The safe bet is that the iPhone 5 will stick with 3G instead of lightning fast LTE 4G mobile broadband, but not so fast! A new report on Monday says that Apple’s 4G-capable carrier partners are already testing iPhones with LTE capability.
BGR reports:
BGR has obtained evidence of an internal iOS test build from one of Apple’s major carrier partners, and buried in the firmware is a property list (.plist file) for LTE. This doesn’t necessarily mean every Apple device that’s about to be released will feature an embedded 4G LTE modem, but it certainly means Apple isn’t sitting on the sidelines as 4G LTE networks continue to roll out around the world.
So it’s possible, but still unlikely, that Apple will release an LTE-equipped iPhone 5, for the same reasons as before: battery life concerns, as well as the fact that LTE penetration in America right now is virtually nil.
That said, Apple would be foolish not to start testing the iPhone with the technology right now. By the time the iPhone 6 launches in 2012, LTE penetration in America should be decent enough and LTE tech should have advanced enough to allow Apple to finally show the competition how 4G should be done.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
19 responses to “Apple and Carriers Are Currently Testing An iPhone With LTE, But Is It The iPhone 5 Or iPhone 6? [Report]”
tinyurl.com/2df4ccp
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t get excited for a 4G iPhone. My 3G service is pretty fast and when I really need the speed, I’m on WIFI. I’m willing to bet myself that I won’t even notice a change in my productivity speed on 4G.
Hmm, could they go hybrid, using 3G for uploads and 4G for downloads, that way keeping battery requirements low, as I’m assuming that the radio needs more power to send 4G than receive.
4G is potentially a lot faster than 3G, but “it depends.”
See:
http://www.diffen.com/differen…
Tests seem to show that 4G is somewhat faster in ordinary use, but I don’t think it deserves all the hoopla. Right now it doesn’t warrant either a phone upgrade or extra cost to consumers unless you are a heavy user. Personally, I find that tiny screens on smart phones are not conducive to heavy broadband use.
I païd $21.87 for an iPad 2 32-GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $ 38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $ 657 which only cost me $ 62.81 . Here is the site we use to get it al from, http://to.ly/aWOE
I paid $23.88 for an i Pad 2 32-GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumiix GF 1 Camera that we got for $ 38.41 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $ 635 which only cost me $ 61.74 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it al from,
http://EgoWin.com
YOU GUYS ARE THINKING WAAAAAAYYYY TOOO AHEAD THE IPHONE 5 HASN’T EVEN COM OUT WHY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT IPHONE 6?!?!!?!?!?!!
noone cares dude
John, you sound so authoritative … and it is all conjecture at this point. I am constantly amazed at the media hype for things that aren’t even released for consumption.
Maybe iPad 2 LTE and iPhone 5 without LTE
AT & T installing 4G equipment for iPhone 5 in Apple store | WORLD’S HOT CAKE http://bit.ly/oKHah6