Re: Yes but...
Apple acquired a lot of LTE patents from Nortel's bankruptcy sale, so they aren't without cellular IP but they haven't (as far as I know) actively doing any research into that area so they wouldn't have anything for 5G.
They've been trying to get software SIMs approved by the 3GPP for years with no luck - it is basically owned by the wireless carriers who have strong incentives to not make it any easier for people to switch carriers or save money by having a phone choose a "SIM" with the lowest cost for a particular location. Without that approval, carriers don't have to support it so they'd sitll have to support physical SIMs (though virtual + one physical SIM might be a good way to support dual SIM without two physical slots)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
