Mind BLOWN! iPhone Variants

I just ordered the Air 2 128gb with cellular and I noticed that it is not asking for which carrier which mean the SIM card will work for all of them!

That will save them from some variants

Newtons Apple said:

I just ordered the Air 2 128gb with cellular and I noticed that it is not asking for which carrier which mean the SIM card will work for all of them!

That will save them from some variants

Click to expand...

Everything except Verizon, I believe.

Newtons Apple said:

I just ordered the Air 2 128gb with cellular and I noticed that it is not asking for which carrier which mean the SIM card will work for all of them!

That will save them from some variants

Click to expand...

When you say Air 2 with cellular, does this mean it has a phone chip capable of an iPhone? Or is the cellular feature for wi-fi on the go?

ET iPhone Home said:

When you say Air 2 with cellular, does this mean it has a phone chip capable of an iPhone? Or is the cellular feature for wi-fi on the go?

Click to expand...

It's for cellular data. Like you said, wifi on the go.

ET iPhone Home said:

When you say Air 2 with cellular, does this mean it has a phone chip capable of an iPhone? Or is the cellular feature for wi-fi on the go?

Click to expand...

It means you can use AT&T data via it's cellular network. No phone.

I work in the field and can not get to WiFi. The LTE data is very fast via AT&T.

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mercuryjones said:

Everything except Verizon, I believe.

Click to expand...

I am not so sure as there was not option for Verizon. the choices are WiFi or Wifi and Cellular. SO we might be seeing something new here.

AbSoluTc said:

Please correct me if I am wrong but I just did the math. There are 54 different phone options available for the iPhone 6/6+ JUST for the 3 major carriers.

Verizon/AT&T/Sprint - 6 - 9 models (3 sizes, 3 colors)
Verizon/AT&T/Sprint - 6+ - 9 models (3 sizes, 3 colors)

18 per carrier, 54 in total. Just for the top 3 carriers.

The 5S has - 9 models (3 sizes, 3 colors).

9 per carrier, 27 in total. Just for the top 3 carriers.

So just in 5S, 6, 6+ iPhones - there are 81 variants.

I can't even fathom the 5C variants. Anyone want to help me out here finding out a grand total of iPhone variants of currently available models only?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what your goals are but why bother counting the variants? Just get what you need. Let Apple and retailers worry about variants.

Will be easier when US carriers abandon CDMA

OMG.

Who *knew* Apple had so many SKU's for this model iPhone.

I'm VERY surprised by this.

Is apple puting the carrier lock on or the carrier? If its the carrier its still only 18 different phones

Newtons Apple said:

I am not so sure as there was not option for Verizon. the choices are WiFi or Wifi and Cellular. SO we might be seeing something new here.

Click to expand...

Hardware should still be the same, just as it was on the Air. Apple's worked some leverage and gotten Sprint, TMO, & ATT on board with allowing use of a single SIM so the user can choose the carrier without changing the SIM.

My guess is Verizon simply didn't want to play ball on the new field.

I've been using my ipad retina mini on TMO's free 200MB plan for much of the past year. I've also tried AT&T's $25/1GB/90 day plan and it worked. I think it's originally a Verizon device, I don't remember exactly and would have to pull out the box to check. I don't use a whole lot of data when away from wifi and can tether to my phone on the few occasions I might use a lot of data. TMO's free 200MB deal has been great.

and just FYI, the iphone hardware is the same regardless of carrier, the difference is whose SIM is included.

AbSoluTc said:

Please correct me if I am wrong but I just did the math. There are 54 different phone options available for the iPhone 6/6+ JUST for the 3 major carriers.

Verizon/AT&T/Sprint - 6 - 9 models (3 sizes, 3 colors)
Verizon/AT&T/Sprint - 6+ - 9 models (3 sizes, 3 colors)

18 per carrier, 54 in total. Just for the top 3 carriers.

The 5S has - 9 models (3 sizes, 3 colors).

9 per carrier, 27 in total. Just for the top 3 carriers.

So just in 5S, 6, 6+ iPhones - there are 81 variants.

Click to expand...

It's not THAT extreme. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile share a common architecture with their iPhone models, so it's 9 variants for all three. The only difference is what SIM goes in the phone, and a software modification at the time of activation if the phone is SIM-locked.

For Sprint, US Cellular and other lower-tier US carriers (and many international carriers) there's a slightly different architecture that runs on a different set of LTE bands, that they share.

So it's really 18 variants of iPhone 6/Plus in total for AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile, and 18 more variants for the other US lower-tier and International carriers. 36 total.

There's even further speculation that a baseband firmware is the only thing that differentiates the Sprint/International model from the Tier 1 US model. Depending on where the phone is supposed to go, a software file unlocks which LTE bands a particular phone will use. If that's true, then it really is only 18 variants universally.

I can't even fathom the 5C variants.

Click to expand...

The situation for the 5C is roughly the same, just more colors, but only one size.

Newtons Apple said:

I just ordered the Air 2 128gb with cellular and I noticed that it is not asking for which carrier which mean the SIM card will work for all of them!

That will save them from some variants

Click to expand...

i wish i had 900 dollars to blow on an iPad

Newtons Apple said:

It means you can use AT&T data via it's cellular network. No phone.

I work in the field and can not get to WiFi. The LTE data is very fast via AT&T.

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I am not so sure as there was not option for Verizon. the choices are WiFi or Wifi and Cellular. SO we might be seeing something new here.

Click to expand...

Alright, thanks. The word, "cellular" confused me. I get the "data" (ATT, Verizon, Sprint) option versus only wi-fi of the iPad.

Newtons Apple said:

I just ordered the Air 2 128gb with cellular and I noticed that it is not asking for which carrier which mean the SIM card will work for all of them!

That will save them from some variants

Click to expand...

Almost. Apparently Verizon isn't on board. If you want to get cell service with Verizon, you have to contact them and they'll set you up. Not sure if they will use the Apple SIM or give you one of theirs.

But otherwise yeah, it's one model for all carriers.

The 3 major carriers all use the same phone model. Sprint and the regional US carriers use different ones. So it's not really that many variants.