I'm slightly amazed at the awed coverage this is getting.
As others have pointed out, multi-IMSI SIM cards are nothing new, though points to Apple for getting the network carriers on board and sharing keys.
Getting a replacement SIM card is not a problem (certainly not in the UK). Most of the networks will happily post you out one for free and you can buy them for virtually no money in all phone shops, most supermarkets, market stalls... everywhere -even in this tiny backwater technophobic village where I work.
My worry is that this is the start of a path down to devices having embedded SIM cards that are not user replaceable, or even have no SIM at all and just use the secure storage module built into the chipset. This seems like a bad hole to be heading down as it would directly take choice and power away from the end user.
I'm on the other side completely, I'm a little awed at the lack of coverage, and consumer demand for this.
I don't think this is a technological thing, it's an industry structure thing. Why do we even need SIMs? Obviously we need some way of deciding which phone should ring wen a call goes through the either, but why does it need to be a piece of plastic.
A simple software replacement for a SIM would open a lot ip. You could buy a $10 plan when you're in a different country for a week. If one of those company offering cheap international call sims could just sell you a software sim that doesn't require you to switch over everything.
The ability to shop selectively using different providers for different calls would be a profound change to the ecosystem. It'd have a lot of knock on effects.
Apple are good at bulling through changes like this. This could be the start. iPad only is a little weak though. I hope their reliance on carrier subsidies to sell phones doesn't impact Apple's willingness to push on this.
The physical SIM card is secure, it stores your private keys for identifying you, and you can't extract those keys without damaging the SIM card. At least if the SIM cards are produced to spec. Can you make it equally secure in software, or can I borrow your phone and "easily" clone you ?
> Can you make it equally secure in software, or can I borrow your phone and "easily" clone you ?
I think we need a TPM-like[1] device for that to work. And I think an iPhone has one of those[2].
Perhaps that is the point: Apple convinced credit card companies to give them "card present"-prices for Touch ID purchases because a Touch ID-enabled device uses special hardware for key storage. Perhaps Apple has convinced mobile carriers to allow them to store private keys for cellular networks in the same place, because of its alleged security.
As others have pointed out, multi-IMSI SIM cards are nothing new, though points to Apple for getting the network carriers on board and sharing keys.
Getting a replacement SIM card is not a problem (certainly not in the UK). Most of the networks will happily post you out one for free and you can buy them for virtually no money in all phone shops, most supermarkets, market stalls... everywhere -even in this tiny backwater technophobic village where I work.
My worry is that this is the start of a path down to devices having embedded SIM cards that are not user replaceable, or even have no SIM at all and just use the secure storage module built into the chipset. This seems like a bad hole to be heading down as it would directly take choice and power away from the end user.