It’s becoming harder to add extra storage to smartphones as many no longer include a microSD card slot. Xiaomi thinks it has a solution, though.

As Gizchina reports(Opens in a new window), Xiaomi has filed a patent for a new type of SIM card. The main difference over a typical SIM is the addition of storage. Rather than requiring a microSD card slot for optional extra storage in a phone or tablet, Xiaomi envisions a SIM that does both jobs.

The microSD slot doesn’t feature in a lot of new devices for a couple of reasons. The first is the space it frees up inside these tiny devices for other hardware to go, but it’s also a profit driver for manufacturers. If they can’t add more storage after buying a device there’s a good chance consumers will opt to pay more for a phone or tablet with more flash memory inside.

There are two factors that could stop this new storage SIM from ever seeing the light of day, though. The first is the growing popularity of the eSIM, which removes the need for a SIM card slot in a phone. It’s still early days, but eventually we could see the SIM slot disappear from devices and therefore Xiaomi’s card would be rendered useless.

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Xiaomi will also need to contend with a lack of industry support. It seems unlikely other manufacturers will be convinced to add support for the storage SIM specification. It would eat into their profits as consumers may select models with less on-board storage and then buy a competitor’s special SIM card. With that in mind, this new SIM may end up being limited to Xiaomi’s devices alone, meaning the storage SIM could never become a truly mass market product. Companies also routinely file for or secure patents for technologies that never see the light of day. 

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