Comparison of 'iPhone 4S' Antenna Band to GSM and CDMA iPhone 4

[Number 41]

You will care alot when IOS 6 doesn't run (or runs in hobbled mode) on your iPhone 4 because it doesn't have enough RAM.

Agreed. So tell me why, if I'm upgrade-eligible right now, why I wouldn't just wait until I need the A5 processor to upgrade?

No sense ruining an upgrade credit when you can wait for a phone with better specs (LTE, NFC, better screen, better build materials) later, in time for iOS features that require it.

 

[kdarling]

Combining GSM and CDMA phones into single design, Apple has more constraints on antenna design.

Not really, since CDMA + GSM share bands.

Of course, the radio protocol doesn't matter. CDMA, WCDMA, or TDMA, the antenna doesn't care.

All that matters are the frequencies that it needs to support. In the USA, both the GSM and CDMA2000 carriers use the 850Mhz and 1900Mhz bands. In other words, the same antennas would work on both ATT and Verizon.

The difference comes when trying to support GSM usage outside the USA. Then you run into additional 900, 1800, 2100 bands.

As a result, iPhone 4S will have worse reception on CDMA than the current Verizon version of iPhone 4 and worse reception on GSM than the current AT&T version of iPhone 4.

Shouldn't make a different to the GSM phone; it already has to have a compromised antenna design to support all the world bands. (People forget that countries made cell bandwidth available at different times and often on different frequencies.)

The main downside could be the loss of Verizon's requirement for diversity (multiple) antennas (their iPhone 4 has two) for better reception. OTOH, Verizon would gain another so-called "World Phone" with dual CDMA+GSM.

 

[Sedrick]

This year's iPhone was never supposed to be a major upgrade, just like the iPad 2. That's next year's.

That release/update schedule was back when Apple owned the smartphone market. Since then, the competition has gotten hot and heavy. One would think they'd not have the luxury of a two year cycle to introduce a new phone.

Of course, this is Apple we're talking about...

 

[heisetax]

Why No CDMA Phone?

For one there should have never been a CDMA iPhone at all. That's a step backwards in technology. Second, I think all these rumors are just to completeley throw everyone off. You would have to be such an idiot to base a decision off of these rumorsl.

If your premise is correct, then why make any 3g phones of any type? 4g is available is places, thus the 3g or older systems are old & outdated & thus by your premise should not be supported anymore.

Your answer will be that 4g is not available everywhere thus 3g still needs to be supported. What is the difference between this & saying that many Verizon, Sprint & any other CDMA Users only have CDMA to use thus CDMA is still relevant for them & me.

 

[mdelvecchio]

I thought the same actually, i dont need the same phone twice and i'll have the ipad for my ios needs

great for you. but keep in mind Apple doesnt design and sell iphones it order to appease a few hundred people on a rumors site. no, they design and sell millions and millions of iphones to people who want them. it isnt reasonable to expect customers to upgrade phones every single year, and that isnt the point of the revised models. its just an update.

do you upgrade your car w/ each release? your laptop? your home audio receiver? why not?

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The average customer wont notice any difference tho. Lets face it, the normal guy doesnt care for specs or what on earth "A5" is or what RAM does. All they see is a phone in the same shape of the 4 and ask themself why should i buy that "again" or how is that new, it looks the same.

uh, no. the average customer DOESNT UPGRADE HIS PHONE EVERY YEAR JUST BECAUSE APPLE UPDATES IT! do you dudes not realize what uber-fans you are? normal people dont do this! i do, but its because im an enthusiast...not because its normal.

seriously.

 

[mdelvecchio]

Until iOS 4 broke the 3G and dropped features, there was no need to own a 3GS.

thats funny, i felt a need to upgrade to 3GS the moment i saw it -- way faster map navigation, compass-based navigation, and voice dialing features. it was a substantial upgrade to the 3G.

maybe there will be a reason to upgrade. Until then, there is zero reason to own an iPhone with an A5 chip. It simply isn't needed.

...longevity. dunno about you, but when in the market id always rather buy the latest model rather than last year's model. it will last longer and is thus a more valuable purchase.

the new update isnt designed to compel geeks on rumor sites to continue a zealous yearly upgrade cycle. that isnt normal. normal people just buy the latest of whatever it is, when theyre buying it. consider the home theater receiver -- you buy it, and you forget about it for a bunch of years.

 

[Number 41]

...longevity. dunno about you, but when in the market id always rather buy the latest model rather than last year's model. it will last longer and is thus a more valuable purchase.

the new update isnt designed to compel geeks on rumor sites to continue a zealous yearly upgrade cycle. that isnt normal. normal people just buy the latest of whatever it is, when theyre buying it. consider the home theater receiver -- you buy it, and you forget about it for a bunch of years.

