At the crack of dawn on September 10, 2025, Apple unveiled a groundbreaking announcement during its 2025 autumn new product launch event. The spotlight was on the 'thinnest-ever' iPhone Air, which is set to embrace a global design exclusively supporting eSIM technology, bidding farewell to the traditional physical SIM card slot. Apple underscored the superiority of eSIM over the decades-old plastic SIM cards, highlighting its enhanced convenience and robust security features.

It's worth noting that the U.S. market had already witnessed the adoption of a pure eSIM design in the iPhone 14 and its successors. Now, Apple is poised to expand the reach of eSIM technology across more countries and regions with the iPhone 17 series. Notably, the iPhone 17 Air is rumored to ditch the SIM card slot altogether in the majority, if not all, global markets. Meanwhile, other models in the series are also expected to follow suit in most regions, with only a handful of markets, notably China, potentially retaining the physical SIM card slot as an exception.