Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced the new Apple SIM

This Thursday, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced the new iPad model, but that wasn’t the only announcement made that day by the technology giant. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced another product, which has been less advertised, the Apple SIM. The customers can buy a cellular version of the iPad Air 2, which will come with the Apple SIM card in it.

A SIM card in your phone allows you connection to a specific wireless network. A SIM card can typically connect with only one wireless carrier’s network – that of the company which manufactured the SIM. For example, you want to use the AT&T wireless network services, you buy the SIM card from the company, and if you want Verizon services, you buy Verizon’s SIM and put the SIM in your phone.

Being the innovator and leader in new technology, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has decided to change how the model works. The company has produced the Apple SIM which can connect to the networks of multiple wireless carriers. This means that you don’t have to buy a specific SIM in order to use a particular network. Thanks to this SIM, you have the liberty to connect to any wireless network at any time, without committing yourself in a contract with the wireless carrier.

Apple SIM will be preinstalled in iPad Air 2 which has WiFi as well as cellular modules. This SIM allows you to select any one from several short-term plans of selected wireless carriers of the U.S. and the U.K. Whenever you feel like it, you can select any one plan for a short time, without having to make any permanent or long-term commitments to the wireless carriers. This could be an attractive offer for those who travel a lot; they can select any one of the local networks abroad.

Since the Apple SIM is currently dispatched in an iPad, therefore, the impact on the wireless carriers will not be so great. Also, many people prefer buying the Wi-Fi version of the iPad and the tablet does not receive as much subsidy as a phone does in a two-year contract.

To take an example, an iPhone 6 with AT&T SIM can be bought cheapest at $199 in a two-year contract. Meanwhile, the full price is $649. As for the iPad, AT&T only grants a subsidy of $100 as a part of the two-year contract.

However, if the company decided to deploy the Apple SIM in the iPhones, then the wireless carriers would be affected significantly. Customers may like the idea of buying the iPhone at full price to avoid the later costs of data connections and switching between different wireless connections whenever they introduce new appealing plans. Now the carriers will have to offer competitive advantages to their customers to keep them in hand. There is another way to look at this thing: maybe in the future, you buy all your phones with the Apple SIM while the carriers compete to give you better plans on a regular basis so you would select their network at present. Who knows what this revolution in SIM cards will bring?