Mossberg: 3G iPhone In 60 Days

[0098386]

Here is my point of view...

The iPhone is right now on EDGE, or the 2.5G. Everyone is right now "OMG! 3G! 60 DAYS!," but will 3G really make that much of a difference in network speeds? No matter what, Wi-Fi will be faster then any other network speed. In my opinion, Apple should be looking more into make a Wireless-N chipset for the iPhone v2.

Wireless N would be a nice addition. But a little overkill? Hell even B band is faster than 3G. I can see N band being important for wireless syncing though - which I would really bloody kill for!

I don't actually own an iPhone, but I own an iPod touch. I find it's Wi-Fi speeds adequate with my daily needs, but living in a generation of going "faster," it could be faster. The whole human race at the moment are all about speed.

Well yes. My last PC would take an age to boot up. When I needed to work or get something important off my computer it would slow everything down. My iMac boots up pretty damn fast and uses so little power that I keep it on sleep (don't worry environmentalists I have solar panels on my roof ). Speeds important. I don't agree with much of our "quick fix" society but computers going as fast is definitely a good thing. Since they don't go fast and knock people over

There could be an endless list of how humanity wants to go at speeds that don't please them. When the 3G iPhone comes out, people will bash Apple, saying that it's not fast enough. They'll be demanding for 4G, and so on and so forth. In today's society, the present/modern speed of something is always being demanded to be faster. The 3G iPhone will be great, but people will want it to be "faster." Faster processor, faster wireless chipset, faster boot time, faster syncing times, etc. On top of that, they'll want a higher-resolution screen, a bigger MegaPixel camera, bigger touch screen, etc.

Heh, take a look around the iPhone forums here. There are a couple of regulars who take it upon themselves to criticise any movement by Apple, saying that X or Y company does it better. 3G? Nah they're after HSDPA. Which I wouldn't mind... If it had any kind of coverage beyond our biggest city
Thing is no matter the speed of the connection the fastest, easiest and smoothest portable internet I've experienced was on an iPhone. It's only hindered by EDGE which is soon to change.

So, in conclusion, ANY technology device is imperfect. Society today want perfection or near perfection. They want things to be better, thinner, bigger, faster, cheaper, prettier, etc. The iPhone has been out for a year, and it will take more then just a year to develop a "perfect iPhone" because there will never be a "perfect iPhone."

Of course! But out of all the phones out there and the upcoming phones I've seen nothing comes close to the iPhone for what I need a device to do (perfect OSX sync, multitouch for fast browsing, 16gb iPod).

My opinion, it its worth anything.

Ditto

 

[Pippen Man]

Ditto

Thanks, it does.

 

[zync]

While I totally agree with Walt about our pathetic internet speeds, the real bottleneck is going to become the servers that we connect to. Most are still connected to a T1 line, and some are up to T3s. It's really expensive to take the step up to OCxx. A T3 gets a max of about 45Mbps. If you're connection is 50, you're already maxing out the server, and there's probably more than just you connected to it.

We need to focus on renewing our infrastructure and making everything cheaper. It's the one thing that I can think of that can become cheaper as gasoline approaches infinity.

I wish I had a faster connection (and I could) but really I'm slowed down by the sites that I visit not my connection. I don't max out my current connection and I'm only getting 7Mbps. This is one of the reasons that I hate Verizon. They try to push FiOS at every opportunity when most users really won't use a third of the speed they offer. That and they always compare their FiOS speed to cable speeds from 5 years ago that aren't even offered in my area anymore.

Also, what we're also forgetting is that most of the internet exists in the US. So all of the other countries with their 20Mbps+ connections are still being bottlenecked by our servers!

As for government intervention, maybe subsidizing telecoms to upgrade their networks would help, but any other intervention would probably annoy me. We don't need less government, we just need it to be better focused on issues that it knows something about, like solutions for our economy. Case in point, a few weeks ago there was a congressional hearing (or something of that magnitude) about the state of performance enhancing drugs in baseball. Why the hell was that a government issue?

I know I'm all over the place on this one, but you guys give me lots to think about while I wait for this damned 3G iPhone to appear. And for the very last time—3G is a world of difference over EDGE. I don't care how 'uncrappy' you think EDGE is, 3G is 3-5x faster. That will surely make a difference—maybe not to you, or to those of you in rural areas, but for me and many others, where it exists within a 40 mile radius of me, it does.

 

[TonyHoyle]

The iPhone is right now on EDGE, or the 2.5G. Everyone is right now "OMG! 3G! 60 DAYS!," but will 3G really make that much of a difference in network speeds? No matter what, Wi-Fi will be faster then any other network speed. In my opinion, Apple should be looking more into make a Wireless-N chipset for the iPhone v2.

