In message , at 15:03:06 on Sun, 14 Jul
2019, tim... remarked:

Nonsense! We wanted to create smaller, better, cooler handsets
just as much as "marketing" - and the ridiculous credit-card
sized SIM was a major barrier to that.

well yes

but I was referring to the move from standard to micro to nano SIMs

I wondered if you were, despite you replying in a subthread about the
CC-sized SIMs.

we still worked with PROMs and had to physically reprogram them each
time we changed the code.

Wow! Even back in the mid 80's we'd advanced to electrically
re-programming them, where I worked. Cutting those little links on the
PROM chip must have been really hard work for you.

In case you think I'm being facetious, I have seen ULA chips where a
small amount of [re]programming was done with a micro-scalpel.
--
Roland Perry