Steve Jobs wanted the first iPhone without a SIM slot

May 13, 2022

Recently, rumours have been circulating that the next iPhones may not have a SIM card slot. In fact, a few years before the eSIM technology was released, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs didn't want iPhones to have SIM card slots.

According to media reports, the story was revealed by Tony Fadell, the former vice president of the iPod, at a special event at the Computer History Museum. Tony Fadell said that at the very early stage of iPhone development, from a design point of view, Steve Jobs did not want a Sim card slot in the devices. However, for the way the iPhone would connect to the telephony network of the provider without a SIM card, Steve Jobs used the example of Verizon's CDMA network. With CDMA, communication is established through a chip placed inside the device. The problem, however, for that time, was that CDMA networks were not widespread enough worldwide and had several disadvantages compared to GSM networks, which required the physical presence of the SIM.

So in order to change Steve Jobs' mind on this issue, Fadel says that he had to present him with accurate data on how widespread CDMA networks were at the time. Specifically, Fadel stated "When you are working with an opinionated person and need to change their mind, make sure you have the right evidence and a team that can back it up".

In his new book "Build" Fadell shares many other stories about his work at Apple and also reveals how Steve Jobs was completely opposed to the idea of making the iPod compatible with Windows computers.