Wifi is available where though? Home and work... where you have a PC anyway. Public wifi is so damned expensive that it's way cheaper to use mobile data - that's why mobile data modems are becoming so popular now.

Wifi's day has passed... WiMax may do something but since there's no availabiliy (and AFAIK only one Nokia device that can connect to it) that's way into the future.

 

[Pippen Man]

Wifi is available where though? Home and work... where you have a PC anyway. Public wifi is so damned expensive that it's way cheaper to use mobile data - that's why mobile data modems are becoming so popular now.

In opinion, Wi-Fi is available everywhere I go. Most of the time being an unsecured linksys router, but I have Wi-Fi where I go most often with my iPod touch.

 

[Mykbibby]

"Hey guys! We've got 32Gigs of memory and 3G connectivity. That's it."

Wow, that would be an incredible announcement on a keynote, right? *irony*

It would be a terrible announcement. And that's why it won't happen. Steve Jobs said himself at the iPhone's UK launch that they are working already on the next iphone, the next one after that, and the next one after that. How hard would it be to add 3G and more space? It wouldn't. Here's my guess for the next iPhone...

- 3G (duh)
- OLED, higher resolution, screen
- Slightly thinner enclosure (maybe)
- I do think they may change the color of the back to black to make it look different (maybe not that glossy black, but Black aluminum? That would be awesome.)
- Knowing Jobs' obsession with battery, GPS will not be included. I am positive. The triangulation was a "replacement" until battery gets better (3.0? 4.0?)
- Speaking of battery, it will boast a better battery life for sure. That announcement would be great to hear!
- Finally, 32 GB iPhone offered with 64 GB iPod Touch.

This will be available at WWDC at the latest based on Mossberg's comments. If the FCC isn't secretive, they may announce the phone in May at an event, but I doubt it. I'm sure they'll be able to work something out. By the way Mossberg said 60 days, its obvious it won't just be an announcement, but rather availability.

Thoughts? Disagreements? Apple Employee who wants to confirm?

 

[havenhamilton]

It would be a terrible announcement. And that's why it won't happen. Steve Jobs said himself at the iPhone's UK launch that they are working already on the next iphone, the next one after that, and the next one after that. How hard would it be to add 3G and more space? It wouldn't. Here's my guess for the next iPhone...

- 3G (duh)
- OLED, higher resolution, screen
- Slightly thinner enclosure (maybe)
- I do think they may change the color of the back to black to make it look different (maybe not that glossy black, but Black aluminum? That would be awesome.)
- Knowing Jobs' obsession with battery, GPS will not be included. I am positive. The triangulation was a "replacement" until battery gets better (3.0? 4.0?)
- Speaking of battery, it will boast a better battery life for sure. That announcement would be great to hear!
- Finally, 32 GB iPhone offered with 64 GB iPod Touch.

This will be available at WWDC at the latest based on Mossberg's comments. If the FCC isn't secretive, they may announce the phone in May at an event, but I doubt it. I'm sure they'll be able to work something out. By the way Mossberg said 60 days, its obvious it won't just be an announcement, but rather availability.

Thoughts? Disagreements? Apple Employee who wants to confirm?

for the most part i agree except for the OLED.i dont really imagine that happening with this update. i think it will be a different size so apple can force people to buy new cases ect.

 

[0098386]

OLED will be coming to the iPhone. It's the next good screen technology. But due to the cost I can't imagine seeing it at the 3G update.

Higher resolution? No. It'll require a more powerful graphics chip. More battery life gone, more heat, splits the dev focus to work with 2 resolutions.

64gb iPod Touch? Seen the price of 64gb recently? That's a big nono for a while I think.

TBH I just don't know what to expect. Are we going to see a big update or a little "few extra chips" update? But then nobody knows

 

[whatever]

What about the FCC?

Doesn't the next gen iPhone/iPhone with 3G chip have to go through the FCC publicly 6 months before its release?

The FCC is only an issue in the US, don't be surprised to see the 3G made available only in Japan and countries with fast 3G networks.

3G in the US is only slightly better than EDGE.

Also I find it really funny how a conversation about video with a comment about 3G and the iPhone, gets translated into a conversation about the iPhone and 3G.

Really sad, since the overall conversation is much more important and relevant than a 3G iPhone!

 

[whatever]

It appears that AAPL is scurrying to get the 3G iPhone out in time for the $600 incentive rebates. How many of you are going to use your six hundred to buy a 3G iPhone?

That $600.00 rebate is killing me. Does the average American know that we spent $16,000 on the war in Iraq in taxes last year alone!

The government should not be issuing this, they should be raising our taxes, we have a major deficit to pay off, we're in debt to China and Japan!

