Until recently, SIM physical cards were part of everyday life in smartphones. Now, however, eSIM technology is used more and more often, although not all operators support this technology so far. However, some manufacturers, such as Apple, bashfully mention the possibility of creating a smartphone completely devoid of a SIM card slot. Such a telephone would only use electronic SIM cards. The iSIM technology officially presented by Qualcomm may be the answer to the eSIM technology.
The use of iSIM cards is to increase the space to be used in the phone by directly embedding SIM cards in processors of smartphones. To develop this technology, Qualcomm used cooperation with two large companies - Vodafone and Thales. The operation of the iSIM card was tested on a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G phone using the Thales iSIM card. According to the manufacturers' announcements, the new type of SIM card is to allow the use of multiple accounts on one device. The manufacturer also mentions the ecological aspect of the developed solution due to the saving of plastic, which is currently used to create SIM cards. So far, Qualcomm has not indicated when we can expect the iSIM solution implemented for phones generally available on the market.