I’m firmly convinced that Apple does not fully comprehend the GSM standard, and more specifically, the concept of SIM cards. I have an iPhone, and I wanted to use my AT&T SIM card in it. Shouldn’t be a problem, right? Well, I’m only borrowing the iPhone for a bit, and I don’t want to give up my current MEdiaWorks package just to test this thing out.
I’ve used GSM phones exclusively for a long time now. I prefer GSM for the convenience of SIM cards. I can pick a phone, and as long as it’s unlocked, or locked to AT&T, I can pop my SIM card in there and go. No worries, no issues. Well, except for the iPhone.
You see, for whatever reason, Apple decided to lock the iPhone down so that you had to use an iPhone SIM card in there, even if you already had an existing AT&T account. That means when I put my AT&T SIM card in the iPhone, it said invalid SIM. I had to go through TONS of online walkthroughs and dialling secret numbers and such to ‘jailbreak’ my iPhone, and then install an application and unlock the iPhone.
I’m not worried about me. I’m seasoned with the idea of unlocking and the like, and suffered through. However, let’s take a look at the normobs getting an iPhone. Since GSM was introduced, along with SIM cards, it’s been an uphill battle to educate consumers about SIM cards, and that they can insert the card in any handset from their carrier and it would work. There’s been quite a bit of legislation and court cases recently regarding the locking/unlocking of handsets, and Nokia’s got a huge campaign going that attempts to educate consumers on unlocked handsets.
Enter Apple’s iPhone, which now says, yes, you can put a SIM card in here, but it must be the SIM card specifically FOR the iPhone, regardless of everything everyone else has been teaching you. Even an AT&T SIM card won’t work in here, you need the iPhone SIM card.
I’ve happily unlocked my iPhone, and can now use it like GSM was intended – open. But what has been done to consumers, and do you really think that Apple understands GSM fully?
Apple does understand GSM and SIMM cards. You only have to look at France to see that they understand it. What you don’t understand is that you live in the USA where this type of practice has been going on far too long and Apple is simply the new kid on the block.
Just because GSM facilitates being able to switch SIM cards does not mean that the standards says they must all be open does it. GSM permits operators to lock phones does it not and as Apple has demonstrated take it a step further and lock the phone to its own SIM. I am not saying this is desirable or good for the consumer, but GSM standards seem to permit this.
I would argue therefore that Apple understands GSM all to well and has crafted a solution to meets its needs. Part of those needs is to maximize its revenue. Plenty of other GSM phones out there, use another one if you or other consumers have a problem.
I should also have said that Apple probably wants to control the entire user experience and if it permitted a user to swap SIM cards and use another network, where say one or more iPhone features won’t work, then it will harm Apple’s perception of the user experience.
Consumers won’t understand why visual voicemail does not work on a new network or why they no longer have dependable Edge or possibly 3G connections or what have you. They will simply say ‘Apple sucks’ or the iPhone sucks. Apple wants to control this user experience and I am sure locking the iPhone to use its own SIM is driven partly by that, but there are revenue concerns as well.
I’m sure Apple fully understands GSM, and I’m also sure they don’t care about “the way everyone else does it.” My guess is that there are functions and capabilities of the iPhone that only work with their version of a SIM card. Also, the activation process of the iPhone and the favorable data plan available for iPhones through AT&T probably places some limits on SIM swap-ability. Also, you should understand that iPhone SIM cards can be used in other unlocked/AT&T phones, but not the other way around. At any rate, Apple’s agenda is to drive a very different way of delivering mobile phone services to consumers on a revolutionary device, not to just ape what other manufacturers have spec’d. And the marketplace says they’re right.
Also, what do you call yourself doing, unlocking and jailbreaking a phone you borrowed from someone else? Are you not aware that you could end up bricking their phone? Are you going to pay them for that if it happens? Seems irresponsible of you.
“Also, what do you call yourself doing, unlocking and jailbreaking a phone you borrowed from someone else? Are you not aware that you could end up bricking their phone? Are you going to pay them for that if it happens? Seems irresponsible of you.”
Put your skewers away. The iPhone’s owner is cool with what he’s doing, and Ricky’s hardly been irresponsible through the process.
Jim – Actually, when I received it from my friend, it was unlocked and jailbroken, but on v1.0.2. I asked specifically if he minded if I updated to v1.1.1, so long as I gave it back unlocked and jailbroken, and he said no, he didn’t mind. HAD I bricked it, I would absolutely have made sure to replace what I had broken. However, don’t you think it’s kinda sad that I should have to go through the grief and headache of risking ‘bricking’ the phone, just so that I could use an AT&T SIM card in it?
I understand there are business motives behind this, it just really irked me, and I personally feel as though it goes against the whole purpose of SIM cards in the first place.
By the looks of this post, Apple understands GSM way better than you undestand Apple. Simply, you have no understanding of how Apple is trying to change the cellular industry, and how they’ve found it necessary to tie to one carrier (and one SIM card) in order to do it.
I think it is you who don’t understand. Your concern for the masses is BS. The masses don’t care why the blue smoke makes electronics run and have no desire to swap their iphone SIMM into another phone or their SIMM into an iPhone as most of them don’t know they have a SIMM.
