Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

3g AND wifi?

Justinerator

Justinerator

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
497
0
Redondo Beach, CA
I have to ask this... Will apple, when they release the 3g iphone, drop wifi? I personally believe this would be a stupid move, but knowing the Steve, he might have an edge+wifi iphone and then a 3g iphone (without wifi) just to increase profits. What do you guys think?

Justin
 
"iTunes WiFi Store"

Considering this, no. I don't even know if they'll let people download music to begin with on the 3G network because of the bandwidth issues. WiFi probably costs pennies (not literally) to put in the iPhone.
 
Highly unlikely for two or three simple reasons:

- Apple really primarily cares about the US market, and US HSPA coverage is spotty at best.

- AT&T provides Starbucks WiFi access, and Apple is clearly very motivated in their partnership with Starbucks (via the iTunes store).

- WiFi has a net impact of lowering the demand on the 3G network, and AT&T's going to need all the help it can get in that department, when Apple unleashes a flood of millions of 3G devices used by people who like to be connected to the internet constantly!
 
Urrm... no. I don't think Apple would ever drop WiFi from the iPhone, just because it has faster 3G. Just imagine the displeasure for those who can't get 3G signal....
 
No, they will probably add n support. WiFi will be much better for battery life and most Providers also supply WiFi at certain locations, and you have to take into account places that won't have any coverage.

TEG
 
mkrishnan said:
- AT&T provides Starbucks WiFi access, and Apple is clearly very motivated in their partnership with Starbucks (via the iTunes store).
Click to expand...

Um, what? I thought T-Mobile provided the WiFi, that's why us AT&T users have to pay to use Starbucks WiFi...
 
joejoejoe said:
Um, what? I thought T-Mobile provided the WiFi, that's why us AT&T users have to pay to use Starbucks WiFi...
Click to expand...

They used to.

I think the deal now provides...

- (Perquisite of the contract) access to AT&T wireless subscribers who have hotspot access
- (unique to Starbucks) access to AT&T Broadband customers
- (unique to Starbucks) Access to people who have Starbucks cards -- not sure if this is implemented yet, and I've never tried it
- (unique to Starbucks) Free access to T-Mo customers at Starbucks (only) hotspots
- Paid access, of course

http://www.starbucks.com/retail/wireless.asp
 
That's a really good question. Consider:

1) Jobs originally said that including WiFi, made up for lack of 3G. If he keeps with that logic, then WiFi shouldn't be necessary, and might even be seen by him as "impure"...

2) Cost is a factor. It's always cheaper to leave out a radio. Make it easier for engineering to add something else, too... like GPS or double the memory chips. Hmmm. 32GB?

3) Battery... what can you say? WiFi chews it up, if left on. A 3G phone will last much longer without it possibly being turned on... a don't-let-the-user-decide Apple kind of thing.

Many EVDO phones come without WiFi, and owners don't miss it that much. (I would, just for Slingbox around the house.)
 
kdarling said:
That's a really good question. Consider:

1) Jobs originally said that including WiFi, made up for lack of 3G. If he keeps with that logic, then WiFi shouldn't be necessary, and might even be seen by him as "impure"...

2) Cost is a factor. It's always cheaper to leave out a radio. Make it easier for engineering to add something else, too... like GPS or double the memory chips. Hmmm. 32GB?

3) Battery... what can you say? WiFi chews it up, if left on. A 3G phone will last much longer without it possibly being turned on... a don't-let-the-user-decide Apple kind of thing.

Many EVDO phones come without WiFi, and owners don't miss it that much. (I would, just for Slingbox around the house.)
Click to expand...

That's true. If Steve Jobs sticks to his guns, he may remove it for all of those above reasons... Thanks kdarling!
 
I don't think Apple would be stupid enough to shoot themselves in the foot by leaving out WiFi. It's higher speed, it has no data limits, and it costs very little to implement. 3G is to cover when WiFi is not available, not the other way around. Sure, there are other phones with 3G and no WiFi, but other phones aren't claiming to be a mobile computing platform. It would be incredibly dumb to drop Wi-Fi support, and I'll bet dollars to pesos that it won't happen.
 
kdarling said:
That's a really good question. Consider:

1) Jobs originally said that including WiFi, made up for lack of 3G. If he keeps with that logic, then WiFi shouldn't be necessary, and might even be seen by him as "impure"...

2) Cost is a factor. It's always cheaper to leave out a radio. Make it easier for engineering to add something else, too... like GPS or double the memory chips. Hmmm. 32GB?

3) Battery... what can you say? WiFi chews it up, if left on. A 3G phone will last much longer without it possibly being turned on... a don't-let-the-user-decide Apple kind of thing.

Many EVDO phones come without WiFi, and owners don't miss it that much. (I would, just for Slingbox around the house.)
Click to expand...

No, because WiFi is still much faster than 3G. Apple is all about WiFi implementation, they're not leaving out WiFi.

And WiFi doesn't chew up the battery as much as you think. I've NEVER in the history of owning my iPhone turned off WiFi or "Automatically Join Networks."

I unplugged my iPhone from the charger on Wednesday afternoon and didn't plug it in again until Saturday at around 4 AM. During this time I used the WiFi from my home and from my school and some EDGE while on the road. I also sent/received app. 50 text messages and made or received 21 phone calls.

I never even reached the 20% warning.
 
JBaker122586 said:
And WiFi doesn't chew up the battery as much as you think. I've NEVER in the history of owning my iPhone turned off WiFi or "Automatically Join Networks."
Click to expand...

I'm impressed by your battery life! I have to charge mine pretty much every night. But my worst culprit by far is being out of service (e.g. inside my hospital). And definitely, Wifi doesn't seem to make a huge difference...
 
I think the upshot is, there are decent arguments for either scenario.

They'll most likely leave in WiFi simply because the HSPA network coverage isn't that widespread (yet).

But at the same time, people should not act shocked if WiFi is left out.

This is why discussion is good: better to prepare for the least and be happily surprised.
 
if American AT&T 3G is only just being rolled out, that means most people would be using EDGE ONLY and then people would be stuck on a slow connection with no alternatives.

Why would apple want to shoot themselves in the foot?
 
Because it's not "just being rolled out". ATT covers well over 100 million people in the U.S. with 3G even now.

(Not me, alas.)

But true, it can be pretty spotty in some places. No doubt that's one reason ATT is rushing to fill in more locations, just as they rushed to improve EDGE before the initial iPhone launch.
 
zainjetha said:
if American AT&T 3G is only just being rolled out, that means most people would be using EDGE ONLY and then people would be stuck on a slow connection with no alternatives.
Click to expand...

Someone posted recently that only 3% of the UK population connects makes use of 3G data services (dunno if anyone can verify / attribute that?)... and 100M people is only 1 out of 3 Americans.

I'm not sure what the rates are like in the US, although it's worth remembering that the CDMA providers have been 3G for longer, and make up a larger combined share than AT&T (65M for AT&T, about 100-110M combined for Sprint and Verizon, I think). I think their coverage is much wider than AT&T HSPA....

But, AFAIK, most people everywhere are not using 3G....
 
WiFi will stay, I think because some places like Canada still charges an arm/leg for data. Although I really hope it changes by the time this device is out. Also, Wifi might be used to access private Company networks, if Apple still wants to play in the enterprise world.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back