14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is hard at work with the release of the next flavor of its popular iPhone, which should be smaller and thinner than the currently available model, it seems.
The company has been struggling to standardize a new SIM card, one that is much smaller than the existing ones, and which would result in the inclusion of smaller card readers inside devices.
Helped by various mobile phone carriers around the world, Apple already sent the standardization request to the required organizations, and it seems that things are looking good for the company.
In a recent interview with All Things Digital, Stephane Richard, France Telecom CEO stated that the inclusion of these smaller SIM cards with Apple's next iPhone model would result in the release of a thinner device.
“As you probably know, Apple has been working for years on reducing the size of SIM cards because they need space in the phone. They even thought about a device without any SIM card, that is what is known as the e-SIM project,” he stated.
“I understood that the next iPhone would be smaller and thinner and they are definitely seeking some space.”
Apparently, wireless carriers also agree that the idea of having smaller SIM cards inside devices is a great one. However, they would not like to have handsets without a SIM card inside, since it would make the communication between the carrier and users very difficult.
“We are going to work with them in order to standardize a new format of SIM which takes into account our needs with security and authentication and also is compatible with their wishes in terms of size,” Stephane Richard continued.
“This is good evidence we can work properly with Apple people, Apple teams. In that particular case, we have been able to find, I think, a good answer which is good for everyone.”
No other details on what the next iPhone would be all about were unveiled, but some of the previous rumors on the matter suggested that it would arrive only next year, with LTE on board, and with a curved display.
For 2011, Apple would have in store another flavor of the device, dubbed iPhone 4S, which would lack 4G connectivity, but would add support for the airwaves of more carriers, such as Sprint at T-Mobile.