Steve Jobs, the charismatic founder of Apple and the innovator of the personal computer era, wanted the first generation iPhone without a SIM card decades before eSIM was developed.
The media has reported that Jobs wished the first iPhone had no SIM card slot when it was launched. Apple is rumored to bring upcoming iPhone models without physical SIM card slots in some regions and countries next year.
During a recent interview with journalist Joanna Stern at a special event at the Computer History Museum, Tony Fadell, former Vice President of iPod, revealed this to 9to5Mac. During the early development stages of the iPhone, Steve Jobs did not want a SIM card slot due to his design preferences, according to the former iPod VP.
“We don’t want another hole in it,” Jobs told the engineers and designers working on the iPhone, according to a report from 9to5Mac.
Due to Verizon’s CDMA network, rather than its GSM service, Jobs suggested that an iPhone without a SIM card slot would be possible. In other words, Jobs was indeed thinking ahead of the curve years before the smartphone market met the technology we now call eSIM, indicating that Jobs was indeed ahead of the game.
CDMA is popularly known as code-division multiple access or CDMA in the US. Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the US, uses CDMA technology.
The purported iPhone 15 series, the first iPhone without a SIM card slot, is expected to be revealed next year, according to rumours. In the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone xXR, eSIM support was introduced for the first time.
