SIM (card) City: Another Memory Card Format (Sort of)

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2006-02-15T191835Z_01_L15522377_RTRUKOC_0_US-TELECOMS-ORANGE-SIMCARDS.xml' target='_blank'>http://today.reuters.com/news/newsa...GE-SIMCARDS.xml</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Mobile phone group Orange plans to launch SIM cards this year that can store up to 8,000 times the data stored on present day SIMs, potentially helping to transform a traditional phone into a multimedia player. The . . . 512-megabyte "MegaSIM" cards could store up to 130 songs, three movies or 80 games, compared with existing 64 kilobyte cards which could at best store a phone book and some text messages. "The SIM will... remove the need for clumsy additional card slots that are required today to provide storage in multimedia handsets," the firm said in a statement."</i><br /><br />So, if it looks like another memory format and stores data like a proprietary memory format....., then I suppose that we will just have to upgrade our card readers again. This certainly is one card format you won't be swapping with your camera, media player computer and PDA regularly. Once this card goes in a device, it will be staying there! The <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/16/megasim_launch/">Register reports</a> that the speed of these devices is a zippy 20 megabits/s, the potential capacity is greater than 2Gb and that the SIM works just fine in a 'normal' phone (though obviously without the extra capacity or speed). There's no word yet on cost, compatibility with current devices or whether anyone else is going to introduce these devices on their networks. As a SIM is tied to a particular mobile operator, using a MegaSIM could seriously lock you into one provider's clutches. (Unless the operators plan to give these away for free). So, do you guys see this as a super-SIM or as a sub-standard memory format?

[peterjam28]

This will be nice if it allows proper address books on the SIM (multiple numbers per name)
Maybe keeping ringtones and profile stuff would be useful.
I have to go through faff every time i change phone coz contacts are stored on the phone rather than the SIM/

[gibson042]

Eh. Any device capable of media playback will have a dedicated memory card slot, making it redundant to store such data on a SIM. Don't get me wrong; I like the idea of having more available memory, but linking large amounts of it to a service provider and telephone number seems ridiculous. I wouldn't pay extra to upgrade to a MegaSIM, and it certainly wouldn't entice me to switch operators. There seems to be little economic incentive for this.

[gt24]

I can just see some carrier come out with an MP3 service or alike, allowing you to get some neat services on your phone, but require that any files downloaded with that service go to your MegaSIM. It is a benefit, they will say, because you won't loose your files (your SIM goes to other phones) however you are sorta locked to them... and you cannot get those files out of the phone because they will be in some even more locked down DRM file format...

However, if Pocket PC becomes primarily phone devices, then this MegaSIM could mean music services for Pocket PC, once again locked to carrier...

So, yeah, it might be nice for the carriers, but not for us...