Earlier on Thursday Apple confirmed the long-expected release of the iPad Air 2 – lighter, thinner and speedier than the original iPad Air which came out 12 months ago.
Much of the enhancements – including the inclusion of Apple’s Touch ID sensor – are pretty much what we expected but one’s been getting a lot of focus.
The specs and sales page for the new 3G/4G model refer to an ‘Apple SIM’ which lets you pick between mobile networks and this has led to some excited claims that this means Apple has ditched the traditional SIM card for a built-in alternative.
But a quick check of the small print on Apple’s website shows this isn’t the case, as the site says:
“iPad Air 2 with Wi-Fi + Cellular and iPad mini 3 with Wi-Fi + Cellular can use either the Apple SIM card or a carrier-supported nano-SIM card. “
While the Apple SIM is pre-installed it’s ultimately just a SIM which Apple has done deals with some US and UK networks to support by allowing users to switch and swap data providers without changing cards.
It can easily be swapped for a SIM provided by your network – which is just as well because so far in the UK only EE has signed up to Apple’s ‘easy switch’ option. Nothing has been ditched.
If and when more networks come on board the Apple SIM will potentially be something to get excited about – though changing SIMs has never been exactly difficult – but today it’s not really a killer feature.
