Steve, I was addressing components; you are addressing consumer devices.
Increasing component density translates into increasing performance,
reliability or capacity/capability (depending on what the engineers
focus on). It allows things that were stationary to become faster,
mobile or just cheaper.
The user interface is an entirely different issue. You are addressing
that issue.
The confusion here is that the size of interchangeable SIM cards is a
significant part of both the user interface as well as device hardware.
In the US you might not notice, but elsewhere it's important to have an
easy way to switch networks quickly without losing SIM cards.
This is where the argument about component size vs. device size is
faulty. Perhaps you don't switch SIM cards, but plenty of other people
do--enough to make the size of the new card important.
The real issue is bad design. The chip can be smaller and contain more
data, while the card it's attached to should be easier to handle, until
a better way of quickly switching networks is developed. The new higher
density card could be designed to "talk" to the new network and
negotiate a switch digitally rather than by switching cards. Then a new
billing method will be needed to replace purchasing a new SIM at each
location. You buy things on the Internet, sometimes on your phone, why
not prepay the use of a new network that way?
Mark, have you ever needed to switch networks at frontiers?
Betty
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