LTE Unlikely to Arrive in iPhone Until at Least Q3 2012

[MacGeek1993]

As an HTC Thunderbolt owner I can say that my stock battery on 4G LTE is absolute garbage. I had to buy an extended battery to get a days use with it on 4G.

However, if you notice how fast technology is improving, a better battery technology will be available by Q3 2012. Hopefully by then we can fit 2500mAh batteries in the iPhone form factor by then. That would be excellent.

 

[dagamer34]

Also -- I'm sure it was an incredibly minor process creating the 4S. Take the VZW iPhone manufacturing process (as it uses the same chassis) -- swap out the optics, and replace the CPU and radio. They've been working on the iPhone 5 since the release of the iPad 2. (Work on the A6 etc). I've learned a lot from having family in the auto industry -- they work on production models that will be released in 2017.

While it's just one product, I think it's important to separate in your mind that the hardware and software design teams are separate, and individual team members aren't allowed to see what the other team is doing until senior management says so to prevent leaks.

Also, I think the hardware design team is on a two year schedule instead of one year. It is unreasonable to believe that a phone's looks can be entirely redesigned every year. It doesn't happen with cars, laptops, TVs, or anything major consumer electronics product for that matter.

And it's not as if you design just one product at a time without knowing what next years product will look like. Apple certainly has a roadmap that's far more thought out than that. I'd guess that the look and feel of the next iPhone have been prototype-ready for a while and that's what we've been seeing leaking around the web. As for why they couldn't just release that new product today? Apple doesn't manufacture these components, other companies due, and that hardware just isn't ready yet.

 

[lsvtecjohn3]

IMO there was no reason for Apple to put LTE in the iPhone S. There isn't enough carriers around the world at this point that use LTE. What's the point in LTE in this gen of phones if most people around the world can't use it?

 

[WhoDaKat]

Absurdity

apple is more concerned with stock price than innovation. i'll pick up a nexus prime in the meantime.

Really? How did the stock price do yesterday? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go buy yourself a nexus prime.

 

[MacGeek1993]

IMO there was no reason for Apple to put LTE in the iPhone S. There isn't enough carriers around the world at this point that use LTE. What's the point in LTE in this gen of phones if most people around the world can't use it?

Verizon is releasing LTE networks like wild fire. And by 2013, their 4G will be everywhere 3G is available.

 

[GuitarDTO]

File this under obvious. For those of us with half a brain and the ability not to be distracted by shiny objects, it was fairly obvious what Apple was releasing yesterday. These ridiculous expectations people are living with are absurd.

Yeah, they are going to completely redesign the best selling handset in the world after one generation. That is so howl at the moon stupid, I just don't get where people actually believed it. How do you people put pants on in the morning without help?

The iPhone 4 design is legen... wait for it... dary! A glass and stainless steel sandwich? Come one! I'd rather see Macs starting to copy that then the iPhone going unibody (snore). I hate design changes just for the sake of design changes, especially when the design is the iPhone 4!

And for the love of god, if you want a giant screen, buy a freaking iPad. I'd like to keep my phone in my pocket without a giant bulge (ok without another one lol yeah right!)

Am I the only one out there that doesn't want to change the form factor? Am I the only one that doesn't care about a giant screen on my phone?

Bottom line, haters gotta hate!

Easy turbo. It's not that people really believed the update was going to be different.....it was just false hope for features that arent quite ready for prime time. There is nothing wrong with being disappointed that features you were hoping for were not there. It's not unrealistic expectations as much as it is passion for a product that a lot of people really love.

I think all of us know deep down that the 4S is one sweet, kickas$ phone (as is the regular 4) and that's why it's still going to sell through the roof.

 

[lshaner]

Or you could say goodbye to the name iPhone 5! How's iPhone LTE sound?

Or iPhone 4G. ;-)

 

[ChrisNM]

File this under obvious. For those of us with half a brain and the ability not to be distracted by shiny objects, it was fairly obvious what Apple was releasing yesterday. These ridiculous expectations people are living with are absurd.

Yeah, they are going to completely redesign the best selling handset in the world after one generation. That is so howl at the moon stupid, I just don't get where people actually believed it. How do you people put pants on in the morning without help?

The iPhone 4 design is legen... wait for it... dary! A glass and stainless steel sandwich? Come one! I'd rather see Macs starting to copy that then the iPhone going unibody (snore). I hate design changes just for the sake of design changes, especially when the design is the iPhone 4!

