Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Apple is bringing its newest flagship, the ultra-slim iPhone Air, to India fresh from its global unveiling just days ago. At just 5.6mm thick, Apple says the Air is “so impossibly thin and light that it nearly disappears in your hand.”
But the buzz comes with a twist: the Air supports only digital eSIMs and has no physical SIM card slot. That marks a radical shift in a country where eSIM adoption is still in its infancy. Only 10 to 15 per cent of phones currently sold in India support the use of eSIMS but the percentage of users who have made the switch from physical SIMs to embedded eSIMs is much lower.
CCS Insight’s Kester Mann said that Apple’s move toward eSIM-only “fits in with the vision of a slimmer, easier-to-use phone.” Inside the 5.6-mm (0.22-inch) frame, slimmer even than Samsung’s 5.8 mm S25 Edge, the iPhone Air’s circuitry has been compressed to the size of a few postage stamps, and promises “all-day battery life.”
Analysts believe Apple’s move will help serve as a catalyst for eSIM adoption in India.
Tim Cook opened the product launch at Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters with a Steve Jobs quote: "For us, design goes beyond just how something looks or feels. Design is also how it works."
Pre-bookings are already open through Apple’s website and authorised dealers, with availability after September 19. The iPhone Air borrows its name and design ethos from the first ultra-thin MacBook Air laptop introduced by Jobs 17 years ago.
Globally, forecasts suggest eSIM adoption is accelerating. According to Roland Berger, global smartphone connections made via eSIM are expected to hit 75 per cent by 2030, up from 10 per cent in 2023. GSMA Intelligence also projects around 2.4 billion eSIM connections worldwide by 2025, or roughly one-third of all smartphones.
“We have been a big proponent of eSIMs and encourage customers to adopt them because they offer many advantages,” says an Airtel spokesman. “Traditional SIMs can get corrupted, but there is no such problem with an eSIM. If you lose your phone, the SIM aspect is still taken care of. There are many advantages over a normal SIM, and we want our customers to make the switch.” Jio too has pushed the advantages of eSIMs strongly to its customers.
Among the four new iPhones, the Air, 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max, the Air with its A19 Pro processor optimised for AI tasks and two custom communications chips seems to have stirred the most enthusiastic response.
Available in India for around three years, eSIMs come with other perks. Users can carry multiple carriers and numbers on a single device, handy for juggling office and personal calls. They also make switching phones seamless and ensure stolen devices stay traceable, since the digital SIM cannot be removed.
Gopal Vittal, CEO and managing director of Airtel, highlighted a key benefit: “If your device gets stolen, it will be that much harder for criminals to get rid of your e-SIM since they are unlike the traditional SIMs that could be physically removed. This will also make a lost smartphone easier to track.”
Local forecasts suggest that India’s eSIM market is poised for strong growth with younger mobile users expected to be their keenest adopters.
The IMARC Group estimates India’s eSIM market will expand to roughly $1.46 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of around 15.8 per cent over the coming years.
But India faces a cluster of local hurdles that will shape how quickly the country catches up.
Device compatibility is a major bottleneck: a large share of budget and mid-range phones sold in India still lack eSIM hardware or vendor support, limiting the pool of eligible customers. Analysts and trade coverage also point to supply-chain, regulatory, and awareness barriers. Consumers are often uncertain about how things like SIM transfers, authentication and security will work in practice if phones are lost or replaced.
Still one analyst points out there is a level of customer resistance. “It is still evolving and catching on slowly, because it requires a behavioural change. Imagine using a SIM for the past 15 years. Switching to an eSIM naturally takes time. But the direction is positive."
Apple has been nudging global users toward eSIMs for years, and analysts note its influence could speed adoption elsewhere. “Apple does a lot of things first in the industry. You will see a lot of OEMs following in the same direction,” one analyst said.
Airtel stresses it has been active on the push to eSIMs well before Apple’s latest product: “Airtel has been a strong supporter of eSIMs. In fact, Gopal Vittal has sent emails directly to customers encouraging them to move to eSIMs and explaining why it is important, well before Apple launched its current products. We have been driving this shift for the past year and a half,” the spokesperson said.
Roland Berger’s reports see this kind of leadership effect as central to how fast change happens.
“We were more impressed with the look and capabilities of the Air than we expected to be and could see this being a device that helps to improve iPhone upgrade rates over the next 12 months,” analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote in their post-launch note.
Still, consumer resistance remains real.
"But migrations are happening because the advantages are significant. An eSIM works exactly like a traditional SIM, and more and more people are making the switch," says one spokesman. Another carrier executive summed up the challenge plainly: “It is still evolving. It is catching on slowly because it is a behavioural change. Imagine you have been using a SIM for the last 20-odd years. Now moving to an eSIM takes a lot of time. But things are moving in a positive direction.”
He adds: "The experience has been that the more technologically savvy customers are the ones who are shifting."
Beyond smartphones, eSIMs are also spreading to wearables and other connected devices. Some smartwatches are eSIM-enabled in India, which means joggers, for example, can head out for a run without carrying their phones but still remain in touch.
For Apple, the benefits are clear. Eliminating the SIM tray frees up space in ultra-slim devices and cuts manufacturing costs tied to SIM-tray hardware and ejector pins. “With eSIM-only devices, there is no longer a need to provide a physical SIM slot in the phone,” an analyst points out.
“That component is gone, which saves cost. I cannot say exactly how much Apple will save, but eliminating the SIM tray and the pins to open it removes a considerable expense across millions of devices. It is also aesthetically pleasing, and it eliminates the need for lakhs of SIM ejector pins. The savings are huge.”
For Indian users, the iPhone Air’s launch signals something bigger: the beginning of the end for the tiny plastic card that has defined mobile life for decades. “Apple has set the direction,” one analyst concludes, “and we see no reason why other manufacturers will not follow. It’s a good move.”