At this time (right or wrong) Apple has the right to lock down it’s phones to ensure profits, user experience, security or whatever else they want to say they are doing it for. You probably have the right to circumvent such locks (per the exemption in the DMCA) so enjoy. But don’t whine about the harm to the masses when most of them don’t know what you are talking about.
Remember these two facts when criticizing the iPhone.
1) It has been the best selling mobil phone in US history. (per numerous reports)
2) Surveys indicate that it has the highest satisfaction rating of any cell phone by huge margins.
Until these two things change, I have to say that Apple is doing this iPhone thing right.
“Understand” GSM? That’s a typical shallow analysis of someone who won’t acknowledge that someone else has a different opinion. Apple has plenty of brainpower and can understand it easily enough. The more likely explanation is that Apple has different business priorities and there are lots (millions) of potential customers who don’t care about the issue.
Jim
I work in a phone store, a US non-AT&T GSM carrier store (hmm, big list…) and frankly 99% of our customers wouldn’t know a SIM card if it lunged out and bit ’em. In your very small very geeky universe SIM cards may well be a big deal, however that is a decidedly skewed view.
Furthermore SIM cards are not a universal panacea. They’re limited in how & what they reliably support, particularly in regards to things like associated icons, complex address books, etc. Thus what on a Nokia may be entries with sub-entries for home / work / cell / weekend numbers on a Samsung may appear as top-level Entry1, Entry2, Entry3 (which was Bob’s office number again?!)
Don’t get me wrong – love ’em, and they’re a sales feature. But a SIMs a deal-maker/breaker? Hardly.
Instead alongside SIMs we’re seeing carriers offering their own over-the-air server-based address book management & synchronization tools based on SyncML & the like. Lose your phone? No problem! Provision another phone and a minute later your address book is restored & ready for use. Want to import new entries? Go to the carrier website and pull in vcards or a CSV file. Export to somewhere else? Sure. Indeed the big story of ’08 could well be the weaving together of disparate address books & devices; AIM & Facebook seamlessly sucked into your Razr & Blackberry and then updated back.
Are proprietary tools a hassle? Sure. But I can’t argue with trying to expand functionality. Apple seems to be striving, along with lots of other companies, to improve the cellphone experience. As long as they’re up-front about how they’re going about it and what they’re selling to customers then I don’t see the problem. Is it ideal for the multi-phone-toting switch-to-the-gadget-of-the-week geek? Nope. But then that’s .00001 percent of the market, and the same ones consistently frustrated/annoyed when Apple comes out with kewl toys that don’t exactly meet our sophisticated snobby needs and yet somehow go on to sell hundreds of millions of units to normal, er, ‘real’, folks…
Mark: “Simply, you have no understanding of how Apple is trying to change the cellular industry, and how they’ve found it necessary to tie to one carrier (and one SIM card) in order to do it.”
So taking away the freedom of SIM cards is a good thing? Yikes, I dont want that kool aid.
Unlocked and sim free is the way to be!
Agree with many of the previous posts. SIM locking is not a technical decision, it’s a commercial one and it enables Apple to tie users into the networks they can negotiate revenue sharing arrangements with. In Europe this has been going on for a long time as operators look to protect the subsidy they put into the initial handset cost (often discounted to free).
I don’t like it either, but it’s nothing to do with Apple’s understanding of GSM… as a number of commentators have said above, this is a feature of GSM!
Apple’s decision to tie the iPhone to certain mobile phone operators limits the sales of the iPhone. Apple would sell more iPhones if they hadn’t restricted it to a few operators. Apple could have sold the iPhone all over Europe by now, instead of making deals for each and every country. Europeans who have a summer home in another country often have two SIM-cards, one for each country. That’s not possible with the iPhone. Tieing the Iphone to certain operators also makes the whole experiece a lot more expensive. There are lots of mobile phone operators in Europe with cheap or even free calls between its own users, and it’s typical that friends and relatives who talk a lot with each other arrange use the same operator in order to minimize cost. Thats not possible with the iPhone. How many macs would Apple sell if they were locked to one ISP? Steve, locking the iPhone is backwards and medieval.
Ricky, I think it is you that does not understand. Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with what Apple has done, once you realise why; it is very clear that it is your argument that shows little understanding. It is pure and simple COMMERCE.
Apple has an agreement with AT&T, not only for exclusivity but also (and more importantly), only for specific user contracts. What this means is there is a select number of usage contracts that a user must sign up to. Why? Because as per the deal made with AT&T, Apple gets a cut of the usage contract (I believe that Apple receive an amount totalling somewhere in the order of $200 over a two year contract).
Therefore it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if you’re not using one of the specified contracts/SIMS (albeit an AT&T SIM), Apple DOES NOT GET ANY MONEY…Simple Really!!
What would you do in this position…. probably the same thing Apple has, locking the iphone down even further, not just to the provider but also to the specified SIM/contracts of that provider; therefore securing their investment and ensuring it’s finical returns (which also provides insight into why Apple have been actively working against unlocking). NOTHING about that demonstrates a lack of understanding about GSM by Apple.