The iPhone 17 upcoming phone series will debut next Tuesday 9 September and more details are emerging courtesy of leaks and other rumors.
Today’s information suggests the iPhone 17 will drop physical SIM support in more locations, primarily in Europe.
Apple’s support of eSIM in the US for iPhone 14, 15 and 16 has meant it’s only been a matter of time before this has rolled out more widely, with the only surprise being that it’s taken longer than I thought to spread across the globe. Google has only just moved the Pixel series across to eSIM with the Pixel 10 but again this is only in the US for now.
eSIMs haven’t really taken off in a big way, but they have been increasingly used for secondary SIMs. The GSMA industry body predicts there will be 6.7 billion eSIM smartphones in use by 2030 and it’s clear that this is the way things are heading, with many networks now more widely supporting the format.
MacRumors suggests that Apple Authorized Resellers in the EU are “required to complete a training course related to iPhones with eSIM support by Friday, September 5”. While MacRumors cites an EU source, the training could be rolling out more widely than that; it’s suggested the training information is available in the Apple SEED app which is used globally at both Apple Authorized Resellers and official Apple Stores.
It has seemed a given for a while that the slimmed-down iPhone 17 Air will have eSIM support only – after all, the physical SIM slot takes up valuable real estate inside a phone and a slimmer device would need that space. Just as the 2017 iPhone X ditched the home button in favour of the notch and so introducing the first full-screen design, so the 17 Air would seem to be paving the way for a new generation of SIM slot-less iPhones. It’s also heavily rumoured that the 17 Air will go portless and ditch the USB-C port too, possibly with a USB-C to MagSafe wireless charger in the box.
However, while European iPhone 17s may well go all-out for eSIM, there will almost certainly still be some models with SIM slots for markets like India and China.
Not sure if your network supports eSIM? Apple has a support document for that.
