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Does the next iPhone HAVE to have LTE for your to get it?

Would you get an iPhone 5 without LTE now or would you wait?

  • I'd get the iPhone 5 even without LTE

    Votes: 49 59.8%

  • I'd ONLY get the iPhone 5 if it had LTE

    Votes: 10 12.2%

  • I'd have to see what other features it had if it didn't have LTE

    Votes: 23 28.0%
  • Total voters
    82
E

El3ctronics

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 30, 2011
1,017
40
NYC
LTE on Verizon is becoming quite prevalent and it seems that all their new high end devices utilize their 4G network. AT&T will also be launching their LTE network within the next few weeks. Even if there aren't a TON of devices available for Verizon's 4G network yet, I don't know if Apple can afford to wait another entire year before releasing an LTE iPhone.

Would you get an iPhone 5 without LTE now or would you wait until next year for an LTE enabled version? Obviously battery performance on the latest LTE devices is definitely better than the initial ones but it's still not where it needs to be so it's a tough decision. I think I would want the extra speed & reliability but I guess I'd have to see what other features are announced. What about you?
 
The only way apple will get me to buy a "4S" type device would be if it had LTE in it, otherwise, there is no way in hell I will be buying the exact same hardware with a souped up processor and minor change to the camera. I'll jump to android before that ever happens.

If it doesn't have LTE, but is a major revamp (bigger/better screen, better battery, some nice hardware specific changes that differentiate it from the 4 and more ram) I will perhaps get it. It probably doesn't help what you're trying to get at though, because I'm on AT&T, and the 5 will undoubtedly have HSPA+, which is good enough for me. If I were on Verizon, and I had an unlimited data plan (like I do have on AT&T), I would probably jump to the the Bionic, I know that is what my friend will do, he was very set on the bionic until her caught wind of rumors stating the 5 will have LTE due to LTE nodes being put in Apple stores.


In all, deal breaker if I were on Verizon, not so on AT&T (unless they only unveil a 4S type device)
 
The next iPhone won't support LTE. Can easily be deduced. Only very few countries in the world have an LTE network set up.
 
How many more polls will we see before the next iPhone is announced?

-> 1-2
-> 5-10
-> 11-25
-> 26-3,000
 
I couldn't care less about LTE at this point. Give me a bigger screen already!
 
El3ctronics said:
LTE on Verizon is becoming quite prevalent and it seems that all their new high end devices utilize their 4G network. AT&T will also be launching their LTE network within the next few weeks. Even if there aren't a TON of devices available for Verizon's 4G network yet, I don't know if Apple can afford to wait another entire year before releasing an LTE iPhone.

Would you get an iPhone 5 without LTE now or would you wait until next year for an LTE enabled version? Obviously battery performance on the latest LTE devices is definitely better than the initial ones but it's still not where it needs to be so it's a tough decision. I think I would want the extra speed & reliability but I guess I'd have to see what other features are announced. What about you?
Click to expand...

AT&T launched their 4G network August 21st, 2011.
 
One problem about an LTE iPhone, many sectors of their world market don't have 4G, (UK for example) it would mean there would possibly be a whole new site graphics for the UK to not mention 4G, also if its a 4S thats another feature that would make it fail in some markets, due to it not making it revolutionary/evolutionary enough. However Apple's success could make them demand that carriers to make 4G available :D that would be good but unlikely.
 
I have 4g lte and there is no way I'll go back to 3g. I can watch youtube in hd with buffering. Yes, the battery is not as good but I work in a office all day so I can charge whenever I have to.

Besides, I can turn off 4g whenever I don't have to use the blazing speeds manually to 3g. If iphone doesn't come out with 4g, I won't get it
 
rollerross45 said:
One problem about an LTE iPhone, many sectors of their world market don't have 4G, (UK for example) it would mean there would possibly be a whole new site graphics for the UK to not mention 4G, also if its a 4S thats another feature that would make it fail in some markets, due to it not making it revolutionary/evolutionary enough. However Apple's success could make them demand that carriers to make 4G available :D that would be good but unlikely.
Click to expand...

With all due respect for the UK and the rest of the world.. Apple is a United States corporation. Take for example, Japan. They had phones coming with 3G back in early 2002 and they sold overseas even though much of the world was still running on GPRS. I'd imagine Apple would just have the radio shut off and as the carriers installed and flipped the switch on LTE over in Europe you would just buy a SIM for LTE and update your phone to iOS 5.X or higher to activate the radio.
 
rollerross45 said:
One problem about an LTE iPhone, many sectors of their world market don't have 4G, (UK for example) it would mean there would possibly be a whole new site graphics for the UK to not mention 4G, also if its a 4S thats another feature that would make it fail in some markets, due to it not making it revolutionary/evolutionary enough. However Apple's success could make them demand that carriers to make 4G available :D that would be good but unlikely.
Click to expand...
I'm with you on this, considering many countries are getting it next year I think then would be the perfect time to go with it.
 
Reach9 said:
LTE is not a priority to me. The 3G speeds i get are fine enough.
Click to expand...

I agree. LTE would be a nice extra since I live in Houston and AT&T has 4g there but since I get 3g speeds of 2.5mb/s and higher where I live which is fast enough, i can wait a little while. It would be nice but not a priority.
 
Last edited:
I can't believe how many downplay how big of a deal it would be for an iPhone 5 to not have a 4g LTE.

First, If you are to get a new phone... it typically comes with a 2 year contract. So right off the bat a standard user is committing to two years before the option of getting a 4g LTE phone??? That's insane!

Also, all this talk about next years iPhone having the 4g feature so why not just get this one without it for now? Who has ever said there will be another iPhone in a year from now? Chances are slim to none. The 4g LTE is the way of the future and to think a commitment to an iPhone while everyone around is blazing on 4g speeds for two + years will be a laughing stock.

I really hope Apple doesn't wait for another couple of years to release something this BIG and instead just offer a faster processor and better camera with a new design for now and make that sound like a really cool upgrade. What a bust that would be. Computing and internet are synonymous. Fast speeds equal better computing...this isn't rocket science.

If these votes calculated the bulk of metro users then the survey sample would be worthwhile. Getting 10% of market consumers that have no chance of getting 4g LTE is no way of gauging the impact of this. 90% of major markets have 4g launching and that is the bulk of mobile telephone consumers.
 
Being on Verizon, yes 4G LTE is pretty much a must for me, especially with the awesome HTC Vigor and Prime about to drop. I live in FL and we have LTE all over. The only other way I'd get it without LTE is if it had an AMAZING larger screen and other features going for it.

AT&T folks are lucky to have HSPA/+ to fall back on, we are not so lucky.

Also as said above, Apple is a US company, and if I remember correctly we are one of the largest cell phone markets in the world so yea, I can see Apple making sure it will have LTE.
 
rockinred said:
I can't believe how many downplay how big of a deal it would be for an iPhone 5 to not have a 4g LTE.

First, If you are to get a new phone... it typically comes with a 2 year contract. So right off the bat a standard user is committing to two years before the option of getting a 4g LTE phone??? That's insane!
Click to expand...

Excellent point!
 
rockinred said:
First, If you are to get a new phone... it typically comes with a 2 year contract. So right off the bat a standard user is committing to two years before the option of getting a 4g LTE phone??? That's insane!
Click to expand...

Most carriers allow upgrades before the end of that 24 month contract so most users realize it's a 2 year commitment to the carrier....not the phone.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

I couldn't care less about LTE.
 
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