One SIM. Many options.

[silvarios]

Bimwad wrote:
From Apple's point of view, they can dispense with the complexity of carrying SKUs for each carrier, and ship just one model for each capacity and color, instead of three. The Air 2 hardware is universal, and unlocked. just as it was for the Air.

This doesn't make any sense. Unlocked devices are traditionally sold SIM free. The different SKUs generally reflect color, capacity, supported radio frequencies, etc. If the new iPad is a universal device, why not simply sell one model and have the consumer pick up the necessary SIM?

Bimwad wrote: Since cellular iPads aren't sold primarily as subsidized devices, Apple can ignore the carriers and do what they like, such as selling all of the hardware unlocked, and eliminating the removable SIM, just as they wanted to do with the iPhone. They haven't done the latter, yet, but there's little reason to think they Apple would purposely do that to limit the user's choices.

What's the consumer benefit here. As a SIM user for over a decade, this "improvement" is lost on me. Especially since not all carriers are participants in the program. Notice there are no MVNOs or smaller carriers listed, in addition to the absence of Verizon.