Filed under: Accessories, Rumors
Proof that Apple will be launching a mobile service?
Take this with several grains of salt, but an anonymous tipster has sent the above photo to us of what appears to be an Apple branded SIM card (or an iTunes gift card modified to look like a SIM card). Our tipster says that Apple is about 85% ready to roll out a cell service using the moniker Mobile Me, which was recently trademarked. Apple will be using Cingular's network and Motorola's hardware.
We are told that the service is on track to launch sometime in February (or so we are told).
Update: I should point out that our source isn't claiming that the phone pictured is the fabled iPhone (it is a Samsung SGH x497). He claims that the SIM card is Apple's.
Update II: Our friends at Engadget also got the same tip that we did, so check out their take on it.
Another picture after the jump.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ryan Heise said 12:51AM on 1-31-2006
Bullll Shizzzzz!
Reply
David Anasco said 12:54AM on 1-31-2006
Is this the same source that issued blurry photos of Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster. I only ask because this photo is equally blurry. Did the abominable snow man take this photo with his camera phone?
Reply
Alan Gyssler said 12:56AM on 1-31-2006
For what it's worth the photo is of a Samsung SGH-x497... a cool phone, but hardly Apple-worthy.
Reply
iFelix said 12:56AM on 1-31-2006
Fake.
Reply
Jeff Clark said 12:56AM on 1-31-2006
Interesting... that would make sense obviously with the recently trademarked tagline...
Still not sure I believe it though (or that I would even buy it!)
Reply
Velda said 12:57AM on 1-31-2006
Yeah, i call Sheens. The apple is the same size as the newer fold over iTunes cards, and any SIM card must have its track number printed on it (Always on the back in my experience) which you can see there is none of on this one. Funny idea, total fake tho.
Reply
sid said 12:57AM on 1-31-2006
are they going to be relaesing their own phone or creating a whole new network? launching a whole network doesn't make any sense for apple
Reply
mars said 1:02AM on 1-31-2006
that sim card is so obviously a modified iTunes gift card. no question about it.
Reply
ben said 1:02AM on 1-31-2006
Cut up an iTunes card, stuff it in your SIM slot, and tada!
Reply
ben said 1:03AM on 1-31-2006
You're to quick for me #7!
Reply
Bill said 1:05AM on 1-31-2006
No way Apple would leave a clue that obvious in a secret project.
I'm not saying the mobile service won't happen, but that card is fake.
Reply
jonathan Wilson Jr. said 1:10AM on 1-31-2006
you've been had.
Reply
Scott McNulty said 1:14AM on 1-31-2006
I hope you all noticed that I did mention in the post that it probably is an iTunes music card... just making sure. :)
Reply
soundboy64 said 1:15AM on 1-31-2006
Dosen't TUAW think before it posts... You guys need to take some notes from Engadget... You're a disgrace to the mac community.
Reply
eccramer said 1:16AM on 1-31-2006
This seems VERY unlikely that this picture is real. First off, I've never seen a GSM sim that doesn't have numbers engraved into the back of it. These (I believe, take this from a non-expert hobbyist) are the ICCID (International Circuit Card Identfier) used for tracking. I very highly doubt that even in Apple's quest for elegent industrial design, they would get rid of these numbers. That alone makes me think that it's only a hacked up iTunes card. That being said, I hope I'm proved wrong. I would love to have a prepaid Apple/Moto handset to play around with.
Cheers
-E-
Reply
shrimp said 1:17AM on 1-31-2006
Right. What a bunch of crap. Apple would make such a better looking phone than that, even from the back. Not to mention this guy can't focus a camera. If he's going to really fake one, he'd gut an iPod and use that.
And gosh darnit, if it was the Apple phone that EVERYONE wants to see, why is there no pictures of the front?!
Reply
Montecore the Tiger said 1:18AM on 1-31-2006
If someone's going to go through the effort of doctoring a SIM card, you'd think he would spend a little time focusing the camera.
Reply
oliver said 1:44AM on 1-31-2006
They'd never put the logo up against the right edge like that. The bitten side of the apple needs look room.
Reply
jonnyx said 1:45AM on 1-31-2006
While I'm almost sure it is, as most of us suspect, a mangled iTunes gift card, the obvious giveaway (to me at least) isn't the lack of identifier numbers on the back of the SIM, but the fact that it's a SIM card we're looking at here. If Apple is indeed planning on rolling out an Apple-branded wireless service on the Cingular network, then it's a drastic change in the way Apple does business. Apple is not, by and large, a service or a content provider. They are primarily, a hardware and software vendor. If Apple was indeed going to enter the mobile handset game, it wouldn't be in their advantage to allow the customer to choose which phone they pop in their sim card for use in, now would it? That would be like selling songs on the iTunes music store that played on a myriad of portable music devices. It doesn't fit their business model whatsoever. If Apple is indeed entering the mobile handset market, I doubt it will allow the use of its service on handsets that are not Apple-branded. Apple's success is owed, in part, to the iconic nature of their hardware. We all know what iPod earbuds look like, we all know the white (and now black) and chrome of an iPod, we all know the aluminum finish of a powerbook. Allowing the customer to use Apple's service on a handset that might not exactly fit the current zeitgeist of the apple product portfolio doesn't sound very Apple-ish to me. If Apple is indeed going to get into the wireless handset game, it'll most likely be as a partnership with the aforementioned Motorola in order to reinforce and resell its two most popular brands: iPod and iTunes. Anything else, including even offering a prepaid service (which, sorry to say, doesn't exactly cater to Apple's target demographich grous), doesn't seem to add up.
Reply
Kyle Brown said 2:05AM on 1-31-2006
soundboy64....no one likes you. And i'd like to point out Engadget (since youre an obvious fanboy) does those stupid "Keepin' it real fake" posts almost evry day, so I really can't say I agree with you.
And although I'm sure this is fake, if you google itunes giftcard and look at a pic, the apple is bigger than that, so I'm not sure if thats the exact methods the guy used.
However, I say you keep his post in mind so we can make fun of him when apple DOES roll out their phones, and the sim cards look nothing like that.
Reply