RIM, Motorola, Nokia, and Apple may finally be coming together on a SIM card standard
Last week, Calob experienced the annoyance of inconsistent "standards" in the mobile industry when he tried to switch from his iPhone to a Galaxy Nexus. Different SIM card standards totally defeated the idea of being able to easily "hot swap" SIMs, and instead forced him to attempt to make an adapter, and eventually deal with the inconvenience of getting a new card.
Fortunately, it looks like that incompatibility might finally go away with the advent of NanoSim cards later this year. For quite a while, Apple has been arguing with Nokia, RIM, and Motorola over whose NanoSIM design would become the official standard of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, but they finally have the chance to settle on a compromise.
What you see above is the brand new combined design for the NanoSIM, which is said to be 80% Apple's and 20% the other manufactures. As opposed to Apple's previous design with no notches at all, and the design of Nokia and company with quite a number of notches and tapered edges, the new design is simple and smooth with a single notch. While seemingly insignificant, this notch is the big area of comprimise in the design. Apple didn't want a notch because they say it would take up too much space, but RIM and others wanted it so that they could use push locking mechanisms in their devices. This design should hopefully satisfy all parties, and allow them to finally put an end to their debate over the standard.
Regardless of the more technical points in the debate, it would be nice if all the manufactueres could come to an agreement when they meet on May 31. The faster they agree on a standard design, the faster it can be implemented, and the better things are for consumers. It would also make sense that a collaborative effort like this would be supported by all involved, so I hope that this design can finally put an end to the incompatibilities and lack of standards in at least one small part of the mobile industry.
[The Verge]
