Apple finally took wraps off its new iPad Air and iPad Pro during the “Let Loose” event on Tuesday. Among many things that came off as an upgrade or something that annoyed the creatives, there’s one notable change with new iPads that creates a lot of difference, for iPads and future iPhones.
The change is cellular versions of iPad Air, and iPad Pro are ditching the SIM tray in favor of the eSIM. Interestingly, Apple introduced eSIM support a while ago, but things took the right turn, with eSIM-only iPhone 14 models only in the U.S. However, the new iPad Air and iPad Pro seem to support eSIM-only, and that too, globally. Apple UK and Canada stores confirm that new iPad models are “not compatible with physical SIM cards.”
It might hint that Apple is getting serious about eSIM; beginning with iPads, future iPhones could be eSIM-only, too, globally. Meanwhile, Apple hasn’t disclosed the rationale behind its decision to ditch physical SIM trays. However, given how thin the new iPad Pro is — even thinner than the iPad Nano — it might be why Apple wanted the devices to be thinner or needed to keep them slim due to all the hardware upgrades and physical SIMs just eating up some extra space.
That said, although eSIMs are yet to reach out to many parts of the world, it’s keeping up the pace. Considering the iPhone 14 came off around two years ago, Cupertino may have given sufficient time for carriers to introduce eSIM. There were rumors last year about Apple ditching the physical SIM tray from European iPhone 15 models, but that didn’t happen. So, maybe it’s time we see Apple roll out eSIM-only iPhone 16 models later this year — globally or expand it to more countries.