BlackBerry Slams Apple SIM as Enterprise Mobility Solution

Ipad air2

With every cellular iPad Air 2 (and iPad mini 3) comes a new Apple SIM — well, only in two countries: the US and the UK. If you were wondering what the Apple SIM is able to provide and what it cannot, Carsten Brinkschulte, Senior Vice-President for Enhanced Network Services at BlackBerry, is here to help — with a marketing twist, of course: to sell a new, recently incorporated service.

So, in case you didn’t know, the Apple SIM allows users to switch carriers — although AT&T locks its users after they subscribe to a data plan. This is the innovative part, but it is currently limited to a total of four carriers worldwide. It could be a good solution, but it will take some time.

Anyway, as mentioned, the Apple SIM only comes with the iPad Air 2, so it doesn’t support conventional mobile voice or SMS text messaging services. This is a no-brainer, since you don’t use your iPad to place a phone call; you use a phone to do that (or the iPad and the neat Continuity feature).

Here’s what he addresses as two shortfalls of Apple SIM: the ability to simultaneously manage multiple user identities on a phone, and the ability to manage telecom expenses.

[…] let’s say your employee brings in his iPhone from home and uses it half for business and half for personal. How do you differentiate between the two, besides requiring employees to file expense reports? If you want to avoid that laborious dance, then how do you reimburse your employees for work usage of their BYOD devices? This is a growing issue. Indeed, it’s already that companies are required to reimburse employees for corporate use of mobile devices (in particular for phone calls).

What the BlackBerry executive forgets to mention — while focusing on what the Apple SIM isn’t able to provide and continuously comparing it with a SIM card used in phones: Apple has no plans to release the Apple SIM for the iPhone in the near future.

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