Last year GigSky announced that it would offer iPad cellular data plans in around 90 countries by leveraging Apple’s new carrier-agnostic Apple SIM now included in the device. Today the company is expanding availability of those plans to 140+ countries, giving more iPad users the ability to purchase data plans through GigSky without going through a local carrier.
During their March event this week, Apple announced a new 9.7-inch iPad Pro. While on the surface it looks like a miniaturization of it’s larger predecessor, the new iPad includes some newer features as well. One of these features that didn’t get any time on stage was the inclusion of an embedded Apple SIM in this new iPad Pro.
The Apple SIM, which allows iPad owners to use a range of carriers at home and overseas without having to swap SIMs, is now available in Japan. Apple has added Japanese carrier au to its list of supported networks.
Apple first offered its own SIM in the U.S. and UK, later adding Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey to the list.
Although you can only get the SIM in 13 countries, you can use it in more than 90 thanks to the inclusion of GigSky back in June.
Apple today denied a recent report that the company is in the process of testing out its own Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) services, a sign it could be laying the groundwork to offer its own wireless services for its devices. Apple has officially issued a statement on the story from Business Insider, saying it’s not planning or discussing an MVNO cellular service:
Expand
Expanding
Close
With the launch of the latest iPad model, Apple debuted its own SIM card that allows users to choose between three different cell carriers and change service on-the-fly. Rumors that such a card could be included in the next iPhone appeared almost immediately, and now a new report confirms that Apple is in talks with cellular carriers and other handset makers to bring this type of system to all cell phones.
AppleInsider is reporting that it has received information about the next-generation iPhone hardware. It claims that the next iPhone, generally expected to be a ‘6s’ style device (meaning that it will feature internal changes but the external chassis will be the same as the 6), will feature 2 GB of RAM, just like the A8X in the iPad Air 2. It also says that Apple is considering inclusion of an Apple SIM as standard, just like the cellular iPads.
For some context, the iPhone first shipped with 1 GB of RAM in 2012 with the iPhone 5. This means a RAM jump is now about ‘due’, with many expecting an increase last year to help accommodate the increased asset size required by the Retina HD iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Although 9to5Mac cannot directly backup the claims, the advancements feel like an obvious progression for the device given Apple’s inclusion of 2 GB of RAM in the iPad Air 2 as well as the introduction of the Apple SIM last fall. Note also that Apple has doubled RAM every few generations of iPhone, and given that many were expecting an increase last cycle, it is not surprising to see it rumored for the ‘iPhone 6s’, which is likely to feature new and improved internals like other ‘tock’ years.
Image via Re/code
T-Mobile CEO John Legere said tonight during a talk at Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference that demand for the iPhone 6 Plus was higher than was originally anticipated, with the larger model grabbing about 45% of orders. He said initial expectations put demand somewhere in the ballpark of 20-25% (Video below)
This unexpected level of demand may have contributed to the supply problems many customers have experienced, and Legere says it will still be a while before iPhone shipments are able to meet demand again.
Legere also said that only about 100,000 people took advantage of the carrier’s ‘test drive’ offer that allowed customers to use an iPhone on T-Mobile for a week completely free of charge. He took a chance to reiterate the points made during his recent Apple SIM tweet storm as well.
[tweet https://twitter.com/JohnLegere/status/526089456898809856]
There’s been some confusion about the new Apple SIM that is included in many of the new iPad Air 2 and Mini 3s. On Friday it was revealed that AT&T would lock the Apple SIM effectively making the Apple SIM an AT&T SIM and rendering the whole excercise pointless. T-Mobile and Sprint, on the other hand, will let you trade back and forth between their networks at will and we found out this morning that makes buying roaming data less expensive when travelling.
But there is a lot of confusion to the “why’s and how’s” of the Apple that T-Mobile’s CEO breaks down below. Note that Legere just pulled off a coup becoming the only US wireless carrier to allow Apple’s iPhone to use Wifi calling and clearly Apple and T-Mobile like what each other are doing.
The whole “tweetstorm” is below.
Expand
Expanding
Close
An internal Apple sales document clarifies the possible uses of the Apple SIM, which is included in cellular versions of the iPad mini 3 and Apple iPad Air 2. The Apple SIM launched with several supported carriers: T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint in the US and EE in the UK.
Given that EE is the only available carrier in the UK, the purpose of its existence in the region was unclear. However, this document confirms that customers travelling between the US and the UK can benefit from the deal.
Since the cellular model of the iPad isn’t subject to typically two-year contracts, users have always been free to start or end pre-paid cellular data plans at will from the device’s settings. In the past, however, this meant buying your iPad from one carrier and being locked into that carrier’s plans.
With tomorrow’s launch of the iPad Air 2, however, Apple is changing that by including its own SIM card with each unit. This SIM card will work with multiple US carriers—AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile—and allow users to not only enable or disable a cellular plan as they see fit, but also switch back and forth between carriers to find the plan that works best for them at the moment.