The iPod Touch Might Be Getting An Expansion System : Is This The New Sim Tray ?

We told you a couple of days ago about Apple's last patents and one element that looked curious was this patent for allowing portable devices to be expanded using some sort of cartridge system. It didn't seem too interesting and it looked like there was no real application, well, I was wrong. Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application (picture above) from Apple that reveals the actual application of the idea. It would allow iPod touches to receive removable modules as varied as :

integrated circuit cards (ICCs), chip cards, memory cards, flash memory cards, microprocessor cards, smart cards, such as subscriber identity module (SIM) cards, or combinations thereof.

The system looks a lot like the one already present on the iPhone but the description is vague, on purpose probably. What could they possibly want you to add ? The SIM card option is not very realistic since the iPod touch isn't meant to have one but a very interesting application could be the Flash card integration. Apple recently added a SD slot to its Macbook Pro line and I could imagine seeing them do the same move with the iPod touch. It would let you for example see those pictures you just took on your camera and send them directly per email. Or maybe this would just be an extension that Apple would use to implement it's new rumored easy pay system ? A further interesting point is the presence of what looks like a SIM tray, funny coincidence knowing that a new SIM Tray appeared a couple of days ago on chinaontrade.com. Well, as usually with Apple, we don't know what's really going to happen. What would you like to come expand your iPod? [via Patently Apple]

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