And for the love of god, if you want a giant screen, buy a freaking iPad. I'd like to keep my phone in my pocket without a giant bulge (ok without another one lol yeah right!)

Am I the only one out there that doesn't want to change the form factor? Am I the only one that doesn't care about a giant screen on my phone?

Bottom line, haters gotta hate!

Sounds like you are doing a fair amount of hating yourself. But as you say, haters gotta hate.

 

[WhoDaKat]

Apple engineers reading this have to be laughing their ^%# off!

Also -- I'm sure it was an incredibly minor process creating the 4S. Take the VZW iPhone manufacturing process (as it uses the same chassis) -- swap out the optics, and replace the CPU and radio. They've been working on the iPhone 5 since the release of the iPad 2. (Work on the A6 etc). I've learned a lot from having family in the auto industry -- they work on production models that will be released in 2017.

An "incredibly minor process"? ROFL! Redesigned antennae (an engineering feat in itself), totally redesigned insides. Twice as fast, AI, a hardware rebuild on the camera, and better battery life... while all keeping it inside the thinnest or one of the thinnest phones on the planet?

Your right, incredibly minor.

 

[chrmjenkins]

I believe Siri / iCloud are the two reasons the phone got delayed. The hardware was the easy part this year, but the software needed time to mature. Siri is still in BETA as we speak.

On top of that, pushing the phone back this year makes sense for future releases. It's a win, win for Apple, but a loss for everyone still running around with a 3GS .

Yeah, people that say 16 months wait for the 4S is ridiculous are missing the point. It was about the software. You get new hardware as a bonus.

IMO there was no reason for Apple to put LTE in the iPhone S. There isn't enough carriers around the world at this point that use LTE. What's the point in LTE in this gen of phones if most people around the world can't use it?

Yup, and that's why they are going to wait until it's an all-in-one chip that maybe costs a few more bucks but is otherwise innocuous to the design if they ship it to a place that doesn't need it.

 

[fenwah]

I was throwing a hissy fit over the lack of a redesigned iPhone 5 yesterday. However, after allowing my emotions to cool and actually taking a good hard look at what the 4S offers, I'm a happy camper.

 

[Trek2100]

The iPhone 4 design is legen... wait for it... dary! A glass and stainless steel sandwich? Come on! I'd rather see Macs starting to copy that then the iPhone going unibody (snore). I hate design changes just for the sake of design changes, especially when the design is the iPhone 4!

Am I the only one out there that doesn't want to change the form factor? Am I the only one that doesn't care about a giant screen on my phone?

You are not the only one. I totally agree

 

[TheSandman2236]

An "incredibly minor process"? ROFL! Redesigned antennae (an engineering feat in itself), totally redesigned insides. Twice as fast, AI, a hardware rebuild on the camera, and better battery life... while all keeping it inside the thinnest or one of the thinnest phones on the planet?

Your right, incredibly minor.

You do realize that the antenna design is the same as the Verizon iPhone right? The camera is a separate component that is not locked to the PCB. Not to mention Apple doesn't even make it. Batter life is managed with software & hardware. We're not seeing a larger batter here.

 

[WhoDaKat]

Easy turbo. It's not that people really believed the update was going to be different.....it was just false hope for features that arent quite ready for prime time. There is nothing wrong with being disappointed that features you were hoping for were not there. It's not unrealistic expectations as much as it is passion for a product that a lot of people really love.

I think all of us know deep down that the 4S is one sweet, kickas$ phone (as is the regular 4) and that's why it's still going to sell through the roof.

I guess people are free to believe whatever they want, but some things intelligent people have to know aren't going to happen. Like the sky falling, or a redesign on a massively popular product after the first generation of it....

 

[guzhogi]

Good thing my contract isn't up for another year or so. But then again, I'll have to wait in line with all the people who think the 4S is awful and are waiting until the next iPhone.

 

[Spectrum Abuser]

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've had the iPhone 4 on AT&T since it came out, but I will be getting the 4S. Why you ask? Because AT&T can take their overpriced plans and capped data and shove it up their ***. Sprint with unlimited data and an overall cheaper bill, here I come. I will just sell my current 32g iPhone 4 and be out nothing. Simple.

Now, who wants to speculate as to how slow the iPhone will be on sprints network or how bogged down it will become ? Lol

Or how often you won't be getting cell reception to even use your phone with Sprint.

