New 9.7-inch iPad Pro has embedded Apple SIM, offering users choice of more carriers, excluding Verizon and AT&T, which require separate SIM card
Ina Fried / Re/code :
Context & Ripple Effects
The embedded Apple SIM on the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro is the second act of a strategy Apple began earlier: last year, third-party provider GigSky built international data plans on top of the Apple SIM across 90+ countries, proving the programmable SIM could serve buyers other than the big US carriers.
The catch in today's announcement is who opted out — Verizon and AT&T require a separate physical SIM, so 'choice of more carriers' is real but partial. Six years later the arc completes when Apple makes eSIM the only option on US iPhone 14 models, and small carriers like Mint Mobile and Boost Mobile hail it as democratizing connectivity.
First-order effects
- Buyers of the 9.7-inch iPad Pro can switch between participating carriers without touching a SIM tray, while anyone whose preferred network is Verizon or AT&T must insert a separate physical card — those two carriers retain control of activation on their networks.
Second-order effects
- Smaller and prepaid carriers become the natural beneficiaries of an open embedded SIM, since easy switching favors them over contract-locked incumbents; GigSky's travel-data model shows the same slot also opens a channel for non-carrier data sellers.
- Verizon and AT&T's refusal pushes them into a two-tier position — full-featured service only for customers willing to use their own SIM — which cedes the switch-happy segment of tablet buyers to rivals.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the removable carrier-issued SIM gives way to hardware-embedded, software-provisioned connectivity controlled by the device maker — the endpoint Apple reaches in 2022 with the eSIM-only iPhone 14 in the US, which small carriers credit with making network-switching easier (their response here).
- Carrier power then migrates from controlling the physical card to competing on plan price and coverage, since the switching friction that once protected incumbents sits in software Apple controls.
The trend: Cellular identity is migrating from a removable, carrier-issued SIM card to an embedded, software-provisioned SIM controlled by the device maker, steadily lowering the cost for users to switch networks.