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]
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.
7 responses to “Apple To Australia: You Don’t Even Know What ‘4G’ Means”
“…Apple caved to AT&T and made the 4S a 4G device despite the fact that it can’t connect to LTE…”
If you’re going to cite the ITU then you should also make mention that the ITU has accepted HSPA+ as a 4G service which in fact makes the 4S on AT&T’s network a “4G” device. You’re right in that LTE doesn’t come close to reaching true “4G” speeds and with that said, would you agree that it’s rather paradoxical to argue for one baseband and not the other given the fact that neither one has the capability to reach truly – truly 4G speeds?
Come on, just don’t buy it. Finish business.
PS: I read they can also get a refund. Get it!
Sure, “4G” might be a marketing term, but marketing is all about meeting the needs of a specific market segment and, in this case, the target market — Australian consumers — understands, or has up until now understood, the term 4G to refer to something different to that offered by Apple’s Wi-Fi + 4G iPad.
As I see it, this leads to two conclusions:
(1) Apple’s iPad product marketing in Australia did not meet the needs/satisfy the criteria of 4G in the market segment and ipso facto was misleading, hence the ACCC is right to pursue Apple;
(2) Telstra, the “particular mobile service provider” advertising 4G network speeds, is the one to have misled Australian consumers (i.e. as Apple alleges, Telstra’s 4G network is not really 4G), hence the ACCC should really be targeting Telstra.
Yes, the current aporetic situation has been reached in part by Apple’s clever semantic defensive stance, but either way, if the only logical outcome from all this is that the branding of “4G” by either Australia’s largest mobile service provider or Apple is misleading, the ACCC has opened up a massive can of worms…
4G is pretty much a global phenom of vacuous marketing garbage right now. In Australia, Telstra, the former 100% public owned-national carrier, is selling 4G wi-fi internet devices which theoretically could connect to a network at “4G” network download / upload speeds. Unfortunately no such network exists, and even the theoretically possible 3G speeds have rarely been achieved in practise. In a country with a little over 20 million people spread over an area a little smaller than the U.S., exactly how long do you think it’s going to be before mobile phone towers cover the country in anything but a patchy manner? Telstra (who have to date been the most honest carrier in their speed claims, often by a considerable margin) claim typical downloads of 2Mbps to 40Mbps and uploads of 1Mbps to 10Mbps in capital city CBDs. This definition of a CBD is itself fairly narrow i.e. >5km from the G.P.O. So one can see that even true 3G is hardly extant and 4G a fairytale in terms of network service. The two measures here are device speed and network speed which are encapsulated in stupidly arbitrary marketing terms which, as always, are about some aspirational desire i.e. spending more dollars and hoping that means increased performance. So, what’s the New iPad referring to? Device transfer not network possibility. Not a lie, more like saying your can-and-string phone is HDMI compatible because you put an HDMI port in each can, even though it’s only transmitting down an old piece of grandma’s wool which can transfer data at roughly the speed lichen grows.
This is a pretty ridiculous case in Australia
Telstra didn’t want to de-value their useless LTE product, and Apple just went with the flow. I don’t care where this lawsuit goes. It’s irrelevant to life. Consumers will still buy whatever product seems most suitable, and the max speed they’re likely to get in Australia on any network will still be HSPA+
WTF??? No LTE networks in Australia…and bizarre comments about 4G via wifi… What ignorant trash from people clearly living in Planet America who to open their eyes up to rest of the world.
To clear up things:
LTE 4G exists right now: offered by Telstra on 1800Mhz band and available 5-12km from each capital CBD and major airports. Optus also has a trial service of 700Mhz LTE in the regional town of Bendigo.
The idea of 4G wifi is blizzard… Sure the telcos in the USA might need secondary wifi hotspots to take the load off the small amount of spectrum but I assure you none of the major mobile network in Australia shave this type of deployment – with the exception as a promotion at special events and the like.
Australia’s network is not patchy or suffers the slowdowns that require the bandages like wifi use or femtocells. If you want to talk about patchy… Let’s talk about midtown manhattan…
Chris you also make the point that Australia a country the size of the US with only 20million people will end up with patchy signals… Your forgetting that we’re literally the most urbanised country on earth… The vast majority of the population live in the five major coastal cities… so nothing patchy at all.. In fact perfect signal strength consistently unlike my experiences in the USA
Added to this is the fact if you leave the Telstra 4G (with speeds up to 80Mbs) zone you go into Telstra (NextG) HSDPA Dual Channel network with speed up to 40Mbs, this zone covers every metropolitan and surbian area and also every major regional town in the country.
The roll out of LTE has begun (the article refers to no current networks and that Australia
will never have LTD -wtf?)
Telstra has rolled out 4G LTE on the 1800Mhz band (retired 2G) that extends 5-10km of the CBD and thus takes in most inner city high density suburbs. Coverage is also available at each main international airport terminal as well as in 3-5Km from the center of a wide number of regional towns.
Optus is trailing 4G LTE on the 700Mhz in the regional town of Bendigo
The process of LTE in Australia looks like this:
2012: Telstra LTE 1800mhz (current) – spreading to fill all metropolitan areas
2012/2013: Telstra LTE 2100mhz (redeployed form old 3G spectrum)
2012/2013: Optus LTE 1800MHz (planning)
2013/2014: Telstra LTE 900Mhz (redeployed from old 2G spectrum)
time unknown: Deployment by all carriers on 2600Mhz (newly approved)
2015: Telstra/Optus LTE 700Mhz (from the shutdown of analogue TV signals)
*Vodaphone hasn’t spoken about their plans as of yet
The facts look pretty good eh? Fast, affordable and good signals everywhere
Added to that the construction of the NBN to 98% of homes will provide 1Gbs Ethernet fiber direct to every home in the country.
So instead of relying on weird misconceptions do some research on the state of telecommunications in Australia please.
Laslty, Apple is clearly in the wrong, our Trade Practices act enshrines strong consumer protection and the ACCC does not even need to show they intended to deceive but rather that it was reasonably likely that someone who in fact be deceived. I can tell you that’s a slam dunk… But thats another article!