One of the things that wasn't so easily noted about the iPhone 4 announcement had to do with what sort of sim it used.

Somehow that got missed among all the fun features.

It was a bit of a surprise this week to read one tweet about it having micro sims.

Micro sims? So unless I trim down my old 3GS sim, I have to get a new micro sim if I buy an iPhone 4?

Let's hope the migration to the new sim size doesn't involve extra cost. A migration to a different sim would mean swapping your old number over to the new micro sim, or a new number. So that's either one sim useless after getting the new micro sim, or it means an extra account.

I'm waiting to see just how the telcos are going to go about this.

Grumble!

I'm not so stinky on the idea of the iPad having a micro sim. That makes perfect sense. It's an entire new category of device and having a totally new account, postpaid or prepaid, makes some sense there. It is still an additional device.

On the other hand, an iPhone 4 is an upgrade from your iPhone 3GS. So that's a bit of an imposition, making you change over to an entirely incompatible sim that you can't use (without an adapter) in your old, still-working 3GS.

That aside, I'm also noting that there are people on eBay selling iPhone 4 phones, even though it's only PRE-ORDER stage. I can guess we'll see the usual low-feedback crowd selling a device they don't even have yet, not much differently from what it was like with the iPad.

The prices I've seen so far, though, border on the ridiculous. One person is selling an iPhone 4 for $AUD 1,500. I've also read some people are charging $5,000.

Good thing I'm not in a hurry for an iPhone like I was with the iPad. And even with the iPad, it still required me being picky who I bought from.

Some suggestions for those wanting an early delivery via eBay: make sure you're buying from someone who has one of these physically with him/her. At least make sure it's one you can pick up, so you can see you're not being ripped-off. Very much try to get one from someone with a decent feedback score on eBay...although even with the iPad, it was still possible for a genuine seller with decent feedback and a store to get his whole inventory delisted over an iPad listing glitch.

If you're going to impulse-buy an iPhone 4, practice safe buying. And pray you get an honest seller.

Still, it's a nice piece of telephony/computing, isn't it?