Apple’s first SIM just had its first arrow slung at it: AT&T has locked down the company’s new Apple-Made SIM cards in its newest line of iPads.
Typically SIMs, the teensy ID cards that allow a device to be used on a cellular network, come from the carriers. But Apple now makes its own, presumably so that the devices can be used on any network.
However, customers purchasing the iPad Air 2 or the iPad mini 3, the first to carry these SIM cards, won’t have that freedom if they buy from AT&T. The carrier has locked the Apple SIM down, effectively shackling them to its network. Macrumors was the first to report this news, and an Apple support document was recently updated, confirming it.
AT&T did not immediately respond to ReadWrite’s request for comment.
Photo by MIKI Yoshihito