AT&T designs micro SIM to work in full-size phone

AT&T's micro SIM cards rolling out in advance of tomorrow's 3G-capable iPads may be designed to help users switch to the next iPhone or other future smartphones, those who received the cards early have said today. The cutout actually puts the SIM in a full-size format and leaves the micro SIM size as a subset of that card. As such, a user could use the regular SIM layout and then punch out the micro SIM if they either need an iPad or another device that needs the smaller standard.

The 2010 iPhone could be AT&T's first micro SIM phone and uses the tiny card to reduce the footprint of the slot in the hardware. It may be essential to the phone's known front-facing camera and other extras that could crowd out the top of the phone, such as a rumored but unconfirmed noise reduction microphone.

Most GSM and HSPA phones should use the card standard in the future, but AT&T's approach may temporarily leave some customers unable to go to other phones without also getting a new SIM.

By Electronista Staff