Apple Battles Nokia, RIM and Motorola Over Nano-SIM Standard

From PC World: Next week, two proposals for a new, smaller SIM card, dubbed nano-SIM -- one backed by Apple and the other by Nokia, Research In Motion and Motorola Mobility -- will go head-to-head as ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute) decides which card future smartphones and tablets will use.

The vote is scheduled for March 29, according to a spokesman at Giesecke & Devrient, which manufactures SIM cards. The decision was supposed to have been made by the end of last year, but was pushed to March, he said, without elaborating on any disagreements that may have caused the delay.

The companies involved in the process are keeping a low profile. Apple isn't commenting, while Motorola only confirmed it is working with RIM and Nokia, which said that it obviously believes the proposal it backs has significant technical advantages.

When ETSI, whose membership includes both vendors and operators, makes its decision, the standards organization may decide to go with one of the proposals, both or none of them, it said.

As patent licensing becomes more contentious, the development of standards has become more important, according to Pete Cunningham, principal analyst at Canalys.

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