As you may know, Apple is being targeted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for calling the new iPad “4G-capable” when Australia not only doesn’t have any LTE networks, it will never have LTE networks compatible with the new iPad.
Apple’s already changed the wording on its website in response to the complaints to make it clear that Australian customers buying an iPad WiFi + 4G are only getting HSPA+ speeds at best, but that may not be good enough. Regulators are now targeting Apple in a lawsuit over their use of the term 4G, and Apple’s already preparing its defense.
That defense? That 4G doesn’t actually refer to any specific technology, but is just a marketing term. And honestly, at this point, that’s about right?
Here’s what Apple argued in its brief.
The iPad with WiFi + 4G is a device which performs in accordance with the descriptor ‘4G’ in terms of data transfer speed. The descriptor ‘4G’ … conveys to consumers in Australia that the iPad with WiFi + 4G will deliver a superior level of service in terms of data transfer speed (consistent with accepted industry and regulatory use of that term), and not that the iPad with WiFi + 4G is compatible with any particular network technology promoted by a particular mobile service provider in Australia.
Honestly, at this point, they’re right: 4G is little more than a marketing term, and Apple helped make it that way when they caved to AT&T and ret-conned the iPhone 4S as a “4G” device, despite the fact that it can’t connect to LTE networks. The new iPad can connect to HSPA+ networks, and at this point, about everyone agrees that arguing against HSPA+ as 4G is a cause lost to telecom marketers.
It’s also worth noting that even LTE is not, according to some definitions, 4G. When agreed upon in 2008 by the International Telecommunications Union-Radio communications sector, 4G should support 1 gigabit per second data speeds. LTE doesn’t even come close to that, but of course, that kind of speed on a smartphone is just wacky. Imagine how fast you’d burn through your 2GB data cap if Apple released a true iPhone 4G.
What do you think? Is Apple pulling the wool over people’s eyes over 4G, or are they just going with the flow at this point? Let us know in the comments.
[via iClarified]