The "geeks on rumor sites" are the people in line generating hype for Apple products. If they all shrug their shoulders and wait for a real iPhone upgrade, it'll look like no one cares. Image is everything.

 

[theperipheral]

The truth is that if Apple wants to sell a bunch of phones, they'll change the design. If they don't, they'll keep it the same.

I don't even know how many people own iPhone 4's right now, but I'm guessing 100,000,000 or so seeing as they sell 15-20 million a quarter. A very large percentage of those iP4 users don't care about phones and won't upgrade. A pretty decent percentage WILL upgrade if it's worth it.

When you're dealing with 100,000,000 people, even 5% is a very large amount of phones and revenue.

If Apple keeps the same design, they can kiss a large percentage of the people who will upgrade from the 4 goodbye. ADIOS REVENUE!

I just hope Apple isn't that stupid. Hell, I'm addicted to my iP4 and I've already begun looking elsewhere. Imagine what people who don't have any connection to Apple already are going to think.

 

[Jibbajabba]

The truth is that if Apple wants to sell a bunch of phones, they'll change the design. If they don't, they'll keep it the same.

I don't even know how many people own iPhone 4's right now, but I'm guessing 100,000,000 or so seeing as they sell 15-20 million a quarter. A very large percentage of those iP4 users don't care about phones and won't upgrade. A pretty decent percentage WILL upgrade if it's worth it.

When you're dealing with 100,000,000 people, even 5% is a very large amount of phones and revenue.

If Apple keeps the same design, they can kiss a large percentage of the people who will upgrade from the 4 goodbye. ADIOS REVENUE!

I just hope Apple isn't that stupid. Hell, I'm addicted to my iP4 and I've already begun looking elsewhere. Imagine what people who don't have any connection to Apple already are going to think.

Apple isn't just getting revenue from existing iPhone owner. There will always be a LOT of people who finally can afford one, can upgrade their shonky Nokia phone in their 24 month contract and so on. They dont need to make sure existing owner upgrade. They make
money one way or another

 

[bushido]

this icon was found in the latest beta, interesting. maybe this is why apple is suing the galaxy s2

see

 

[theperipheral]

Apple isn't just getting revenue from existing iPhone owner. There will always be a LOT of people who finally can afford one, can upgrade their shonky Nokia phone in their 24 month contract and so on. They dont need to make sure existing owner upgrade. They make
money one way or another

There are definitely going to be a lot of new iPhone owners with a new release, of course. But if Apple isn't focusing on those people, AND the current iPhone owners, they're running the company like a bunch of tards. There is such a large percentage of the population using iPhone 4's. I see them everywhere. If they are forgetting about those people, they are leaving out a very large percentage of the population.

 

[SirHaakon]

People, the 3G -> 3GS update was quite a big update.

Actually, out of the four released models of iPhones so far, that update was the least substantial.

 

[theperipheral]

Actually, out of the four released models of iPhones so far, that update was the least substantial.

That's not true. They changed everything about the 3G to make the 3GS other than the body. I'd be angry if they pulled that this time simply because the iP4 is perfect already, but the 3G->3GS was a huge upgrade. Camera was better, WAY faster (and it needed to be), oil resistant screen, video recording, better battery life, voice recording, compass, all kinds of upgrades.

 

[SchneiderMan]

I don't see why Apple would keep the iPhone 4's design around. There's no excitement about that.
I definitely think we're going to see a larger screen this time.

 

[SirHaakon]

I'm not gonna lie, I want a redesign as much as the next person...

Interesting that people want a redesign... I love the iPhone 4 form factor and I'd actually be disappointed if they went back to the tapered look of the previous iPhones (a prevalent rumor we've seen here for ages, with the "teardrop" examples). I wouldn't mind a bigger screen with the same number of pixels, but I'm all for them keeping the design of the hardware the same.

 

[KnightWRX]

Actually, out of the four released models of iPhones so far, that update was the least substantial.

iPhone to iPhone 3G was the least substantial. The 3GS brought the same SoC design as the iPhone 4 (SGX535MP GPU with a Cortex A8 architecture ARM CPU), Video recording, voice control and tons of other features.

Again folks : a case does not a major upgrade make.

 

[SirHaakon]

Camera was better, WAY faster (and it needed to be), oil resistant screen, video recording, better battery life, voice recording, compass, all kinds of upgrades.

I didn't say it didn't have numerous upgrades. I said that out of the four models released, it was the least substantial.

 

[iSee]

The signs suggest that the iPhone 4S will be the next generation iPhone.
Sorry, no outer redesign this time around.