What will it take for people to wake up, a draft to supplement our troops and more taxes for the American people to wake up.

 

[whatever]

http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/popUp_3g.html
http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/?lon=-94.575194&lat=39.0920585&sci=6&3g=t

Well, I looked at few maps and it doesn't look good.

Let's pray that the 3G iPhones support Edge too and can bounce between the two.

 

[tjanuranus]

And the Grid will be available to existing internet consumers in major cities when? I ask because you say "soon".

i never said soon..

 

[chewbaccacabra]

That $600.00 rebate is killing me. Does the average American know that we spent $16,000 on the war in Iraq in taxes last year alone!

The government should not be issuing this, they should be raising our taxes, we have a major deficit to pay off, we're in debt to China and Japan!

What will it take for people to wake up, a draft to supplement our troops and more taxes for the American people to wake up.

Come on, we all know shop and spend more or the terrorists win!

As far as WiFi goes I find it very sketchy. I do well at Starbucks and home, but most other places I frequent that claim to have it for free I can't get connected. I'd rather be on 3G and I might just upgrade and give my new refurb to my mom - who works at AT&T no less.

 

[whatever]

Come on, we all know shop and spend more or the terrorists win!

As far as WiFi goes I find it very sketchy. I do well at Starbucks and home, but most other places I frequent that claim to have it for free I can't get connected. I'd rather be on 3G and I might just upgrade and give my new refurb to my mom - who works at AT&T no less.

Great name!

Sorry for the multiple posts everyone.

Maybe we could draft kids into the National Guard (gives them a job and something to do) and have lay fiber optic cable cable through out the country and give us all free internet. At the rate things are going, we're be doing this in Iraq soon enough!

 

[zync]

That $600.00 rebate is killing me. Does the average American know that we spent $16,000 on the war in Iraq in taxes last year alone!

The government should not be issuing this, they should be raising our taxes, we have a major deficit to pay off, we're in debt to China and Japan!

What will it take for people to wake up, a draft to supplement our troops and more taxes for the American people to wake up.

The $600 rebate is stupid. The mailing beforehand to tell us that it's coming costs millions. That's stupid. As Lewis Black said last time, "put the check in the letter a**hole."

No, we don't need $600, but in case you haven't noticed, our economy is crap. We can't afford to pay extra taxes. Instead, the government should do the right thing to boost the economy—deal with the price of gas. If it weren't allowed to be taxed so extraordinarily, the price of everything would be less. The government can put a cap on how much certain things can cost, but as far as I know it doesn't apply, or has never been applied, to gas. Maybe our economy would grow if we didn't have to pay extra for the gas to ship things to us? Besides, it hasn't kept Hummers and other ridiculously large SUVs with only a single driver inside off the streets so I haven't even seen the one benefit of high gas prices I had hoped for—but of course those people can, unfortunately, afford to waste extra money.

Instead, some who are doing OK financially, like me, will spend this money, but most will just hoard it away for a rainy day, which may yet come.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand.

Apple will not, and has not, ever sold a product outside of the US first—at least to my knowledge. They're definitely not going to start now.

I don't think OLED is going to make it into this revision. I'm unsure about GPS. Part of me likes the idea, but I've got along fine without it for 23 years, even in other countries. I can read a map, especially if triangulation gets me close enough. If they include it, there will obviously be a way to shut it off.

And chewbaccacabra is a great name. I was laughing at it the other day!

 

[extraextra]

Well, I looked at few maps and it doesn't look good.

Let's pray that the 3G iPhones support Edge too and can bounce between the two.

3G is backwards compatible, it will switch to EDGE if 3G is unavailable.

 

[MacFly123]

Didn't you mean "wrongly" or "incorrectly?"

It's a shame when even those throwing the stones can't get it right (er, um, correct).

Maybe you missed the part in my post that says in caps, "I AM NOT PERFECT"!!! Excuse me for being concerned. At least I try, but thanks for being a prick anyway

 

[iJesus]

This morning I was fooling around with my brother's new ATT phone which has 3G, I connected it via bluetooth and saw that I could share the internet connection! (Phone to Laptop) I was pretty surprised and I disconnected my laptop from wifi and tried it out... amazing, I wish my iPhone could do this....

 

[cameronjpu]

Maybe you missed the part in my post that says in caps, "I AM NOT PERFECT"!!! Excuse me for being concerned. At least I try, but thanks for being a prick anyway

If you're going to be picky and rant about other peoples' grammar, you can say you're not perfect all you want, but you'd better have perfect grammar in that post. Sorry, that's just the rules

 

[poe diddley]

he's right

this guy is so on target with what he's saying about broadband and wireless service in the US. it sucks compared to other places in the world. there's no good reason for it other than it makes someone $ to hold us back as long as they can and then charge a premium $ for the "upgraded" speed that is the standard in other places at a much better price than what we will ever see.
i'm sorry but it does need to be regulated in this regard. what we call broadband here in the US is a joke in other countries.

