More Claims of 4G LTE Compatibility for iPad 3

MacRumors · Mar 5, 2012

While a number of reputable sources have claimed that the iPad 3 will offer support for 4G LTE connectivity, there have been some holdouts who believe that it will not make the cut for Apple's next-generation tablet. Three weeks ago, iMore was first to pinpoint the March 7 date for Apple's media event, and even that report seemed to question whether LTE would be included on the iPad 3. From that report:

4G LTE networking has been another mystery surrounding the iPad 3, with a compatible Qualcomm chipset becoming available, but international LTE coverage is still slim, and in some cases a year or more away. It sounds like Apple has 4G LTE lined up for iPhone 5 this October, but we're still not certain if the iPad 3 will get it earlier.

That same source has now reported back to iMore to note that 4G LTE support will indeed be found in the iPad 3.

The same source that originally told iMore Apple would be holding their iPad 3 event on March 7 has now let us know that the announcement will in fact include 4G LTE networking. We'd heard previously that 4G LTE would be coming to iOS in 2012, but not whether it would make the cut for iPad 3, or whether Apple would save it for iPhone 5 in October.

LTE has seen its broadest adoption so far in the United States, but even there it is still only just rolling out with Verizon being the furthest along with its plans. But Apple would be hard-pressed to hold out for an entire year before supporting LTE in the iPad 4, although some have suggested that an iPad 3 with LTE could appear somewhat later than Wi-Fi-only models or with limited geographic distribution in markets where LTE deployment is furthest along.

Article Link: More Claims of 4G LTE Compatibility for iPad 3

BreuerEditor · Mar 5, 2012

the more rumors come out, the more antsy I'm getting about it actually being released. I can't remember the last time I was this excited about a product! Whether it has LTE or not, it'll still be another winning product

GunZi · Mar 5, 2012

i Say they're upgrading to HSPA not LTE.

Munnichs · Mar 5, 2012

Can't wait can't wait! Less then 48 hours till the keynote!

ChristianVirtual · Mar 5, 2012

Here in Japan we have an increased coverage with LTE; at least in the big cities. With quite some effort in accelerating the build-up of infrastructure.
My only questions: will it be sim-locked again or can I move my existing LTE-SIM into the new device ? Few hours to wait.

garylapointe · Mar 5, 2012

LTE would get me to get the non-WiFi model

I'm definitely getting the iPad 3. I've not gotten an iPad yet, but I've had the iPhone 3gs, 4, and 4s. So I'm sold on it. Getting up at whatever time it goes on-sale on-line...

Not sure if I want to pay for the modem, but LTE would convince me to go that route. Especially, if it's a multi-vendor modem (like iPhone 4s) AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

(I said non-WiFi, I know it still has WiFi, I just meant the modem model).

Gary

troop231 · Mar 5, 2012

Gigabit WiFi and 4G/LTE would be awesome

Diode · Mar 5, 2012

ChristianJapan said:
Here in Japan we have an increased coverage with LTE; at least in the big cities. With quite some effort in accelerating the build-up of infrastructure.
My only questions: will it be sim-locked again or can I move my existing LTE-SIM into the new device ? Few hours to wait.

Previous iPads were not SIM locked so I doubt this would be the case.

ECUpirate44 · Mar 5, 2012

4G iPad= 4G iPhone=Win.

Ugg · Mar 5, 2012

Cool. That makes it more likely that I'll buy a 3 rather than a discounted 2.

nuckinfutz · Mar 5, 2012

Anyone that thought the iPad 3 was shipping without LTE had a brain ejection.

Qualcomm announced the nextgen LTE chips last year! Anyone doing even a bit of research could have concluded that these new ships could and would likely end up in the next iPad.

----------

troop231 said:
Gigabit WiFi and 4G/LTE would be awesome

iPad 4 for the faster Wifi.

swordfish5736 · Mar 5, 2012

I've decided if its only got 3G I'm going with the wifi only. If its got 4g I'm going with the wifi+4g.

ChristianVirtual · Mar 5, 2012

Diode said:
Previous iPads were not SIM locked so I doubt this would be the case.