 

[lilo777]

Does it matter if Apple 4S is as fast as the other 4G phones
(but with the iPhone has much longer battery life)

iPhone 4S is much slower than LTE Android phones on Verizon, WiMax Android phones on Sprint and LTE Android phones on AT&T. I am sorry, were you talking about Zimbabwe?

 

[GuitarDTO]

I guess people are free to believe whatever they want, but some things intelligent people have to know aren't going to happen. Like the sky falling, or a republican being intelligent, or a redesign on a massively popular product after the first generation of it....

I think most/all here are intelligent enough to recognize most of the hopeful redesigns had a good chance of not happening. Passion/emotion/hope just masks intelligence sometimes. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[bandalay]

apple is more concerned with stock price than innovation. i'll pick up a nexus prime in the meantime.

Speaking of pocket bulges...

 

[chrmjenkins]

iPhone 4S is much slower than LTE Android phones on Verizon, WiMax Android phones on Sprint and LTE Android phones on AT&T. I am sorry, were you talking about Zimbabwe?

The 4S being slower than those phones mostly has to do with AT&T and not the iPhone. In a lot of cases it won't really be slower than AT&T LTE phones because the backhaul isn't there to push the LTE phone past the 14.4 Mbps limit.

 

[RalfTheDog]

Also -- I'm sure it was an incredibly minor process creating the 4S. Take the VZW iPhone manufacturing process (as it uses the same chassis) -- swap out the optics, and replace the CPU and radio. They've been working on the iPhone 5 since the release of the iPad 2. (Work on the A6 etc). I've learned a lot from having family in the auto industry -- they work on production models that will be released in 2017.

The only part of the 4s that is the same as the Verizon i4 is the screen. This was a total redesign.

____

Or iPhone 4G. ;-)

Call it the 4GS.

_____

Lets look at the advantages of an i5 vs an i4s.

If they had gone with LTE, they would have slightly slower download speeds, more cost and the battery life would be shorter. They would also be able to ship a far smaller number of units.

If they had gone with a smaller body, they would have had shorter battery life, more heat issues and more cost.

I see no advantage to a slower phone with less life that overheats, does not get as good reception and costs more.

 

[ChrisNM]

iPhone 4S is much slower than LTE Android phones on Verizon, WiMax Android phones on Sprint and LTE Android phones on AT&T. I am sorry, were you talking about Zimbabwe?

So what exactly does that mean to the end user? If I use my phone primarily just for calls and email, does it make that much of a difference to me?

I would like to get a 4S from Verizon (because reception on AT&T is not great where I live) but it is unclear to me if the absence of LTE is really that big of a deal given how I use the phone.

 

[grover432]

I still can't believe they're making 3GS's. They must've made some hefty manufacturing contracts to prolong it like this.

Actually I prefer the form factor of the iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 4 (4S). The rounded back makes it easier to hold and it can take more abuse from dropping than the iPhone 4. I'll hang onto mine until the next generation iPhone comes out. Like the response in China, I don't see much of a gain in the iPhone 4S over my current handset. I do't play games on my iPhone so the extra processing power and retina display don't do anything for me.

I'll stick with my 3GS until we see a new form factor with a larger display.

 

[lilo777]

The 4S being slower than those phones mostly has to do with AT&T and not the iPhone. In a lot of cases it won't really be slower than AT&T LTE phones because the backhaul isn't there to push the LTE phone past the 14.4 Mbps limit.

AT&T is just not going to deploy HSDPA equipment capable of doing anything close to 14.4 Mbps. Right now it's closer to 2Mbps in most states. So backhaul is not an issue. And going forward AT&T is not going to invest in any H+, they will invest in LTE. So iPhone will be stuck with under 1Mbps speeds on Verizon and Sprint and 2Mbps on AT&T (in some cities it's better though).

 

[MacGeek1993]

So what exactly does that mean to the end user? If I use my phone primarily just for calls and email, does it make that much of a difference to me?

I would like to get a 4S from Verizon (because reception on AT&T is not great where I live) but it is unclear to me if absence of LTE is really that big of a deal for me given how I use the phone.

Right now I am using my HTC Thunderbolt as a Wi-Fi hotspot. Needless to say, the speed test results are pretty impressive

Not only the speed of LTE, but the wide-spread coverage of LTE is what I really like.