Things I learned today about selling subsidized iPhones

[Ns1]

So basically you guys are suggesting that for Verizon and ATT phones, they insert SIM cards in China during production (with severe issues if product volume needs to be re-allocated to another carrier), or that these two carriers go to the trouble of re-shrink wrapping all their phones?

They must insert the SIM in china before shrink wrapping. Not sure why you are so surprised.

The resolution was easy enough, walked into an ATT Store and they gave me a new sim. It's possible I didn't need a new one, but after explaining my situation we both agreed a new sim would be safer.

 

[JAG87]

I was assuming my phone came from Verizon, not directly from China. I believe it was in a Verizon box when I received it so I was guessing Verizon put the card in there. I didn't even know I had a SIM in there until I needed to exchange the phone for a hardware defect.

But was it shrink wrapped when you got it?

They must insert the SIM in china before shrink wrapping. Not sure why you are so surprised.

Because it doesn't make sense from a production point of view, at least I've never seen a pre-inserted SIM in Canada.

 

[Ns1]

Because it doesn't make sense from a production point of view, at least I've never seen a pre-inserted SIM in Canada.

:shrugs:

I can tell you in my case it came direct from China and no changing of the SIM was necessary.

maybe they do things differently up there. what are you supposed to do if you don't have a SIM card that fits the new iPhone?

 

[ControlD]

But was it shrink wrapped when you got it?

.

To be completely honest I have no idea. Memory is not like fine wine ... it doesn't get better with age! I just know when I got my replacement phone it booted up with a SIM error. I was a bit surprised because I didn't know iPhone 4S had SIMs in them. The funny part was, when I took it to the Verizon store, all three people in there and one phone support person all said "I didn't know these had SIMs in them".

Long story short, the 4S only needed the SIM for international use which is good because we never could get the stupid phone to activate with a SIM card in it. It was my third attempt at getting a 4S that actually worked so I just decided to live with it.

 

[Ns1]

@JAG87

Through google searches, it appears that if you buy a carrier locked phone in the US it will come with a SIM card; if you buy an unlocked phone it will not.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130503070539AAhmPRb
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1640545
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20131114092027AA5qo71

 

[JAG87]

@JAG87

Through google searches, it appears that if you buy a carrier locked phone in the US it will come with a SIM card; if you buy an unlocked phone it will not.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130503070539AAhmPRb
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1640545
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20131114092027AA5qo71

Yes but none of that says that it's already inside the tray and in the sealed iPhone box.

Anytime you buy a phone from a carrier you get a SIM here too, whether you buy it over the counter (sales person does it for you), or you have it shipped to you (Telus dealers open the package an pre-install for you, Rogers ships from a warehouse so they tape the full card to the device's shrink wrap). The point is not that it comes with a SIM, it's whether it comes with a SIM already in the phone inside the shrink wrap. That I find hard to believe.

Also on the iPhone 5S product page:

What’s in the box

iPhone 5s with iOS 7
Apple EarPods with Remote and Mic
Lightning to USB Cable
5W USB Power Adapter

Where's the SIM?

 

[Ns1]

Yes but none of that says that it's already inside the tray and in the sealed iPhone box.

I'm not sure why you keep trying to argue this point when I can personally confirm that the other iPhone5s I received already came with a SIM card inside of it, unless you believe that I'm lying or FOS.

Unless there's an ATT HQ in China or at the FedEx stop the SIM was installed in China before being shipped over here.

Van Nuys, CA, United States 10/04/2013 5:17 P.M. Delivered
10/04/2013 5:41 A.M. Out For Delivery
10/04/2013 4:50 A.M. Arrival Scan
Los Angeles, CA, United States 10/04/2013 4:39 A.M. Departure Scan
Los Angeles, CA, United States 10/03/2013 5:32 P.M. Arrival Scan
Louisville, KY, United States 10/03/2013 4:04 P.M. Departure Scan
10/03/2013 12:28 P.M. Import Scan
10/03/2013 1:07 A.M. Arrival Scan
Anchorage, AK, United States 10/02/2013 2:51 P.M. Departure Scan
10/02/2013 1:22 P.M. Arrival Scan
Incheon, Korea, Republic of 10/02/2013 10:03 P.M. Departure Scan
Incheon, Korea, Republic of 10/01/2013 8:21 P.M. Arrival Scan
ZhengZhou, China 10/01/2013 4:46 P.M. Departure Scan
ZhengZhou, China 09/30/2013 4:11 P.M. Origin Scan
China 09/30/2013 6:25 A.M. Order Processed: Ready for UPS

 

[JAG87]

I'm not sure why you keep trying to argue this point when I can personally confirm that the other iPhone5s I received already came with a SIM card inside of it, unless you believe that I'm lying or FOS.