 

[KnightWRX]

I don't even know how many people own iPhone 4's right now, but I'm guessing 100,000,000 or so seeing as they sell 15-20 million a quarter.

The iPhone 4 has around 5ish quarters behind its belt. The latest quarter saw sales of 20 million for both the 4 and 3GS combined. The Samsung GS2 having sold 5 million units in 85 days and the 3GS' 2nd place finish in overall sales per model means that the 3GS sold more than 5 million units, driving down unit count to 15 million iPhone 4s. This was Apple's best quarter for phones since introducing the iPhone 4.

So let's average 12 million per quarter times 5 quarters. That's only 60,000,000 million, a bit shy from your 100,000,000 mark.

The actual number is probably lower than that as the ramp up in the initial quarter was way less than 15 million.

I didn't say it didn't have numerous upgrades. I said that out of the four models released, it was the least substantial.

But it wasn't. Unless you only look at the surface of things and to you, a case upgrade is the only major update a phone can have. To me, I don't care about the case, it has no function really as long as it works. The 3GS was one of the biggest updates there was, on par with the iPhone 4 I would say (the iPhone 4 used the same CPU/GPU architecture, only bumped up the clock speed).

The signs suggest that the iPhone 4S will be the next generation iPhone.
Sorry, no outer redesign this time around.

Then it's not an iPhone 4S, it's an iPhone 5. Apple won't go around and screw up the numbering again after fixing it.

 

[SirHaakon]

iPhone to iPhone 3G was the least substantial.

I would argue that adding 3G to the phone was perhaps the most substantial upgrade the iPhone has seen. We take for granted having an internet connection everywhere we go these days, but it is the single most important factor that allows the iPhone to do everything it does. Web browsing, email, streaming music, weather, maps, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter... whatever you do on your phone (besides make calls) is useless without the internet. A phone with EDGE compared to 3G makes a world of difference in the efficiency of the device. I think you are devastatingly wrong, sir.

 

[bushido]

The signs suggest that the iPhone 4S will be the next generation iPhone.
Sorry, no outer redesign this time around.

why do u think apple put this in their latest beta then

 

[KnightWRX]

I would argue that adding 3G to the phone was perhaps the most substantial upgrade the iPhone has seen. We take for granted having an internet connection everywhere we go these days, but it is the single most important factor that allows the iPhone to do everything it does. Web browsing, email, streaming music, weather, maps, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter... whatever you do on your phone (besides make calls) is useless without the internet. A phone with EDGE compared to 3G makes a world of difference in the efficiency of the device. I think you are devastatingly wrong, sir.

It is, but as a single added feature, that's a minor upgrade. Having much more processing power to do something with that Internet access (the 3GS runs iOS 5 flawlessly, the 3G couldn't even handle iOS 4), video recording capabilities (which dumbphones had at that point), voice control, the compass was a much more featureful and meaningful upgrade.

You're denigrating the 3G -> 3GS upgrade because of the case, admit it. The case means nothing.

 

[theperipheral]

The iPhone 4 has around 5ish quarters behind its belt. The latest quarter saw sales of 20 million for both the 4 and 3GS combined. The Samsung GS2 having sold 5 million units in 85 days and the 3GS' 2nd place finish in overall sales per model means that the 3GS sold more than 5 million units, driving down unit count to 15 million iPhone 4s. This was Apple's best quarter for phones since introducing the iPhone 4.

So let's average 12 million per quarter times 5 quarters. That's only 60,000,000 million, a bit shy from your 100,000,000 mark.

60,000,000 is still a hell of a lot of iphones.

and in case you're blind or slightly dyslexic, i said i didn't know how many they've sold. I'm guessing 100,000,000.

 

[KnightWRX]

60,000,000 is still a hell of a lot of iphones.

Still close to half the quoted 100,000,000.

and in case you're blind or slightly dyslexic, i said i didn't know how many they've sold. I'm guessing 100,000,000.

And I told you why your guess was wrong based on actual numbers available in the different Apple quarterly financials and based on other models sales figure and market share.

 

[theperipheral]

It is, but as a single added feature, that's a minor upgrade. Having much more processing power to do something with that Internet access (the 3GS runs iOS 5 flawlessly, the 3G couldn't even handle iOS 4), video recording capabilities (which dumbphones had at that point), voice control, the compass was a much more featureful and meaningful upgrade.

You're denigrating the 3G -> 3GS upgrade because of the case, admit it. The case means nothing.

The case means everything NOW. With the 3GS it didn't matter because the internal upgrade was so substantial. With the 4, we already know what's being upgraded in the new OS, and we already know the 4 can handle it. So, the only real way to upgrade this new phone is to introduce a new look, a faster processor, and a better camera. There we go. DONE.