A micro-SIM. The nano-SIM is 30 percent smaller.
SIM cards, those tiny slivers of silicon that carry your identity inside a cell phone or connected device, are once again poised to get smaller as Giesecke & Devrient introduces the nano-SIM. And if adopted, smaller SIM cards could mean thinner, sexier devices or more room for useful things such as larger batteries.
The nano-SIM is a third smaller than the micro-SIM, which can be found inside Apple’s iPhone 4 and 4S, and it is 60 percent smaller than the SIM cards found inside many of today’s GSM handsets. It’s also 15 percent thinner. The nano-SIM could find its way into the first mobile devices as early as next year.
G&D, a Munich-based company, produced the world’s first SIM card, and like Apple, it is seeking to shrink the form factor as far as it will go. In May Apple submitted a nano-SIM standard to the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). G&D says the organization aims to standardize the nano-SIM by the end of the year, and an adapter will make the nano-SIM backwards-compatible with older devices.
Carriers seem amenable to the idea, so it could soon become that much easier to lose your SIM card. Happy hunting.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
- Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
- Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
- What Amazon’s new Kindle line means for Apple, Netflix and online media