Unless there's an ATT HQ in China or at the FedEx stop the SIM was installed in China before being shipped over here.

Fine, then we can agree that ATT, Verizon and Sprint phones all come with a pre-installed SIM. It's not surprising really considering the US is the only place that Apple doesn't sell unlocked phones at launch. It's just weird because it's not like this in any other place in the world.

 

[Rakehellion]

So basically you guys are suggesting that for Verizon and ATT phones, they insert SIM cards in China during production

Yes. Just like they insert all of the other parts during assembly. Why is this hard to believe?

 

[Rakehellion]

Because it doesn't make sense from a production point of view

Why?

 

[bearxor]

Yes but none of that says that it's already inside the tray and in the sealed iPhone box.

Anytime you buy a phone from a carrier you get a SIM here too, whether you buy it over the counter (sales person does it for you), or you have it shipped to you (Telus dealers open the package an pre-install for you, Rogers ships from a warehouse so they tape the full card to the device's shrink wrap). The point is not that it comes with a SIM, it's whether it comes with a SIM already in the phone inside the shrink wrap. That I find hard to believe.

Also on the iPhone 5S product page:

What’s in the box

iPhone 5s with iOS 7
Apple EarPods with Remote and Mic
Lightning to USB Cable
5W USB Power Adapter

Where's the SIM?

Every iPhone tied to a carrier, since the first release (and barring the CDMA iPhone 4, which didn't have a SIM card slot), has come with the SIM preinstalled.

This actually made sense for a few reasons. The first and foremost being easy activation. These are designed to be shipped to the customer, opened up and be running in just a couple of minutes and make it as simple as possible. Having a new SIM does just that.

In the case of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5, which used pretty new sim card formats, it made sure that the customer didn't have to rely on the store to have the right SIM card in stock.

 

[JAG87]

Why?

You can't figure this out? For one you need dedicated machinery just to insert SIMs for the batches being shipped to the US. The rest of the world (AFAIK) gets sealed phones without any SIMs in them. Two, it makes it harder to re-allocate stock if supply outpaces demand from a particular carrier.

I am pretty sure that this comes down to the fact that unlocked phones are not sold in the US until much later after launch. Here in Canada, I have never seen a sealed iPhone (or any other phone for that matter) with a SIM pre-installed from the factory.

 

[Ns1]

You can't figure this out? For one you need dedicated machinery just to insert SIMs for the batches being shipped to the US. The rest of the world (AFAIK) gets sealed phones without any SIMs in them. Two, it makes it harder to re-allocate stock if supply outpaces demand from a particular carrier.

re1: that doesn't sound difficult compared to the alternative of NOT supplying a sim card
re2: I would imagine they got some JIT manufacturing processes to resolve this issue.

 

[JAG87]

re1: that doesn't sound difficult compared to the alternative of NOT supplying a sim card
re2: I would imagine they got some JIT manufacturing processes to resolve this issue.

Yes, I'm pretty sure this comes down to the fact that the US (probably because it's the biggest market for the iPhone) is the only place you can buy subsidized iPhones on apple.com (and you cannot buy unlocked iPhones at launch). So I apologize for not being aware of how things worked south of the border. But just so you know, it's not like that anywhere else in the world. iPhones do not come with pre-installed SIMs. If you buy the phone from the carrier (through the carrier's website), they include a SIM in your package.

 

[Rakehellion]

You can't figure this out? For one you need dedicated machinery just to insert SIMs for the batches being shipped to the US.

There's dedicated machinery for the hundreds of other parts in the device too. Did you just finish engineering school?

 

[Wreckem]

All ATT iphones(atleast, the 5, 5c and 5s), directly from Apple or directly from ATT come with the nano sim preinstalled. I am also pretty sure this also applies to ATT iphones bought through third parties like Best Buy, etc. Not sure if this started with the 5 or not, as I cannot for sure remember if the sim was preinstalled on my Iphone 4 when I got it at launch. I want to say no but could be misremembering. I know for a fact it was preinstalled on the 5, and clearly on ATTs website the same is true for 5c and 5s.

 

[nickbits]

My unlocked 5s came with a tmobile sim. It shipped straight from china.