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Giesecke & Devrient, a German technology development company, has announced the construction of a new generation of SIM cards, the size of 2/3 compared to the current micro-SIM, the Nano-SIM. The invention was inspired by the needs of Apple, which has long claimed to want to implement a new type of SIM card, smaller than the already small Micro-SIM, to install on iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.
The new Nano-SIM could be applied since the new smartphones next year. The type of relationship between Apple and Giesecke & Devrient is not clear, and it is not specified if the first generation of these SIM cards will appear on Apple, or if there is no relationship between developments and first appeared on the market. The new technology renews the field of SIM, still remained within the circuit to those of 20 years ago. This is due to the fact that the micro-SIM, although smaller, have the same size of standard SIM circuit, the only difference being the space occupied by the plastic support of the SIM. In this case, however, the circuit is to be changed, thus making it impossible to retrofit a phone to receive a Nano-SIM. The Nano-SIM is 30% smaller than the Micro-SIM and 15% thinner. With a total reduction of 60%, smartphones and tablet manufacturers are prepared to have them a few inches more to expand the capabilities of the device, being able to leverage for increased user memory, or to build larger battery, or even make the mobile device simply more subtle.
The testing of Nano-SIM is happening on different network operators, to test its operation under conditions of each type of protocol currently in circulation. The standardization of this new technology in the reference body responsible for telecommunications in Europe, ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute), should arrive late this year. In May last year, Apple’s inspiration for the project, had already submitted to ETSI for an original project that concerns a new generation of SIM cards, but apparently the project had not received any feedback. Now Apple will try again, from the German company, and this time it seems that the results have arrived. The new Nano-SIM will be compatible with older models of smartphones and tablets through an adapter, and will be officially presented on November 15.
