The good
Catching a hold of a SIM tray and wedging that card in is a minor pain at the best of times. If you manage to stick it in the wrong way, or the SIM card is dirty or damaged, it can become a major pain. Anyone who has cut SIM cards to deal with the new micro and nano standards will know the potential risks. It’s not an especially user-friendly system when compared to choosing your service provider from a software menu on your smartphone.
Not only would a soft SIM eradicate all that hassle for consumers, it would also remove a headache for OEMs. They’d still have to embed the chip somewhere, but they wouldn’t need to ACCOMMODATE an opening port anymore.
In theory it could also free us to switch service at the drop of a hat. If it was possible to switch quickly via the menu and retain your number, you could switch frequently to get the best service and price. It’s also an ideal system to deal with the perils of roaming; signing up to a short term deal in the country you’re visiting would be far more cost-effective.
Coverage woes could be consigned to the past completely if it was capable of switching network on the fly to find the strongest signal. The billing could be handled by your OEM with carriers claiming their cut behind the scenes.
Perhaps you could sync your SIM across your tablet and smartphone, dispensing with the need for a separate service contract for separate devices.