01T14:30:25Z

Nokia had been waging the loudest opposition in recent months to Apple's nano-SIM proposal, a mild evolution of the micro-SIM currently found in the iPhone 4 and 4S (among others). Nokia, jointly with Motorola and RIM, had been proposing a more radical thinking of the SIM card that would be smaller, allow for easy removal with a fingernail, and allegedly met an ETSI guideline that the nano-SIM not be able to get irrecoverably jammed in a micro-SIM slot. Rhetoric became so heated, in fact, that Nokia warned that it wouldn't license essential patents if ETSI selected Apple's design.

That language has changed today, though: Nokia now says that it will license any essential patents to the standardized 4FF under FRAND terms, meaning any OEM...

ETSI names new nano-SIM format, 40 percent smaller than Micro-SIM

2012-06-01T11:32:54Z

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has announced a new nano-SIM format today. Agreed at a meeting held this week in Japan, the new form factor will be 40 percent smaller than the current micro-SIM format — measuring 12.3mm wide by 8.8mm high, and 0.67mm thick. Nano-SIMs will also be packaged in a way that allows them to be backwards compatible with existing SIM card designs.

A number of proposals had been discussed, resulting in conflict between the major mobile manufacturers. Motorola, Nokia, and RIM, all opposed a design put forward by Apple — arguing their design is technically superior and less likely to cause handset damage when inserted. We spoke to the ETSI this morning to question which format was...

Samsung pens letter detailing 'potentially serious issues and problems' with nano-SIM vote

2012-05-22T22:49:33Z

The long, winding road to selection of a nano-SIM standard took another turn today: Samsung has filed a letter with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) of "concerns expressed and actions taken by Samsung in relation to the recent vote by correspondence for the selection" of a final design.

The phrase "recent vote by correspondence" is of particular interest: just last week, Motorola and RIM had filed a compromise design meant to appease Apple while still allowing trayless "push-push" mechanisms in phones, suggesting that debate was still raging internally and that a final vote might not take place until the next meeting of the SIM working group at the end of this month in Japan. Previously, though, SIM maker...

RIM, Motorola told Apple they could find a nano-SIM compromise: here it is

2012-05-18T02:28:29Z

Just hours ago, RIM and Motorola submitted an updated proposal for the design of the so-called 4FF nano-SIM, a smaller replacement for the 3FF micro-SIM used in many phones today (most notably the iPhone 4 and 4S). Debate between competing nano-SIM designs — one from Apple, another from a joint group of RIM, Motorola, and Nokia — has grown intense over the past several months within the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the body ultimately responsible for SIM standardization worldwide. The latest proposal from RIM and Motorola is pictured above.

Traffic jam

Understanding the genesis of this new design (and what exactly it means) requires looking back at the ETSI's last nano-SIM meeting in late March, where...

Nano-SIM update: Apple design modified to fix concerns, standard will be decided this month

2012-05-08T18:15:48Z

We just spoke with SIM card maker (and pioneer) Giesecke & Devrient here at CTIA about progress on the creation of the 4FF standard — the so-called nano-SIM — over which Apple and Nokia have been warring in recent months. The company is showcasing Apple's design here at the show, an evolution of the 3FF micro-SIM that iPhone and iPad users have become well acquainted with over the years, though there aren't any prototypes of Nokia's competing design at the booth. When asked if that meant they were siding with Apple on this one, we were told "we work with everybody."

The company tells us that the ETSI vote on the 4FF standard that had been delayed back in March is actually now underway. Voting began for ETSI members in mid-April and...