Japan still have a SIM lock on iPad2. I can use a SIM card in foreign countries but inside Japan I'm forced to use one carrier.

derek1984 · Mar 5, 2012

Good news

Now I'll be getting the Verizon iPad and then once the iPhone 5 comes out, leave AT&T for Verizon on that. By that time, Verizon should be rolling out the plans to use one data amount on multiple devices.

wolfshades · Mar 5, 2012

Some areas in Canada (like Toronto) have LTE networks. LTE/4G capability is the only reason that would push me into buying the iPad3 - seeing as I'm sort of happy already with the iPad2 3G 64 GB model.

Wait. Not quite true. If it didn't have LTE but increased the storage to 128 GB that would push me over the edge too.

It's possible that I'm too easily pleased.

TallManNY · Mar 5, 2012

All good rumors.

And of course, Apple is down more than 2% today. I guess the street doesn't like hearing about a monster channel stuffing product being delivered.

I wonder how fast LTE will be on the iPad 3 in practice and in the major U.S. cities? Could the iPad 3 bring true broadband desktop level web surfing to a portable device for the general public? I have wifi most places and 3G is okay. But it isn't desktop snappy. LTE and the A6 processor should be fast enough to compete with desktops for general browsing. That is if LTE gets anywhere like its theoretical speeds in practice.

BrianMR · Mar 5, 2012

Obligatory:

nuckinfutz · Mar 5, 2012

TallManNY said:
All good rumors.

And of course, Apple is down more than 2% today. I guess the street doesn't like hearing about a monster channel stuffing product being delivered.

I wonder how fast LTE will be on the iPad 3 in practice and in the major U.S. cities? Could the iPad 3 bring true broadband desktop level web surfing to a portable device for the general public? I have wifi most places and 3G is okay. But it isn't desktop snappy. LTE and the A6 processor should be fast enough to compete with desktops for general browsing. That is if LTE gets anywhere like its theoretical speeds in practice.

Feels more like being of Wifi is what a rep told me. Not only is LTE faster but the latency is much better so there's less lag once you start a download or when you're surfing. Good news.

nsfw · Mar 5, 2012

With the new display, doesn't it make sense that Apple holds back LTE for the iPad 4? From a marketing standpoint iPad 4g even makes sense as telco's are calling LTE 4g networking(which its not technically)
Apple needs to holds some features back. It can't just shove everything out the door at the same time. I'm betting no LTE this time.

toshmac · Mar 5, 2012

the speed is nice but hope the battery life is sustained

saving107 · Mar 5, 2012

Can't we just wait until Wednesday to find out or are we going to continue to have a flood of "rumors/claimed sources/possibility/headlines that end with ?" stories filing the front page.

ChristianVirtual · Mar 5, 2012

BrianMR said:
Obligatory:
Image

Getting old but Fry's reaction remain true also for me

chrmjenkins · Mar 5, 2012

It would be nice if for nothing other than endless debates on whether the next iphone will have LTE won't happen and we can have sensible, reasoned debates not unlike rabid dogs over what the next iphone's screen size will be and if the back will be glass.

dagamer34 · Mar 5, 2012

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

The ideal chip to use for LTE, the Qualcomm MDM9615, isn't officially available for OEMs until Q2 2012, so it's possible they talked to Qualcomm to get it early, but since it's built on the brand new 28nm process from TSMC, I don't expect a ton of chips to be available, at least not at te massive scale Apple requires. If it does use that chip, I strongly suspect that an LtE iPad wouldn't be available for a month or more and that the WiFi version would come out sooner. Or perhaps there will be a WiFi+3G version for countries without 4G for a total of 3 distinct models, but that seems rather complicated. Certainly, the CDMA-only version will disappear.

stoplis · Mar 5, 2012

MacRumors said:
although some have suggested that an iPad 3 with LTE could appear somewhat later than Wi-Fi-only models or with limited geographic distribution in markets where LTE deployment is furthest along.[/url]

I hope this isn't right, in the UK we are 1-3 years away from 4G (the carriers just keep moving the goal posts forwards and back). I am just over a year into a 2 year data contract for 3G on my iPad 1, so I was planning on buying the 3G+Wi-Fi, or 4G if that is the only option (should still work on 3G?). I'll be a bit stuck if they only bring out the Wi-Fi one over here and I don't want to have to wait another 6 months or however long for them to bring it out.

More Claims of 4G LTE Compatibility for iPad 3

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