Rumors are starting to pile up around a possible abandonment of physical SIMs in future iPhones. In December, sources whose reliability remains to be proven suggested the disappearance of the SIM card drawer in the iPhone 15, or even from the iPhone 14. An analyst is tempering all this today.

According to Emma Mohr-McClune of GlobalData, Apple will not completely get rid of plastic SIMs in the iPhone 14. What the manufacturer could do is market eSIM-only versions of the iPhone 14 in its stores as well as in some partners.

If the four French operators offer eSIMs (Free was the last to do so last year), this is not yet the case for all their counterparts around the world. Not to mention the special case of China, where Apple is still forced to ship iPhones without an eSIM — they have a dual nano-SIM drawer.

Nevertheless, Apple is increasingly in a position to offer, not to say impose, eSIM-only iPhones. If it is not exhaustive, the list of eSIM compatible operators is still long, and the iPhone 13 can manage two eSIMs at the same time. Confiscating the nano-SIM would therefore not remove dual-SIM capability from future iPhones.