Giesecke & Devrient , a Munich-based company who produced the world’s first SIM card, introduces the first nano-SIM. And if adopted, smaller SIM cards could mean thinner, sexier devices, or more room for useful things such as larger batteries.
The nano-SIM is a third smaller than the micro-SIM, which can be found inside Apple’s iPhone 4 / 4S and 60 percent smaller than the SIM cards found inside many of today’s GSM handsets. It’s also 15 percent thinner. The nano-SIM could find its way into the first mobile devices as early as next year.
In May Apple submitted a nano-SIM standard to the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). G&D says the organizations aims to standardize the nano-SIM by the end of the year, and an adapter will make the nano-SIM backwards compatible with older devices.
[via]