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Apple wants to adopt a more standards-based approach for its next generation of SIM cards - as long as it can set the standards. The company has submitted a proposal to the key European telecoms standards body, ETSI, for a tiny SIM card suited to future, ultra-slimline products.

The device would be even smaller than the microSIM used in the iPhone 4 and iPad, which is incompatible with standard cellphone SIMs. It could appear in products as early as next year, but the specifications would be available to the industry, potentially allowing for open access and transfer of cards between Apple and third party gadgets.

The development is interesting in the light of the move towards embedded wireless in tiny products such as those used for M2M (machine-to-machine) networks. Unlike conventional SIM cards, which provide the cellcos with their most powerful instrument to control users, these would be remotely activated without carrier intervention.

Apple may be eyeing such technology for future products, not just because of the shrinking size of consumer gadgets but also because it has already shown interest in a remotely activated SIM. Reportedly it tried to introduce such an approach in a European iPhone last year, reducing the influence of the cellco, but was forced to back down when operators threatened to withdraw subsidies on Apple gear.

For the tiny SIM standard, Apple has the support of one of those European giants, Orange, which pointedly said that Apple was taking the right route by going through a standards body. The Orange executive dropped further heavily weighted comments about Apple's need to keep cellcos in the loop. Head of mobile services, Anne Bouverot, told Reuters that the plan represented a "new era of cooperation between Apple and the mobile operator community".

An ETSI spokesman was less rosy, with the world weariness of a seasoned standards process attendee - the platform "may take some time, up to a year or more, if there is strong disagreement between industry players", he indicated, though admitted that the process was achievable within a few months should there be "a broad consensus among the companies participating in the standards committee".

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