Apple has long reigned over their own ecosystem, that fabled walled garden that is the App Store. Inside, they have (mostly) total control over what their customers get to see, purchase, or download. But they seem to have decided that isn’t enough, so the company has launched a little something called Apple SIM. Guess what that does?

If you said “Makes bacon!” then congratulations: You’re an idiot. If you said that it adds international mobile data to your iPad (provided you’re using one of the compatible models, that is) then you’re a smart cookie indeed. Reward yourself with some bacon, or otherwise sanctioned crisped meat product.

Big deal, right? Any SIM card will roam internationally, provided you make the right calls beforehand and your service provider doesn’t suck. But then you’re paying exorbitant amounts of money per megabyte just to tweet, meaning that it’s often better to travel with your devices in Airplane Mode.

But the Apple SIM lets users just purchase a local (and locally-priced) data plan, valid for “…a day, a week or a month”, instead of having to pay very costly roaming charges. Nobody should have to pay $2 per MB to sent a WhatsApp message.

So… Apple’s out to become your chosen data partner, then? In co-operation with a bunch of mobile service providers, of course. Cool. We’re strangely okay with that. But…

Based purely on the Apple SIM partners list, you won’t easily be able to grab one of these data SIMs in South Africa but the SIM will work here in SA if you do snag one. Local service provider Vodacom will make sure of that. But if you do have an Apple SIM active, and a jet-setting kind of lifestyle, then you’ll be able to use your iPad to post social media updates from over 140 supported countries. Without having to pay roaming data costs. We’re sure your at-home friends will be thrilled to hear all about Paris.