Apple needs the carriers just as much as the carriers need them. Dont be so naive!
This just pushed the iPhone 5 back another 6 months. Great.
It's not the iPhone 5. Quit calling it that.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)
I'm pretty confident that the next iPhone will have that new Qualcomm LTE combo chip. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if it goes in iPad first as that seems like it would be easier since heat battery is less of an issue.
The newest Qualcomm chip that everyone is waiting for, and will vastly improve LTE battery life, is the MDM9615. However, last I heard, it isn't expected to be released until Q2. Assuming Apple goes with that, I don't expect to see an LTE iPhone until sometime in mid to late summer. So that would be a small delay from the June timeframe some people probably would hope for. But the addition of LTE would be well worth the small delay for Apple.
So really, I think the iPhone 5 will have LTE, but I don't think it will have anything to do with Verizon demanding it. It will have it because the chipset release dates that Apple is waiting for will finally line up with Apple's schedule.
I don't need LTE but I do want a phone that is unlocked for international. That's why my next one will not be AT&T.
I don't know why anyone would expect next iPhone before fall. The iPad and iPhone releases are now 6 months apart which eases component demand spikes on their suppliers.
Gruber described the situation very succinctly recently, and I'll paraphrase:
Microsoft to carriers: Here's several hundred million dollars. Please sell our phones. Please??
Android OEMs to carriers: Here are our phones. What do you want us to change so that you will sell them?
Apple to carriers: Here's our new phone. It comes in black or white. We will allow you to sell it.
It's not the iPhone 5. Quit calling it that.
Verizon is definitely not stupid enough to try to influence Apple (and risk losing the iPhone), so they're either aware that the next iPhone is LTE capable, or are prepared to make an exception for it.
The newest Qualcomm chip that everyone is waiting for, and will vastly improve LTE battery life, is the MDM9615. However, last I heard, it isn't expected to be released until Q2. Assuming Apple goes with that, I don't expect to see an LTE iPhone until sometime in mid to late summer. So that would be a small delay from the June timeframe some people probably would hope for. But the addition of LTE would be well worth the small delay for Apple.
So really, I think the iPhone 5 will have LTE, but I don't think it will have anything to do with Verizon demanding it. It will have it because the chipset release dates that Apple is waiting for will finally line up with Apple's schedule.
I am willing to bet that the new Qualcomm LTE chipset will not be in the iPad 3. It's hoped they can get the new process down in time for mass production in Q2, but clearly there is time between design, testing, validation, mass production. I am guessing they will use the current LTE chipset (since they have much more space for battery size than the iPhone) and then the new chipset in the fall for the iPhone LTE (that's what I am calling it for now).
Just my theory.