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Apple revises nano-SIM design to address Nokia concerns
SIM card maker Giesecke & Devrient attended CTIA and talked to The Verge about the nano-SIM it's designing using Apple's proposed standard. G&D said Apple listened to Nokia's complaint about its design and modified the shape so it would be almost impossible to jam it accidentally into a micro-SIM slot. With Nokia's major gripe now alleviated, Apple's design has a good chance of being approved when the European Telecommunications Standards Institute votes on the standard. According to the report, voting is back underway and could be decided as soon as this week.
Apple ready to license its nano-SIM design for free, on one not-so-nano condition
If you hadn't heard, there are two rival nano-SIM designs going around, but there's only room for one of them to become an industry standard. Nokia, Motorola and RIM sit together in one corner, and we've already covered why they think their design is superior. On the other side of the ring sits Apple, which has its own tactics for bringing ETSI, the European Telecoms Standards Institute, over to its way of thinking. According to a legal letter shown to FOSS Patents by a "perfectly reliable source", Apple is prepared to license its nano-SIM design royalty-free, so long as it becomes the new standard and all other nano-SIM patent holders reciprocate the gesture. Such a gambit may not appease Cupertino's rivals and it certainly doesn't address their technical concerns, but it might show that Apple isn't looking to profit out of this particular format war and is simply continuing its quest for greater clarity on FRAND licensing terms. Then again, it could all just be lawyer-speak.Update: Nokia has responded to Apple's move, making it clear that it still prefers its own design. Mark Durrant, director of communications for the Finnish firm said, "the principal issues remain the technical superiority of our proposal and that Apple's proposal does not meet the pre-agreed ETSI requirements... Apple's proposal for royalty free licensing seems no more than an attempt to devalue the intellectual property of others." We expect this to go back and forth a few more times.
Apple asks European standards body for more transparency on FRAND licensing
With its legal battles intensifying across the globe, Apple has appealed to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, calling for a more consistent approach to the licensing of essential patents. In a letter dated November 11th, Cupertino outlined its issues with today's licensing system, with a particular emphasis on patents licensed on a FRAND basis. According to Apple, the entire telecom industry lacks a "consistent policy" on FRAND licensing -- an issue that, not surprisingly, is especially critical to the company's ongoing court cases in Europe. Because of this inconsistency, Apple argues, patent royalty rates are often negotiated arbitrarily and in secret, resulting in abnormally high rates and, of course, plenty of lawsuits. "It is apparent that our industry suffers from a lack of consistent adherence to FRAND principles in the cellular standards arena," wrote Bruce Watrous, Apple's head of intellectual property. The company went on to suggest an alternative solution, calling for ETSI to establish "appropriate" FRAND licensing rates for companies to follow, adding that these rates should be limited to an industry-wide standard, and that companies should be barred from using industry-essential patents to force injunctions.
nano-SIM's flimsy form factor poised to frustrate fleshy-fingered phone users forever
Most of us feel the average Subscriber Identity Module card is too small for our sausage-like digits, device makers loathe giving up that amount of space to an oversized plastic rectangle. Efforts to slim it down have been underway for ages, which is why some smartphones come with a micro-SIM, the easy-to-hold outer rim chopped off to make space for bigger batteries inside your device and to ensure your greasy fingers get all over the metal contacts. Sadly, it's time to wave goodbye to the idea of operating a smartphone without electron-tweezers, thanks to Giesecke & Devrient's new nano-SIM. The German fathers of the technology have shrunk the whole operation down to a 12mm x 9mm rectangle that's a third smaller than the micro-SIM and 60 percent smaller than the classic model: and as if to show off, it's also 15 percent thinner, too. The company will be exhibiting the chips tomorrow in Paris and has already sent initial samples to smartphone makers, expecting ETSI to sign off on the standard by the end of 2011 -- assuming they've been able to pick theirs off the table.