 

[sleepingworker]

Well, I looked at few maps and it doesn't look good.

Let's pray that the 3G iPhones support Edge too and can bounce between the two.

From what I read, they will.

 

[MacFly123]

If you're going to be picky and rant about other peoples' grammar, you can say you're not perfect all you want, but you'd better have perfect grammar in that post. Sorry, that's just the rules

that's = conjunction for THAT IS... In other words, you just said, "that is just the rules". So are you done now??? Try THOSE, WOW

Peace!

 

[Evangelion]

The US market is NOTHING like any of the market's Walt touched on. Mainly, how big (geographically speaking) are the countries he's talking about? Yeah, the US has states bigger than those countries and that matters - a lot.

While USA might be bigger, it also has a lot more reasources to pull from. FInland is smaller, yes. But Finland still has a lot lower population-density than USA does. While US might have more territory to cover, that area has more potential customers on average, than Finland does. And if we want tot talk government funding, it should be noted that the government of Finland has 30+ billion euros to play around with annually. US Federal Budget for 2008 is 2.9 TRILLION dollars! That's close to 2 trillion euros.

The only way to fix all of that and have size not matter is to run fiber optics EVERYWHERE and the companies just don't have the dough for that without charging an arm and a leg. Japan can have these insane speeds because it's so small

Instead of size, look at population-density. Japan is small, but would it be able to give everyone hi-speed internet if population of Japan was 10.000, spread evenly across the islands?

The tendency of the middle class to live in suburbs over urban and rural areas and the general lack of caring by the overwhelming majority of Americans are the reasons we are where we are today.

I fail to see how suburban-living would have any effect on that. Suburban-living is still quite dense living with lots of paying customers.

Example - my parents live in "rural" Ohio about 6 miles outside of town (of about 5k people). The only broadband options they have are satellite (horribly expensive) and cable (which would charge them to run the cable from the road to our house (about half a mile). And that's in OHIO!

I live in a town of 38.000 people. Earlier I lived about 3 kilometers from the center, in a middle of nowhere. I could have chosen from more broadband-operators than I could remember, but in the end I decided to stick with my trusted ol' 1MB/8MB ADSL.

 

[Evangelion]

Instead, the government should do the right thing to boost the economy—deal with the price of gas.

What does the gas cost in USA? 3.04 dollars/gallon? That's a bit over 2 euros for 3.78 liters of fuel, or 53 euro-cents per liter. Over here gasoline costs about 1.4 euros per LITER, almost three times as much! And we seem to be doing just fine.

I'm sorry if I sound rude, but I think that Americans who whine about price of gasoline are just a bunch of crybabies.

If it weren't allowed to be taxed so extraordinarily, the price of everything would be less.

The amount of taxes in your gasoline is about 13%, hardly "extraordinary"

Besides, it hasn't kept Hummers and other ridiculously large SUVs with only a single driver inside off the streets so I haven't even seen the one benefit of high gas prices I had hoped for—but of course those people can, unfortunately, afford to waste extra money.

I saw a survey that said that when buying cars, Americans value cupholders more than good fuel-mileage....

There are few simple things Americans could make things better for themselves and for others:

a) No, you do not need that SUV
b) No, you probably don't need that truck either
c) No, you do not need that 3-liter V6 in your family-car
d) No, you don't need that large sedan to haul four people. Something like VW Golf is big enough
e) No, you don't HAVE to drive everywhere
f) Turbo beats cubic inches
g) Diesel beats gasoline

 

[MikeELL]

Crikey!

Internet is bad in the United States. Do these guys know how bad it is here in Australia?! You cannot get over 30GB of downloads in this country without being a registered business. They also charge us upwards of $110 for this ****.
Everything is included in the downloads (uploading, streaming etc) and there's no way to get rid of the downloads cap.
Australia's customer service is appalling compared to other civilized and westernized countries. It is a known fact that Australia has the customer service equivalent of customer service in the 1950s. We're almost 60 years behind.

since when is ozz civilized???

I kid, I kid

Oy! Leave Oz alone ya crazy galah...

Better yet mate, I dare ya to come down meet the jackeroos at me stockhouse in outback Kunnunurra; we'll chuck some fresh croc meat on the barby. Assuming you can catch it of course. Make a man of ya. We'll mix it with some bush tucker (you know, damper n witchety grubs...), and have a yarn about the campfire. That's my idea of a crackin good shindig. Why's that I hear ya askin? Cause the broadband is f*cked!