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Sprint-Specific iPad Ready for Launch as Soon as Next Month?
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Why not get just one universal iPad that works on every network world wide? Then we can change carriers as often as we want. This would also force more competition in data plans.
Although, I personally think that Amazon will introduce free 3G for life with their tablet and use Kindle sales to pay for it. That would be an iPad killer.
Although, I personally think that Amazon will introduce free 3G for life with their tablet and use Kindle sales to pay for it. That would be an iPad killer.
The iPad 2 sold in the United States was never carrier locked, so you can bring it to another GSM/EDGE/HSPA carrier and use their SIM.
Verizon and Sprint use CDMA/EV-DO networks, which are a different network technology and the current AT&T iPad doesn't have the chipset that includes the CDMA technology. Also, T-Mobile USA's 3G cellular data spectrum allocation is on a different frequency (known as AWS), again incompatible with the hardware that's in the current AT&T iPad.
For the foreseeable future, there will likely be some incompatibilities. Wireless spectrum allocation is not identical worldwide. Different frequencies are allocated for different purposes and those purposes don't line up worldwide.
Building chips that support all frequencies is difficult and costly, and antenna designs are generally optimized for a narrow band of frequencies. Note that even today, AM and FM radio antennae are often separate.
I'm assuming that we'll see whatever phone that comes next with whichever networks are becoming available, as well as the current ipad line expanding its network availability. I think that apple will wait until their presence at each network is fully rolled out before releasing their next generation of "network independent" hardware in late 2012/2013.
Just my .02
Just my .02
Yep ... although ....
Unless I'm mistaken, didn't you still have to buy a 3G compatible iPad to get GPS capabilities in it? (Otherwise, wi-fi only models estimated location based on technologies approximating the location based on wi-fi hotspots nearby that were already in a database, combined with directional information from the built in compass?)
Unless I'm mistaken, didn't you still have to buy a 3G compatible iPad to get GPS capabilities in it? (Otherwise, wi-fi only models estimated location based on technologies approximating the location based on wi-fi hotspots nearby that were already in a database, combined with directional information from the built in compass?)
Not 27, it's actually 24
Sorry to be a stickler, but the math is wrong. Adding Sprint would make the total iPads offered by Apple 24, not 27. There are currently 18 and Sprint would add 6 - 3 white and 3 black. (I think you may have counted the WiFi ones again)
Sorry to be a stickler, but the math is wrong. Adding Sprint would make the total iPads offered by Apple 24, not 27. There are currently 18 and Sprint would add 6 - 3 white and 3 black. (I think you may have counted the WiFi ones again)
I was wondering the same just now... I don't know were they got 27, unless they already know something we don't know.
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Bummer. I was really hoping for new iOS devices for T-Mobile. They have much better plans than AT&T, with the exception of Sprint, who has a really Unlimited Plan. The only problem is that you can't surf and talk at the same time on a CDMA device.
Now that it seems the AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile may never happen, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
I do have my iPad 3G on the AT&T Unlimited Plan, so if I get an iPhone 5 I may not need unlimited data, but still, 250MB/month is nothing.
Correct. The GPS chip is on the iPad 2's 3G cellular daughtercard.
WiFi-only iPads behave like the iPod touch; Location Services relies solely on WiFi triangulation since the GPS and cellular tower triangulation schemes aren't available.
I still have my unlimited data plan thru ATT on my original ipad. I was told i can swap it out and put it into an ipad 2 without losing my unlimited plan. So i am keeping it for now. But i am glad Sprint is entering the mix. Competition is a GOOD thing. Keeps em' on their toes.
I have a question about the possible Sprint ipad tho. Spring is GSM right? So since the ipad is unlocked, would you theoretically be able to swap out an ATT sim for a Spring sim in your ipad?
Or is Sprint CDMA? I forget. In that case....same question...but swap out the Verizon sim for a Sprint sim in the ipad.
The radio in the current iPad 2 for Verizon should be compatible with Sprint. Apple would only have to load a different radio firmware on it. So, a different SKU yes, but not anything new for apple except a different firmware to load during production.
Probably because right now, it's not feasible to make one. The problem is the fractured telecom infrastructure in the US. Every different carrier uses a different system. It's strange that Apple, which began to re-shape the telecom business with the first iPhone, is now simply going with the flow. I assume it must be cost-effective for them to produce so many different iPad versions, or they wouldn't do it. But it seems like such a confusing assortment.
I'd love to see Apple get out of the carrier-specific business, and develop a single cross-carrier iPad. Not only would this stimulate pricing competition among carriers, but it would make purchasing an iPad that much simpler. For instance, my parents want an iPad but I don't know whether to advise them Verizon or AT&T in their part of the country. So many choices, some better than others, goes against the usual "just works" philosophy.
Also, technically, it's entirely "feasible" to make a world iPad -- just recently we saw this, remember?
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/07/verizon-iphone-carries-world-mode-gobi-chip-from-qualcomm/
Even if the iPad were slightly heavier and thicker due to redundant antennae, I think it would be worth it. I don't like tying my iPad purchase to the long term fortunes and pricing whims of a single 3rd party mobile phone company.
Verizon sold WiFi iPad 1's paired with their own Mifi device. There wasn't a CDMA iPad until iPad 2, which was two months after the Verizon iPhone arrived.
It's probably more capable of that than most realize. I'd bet the only difference between AT&T and Verizon versions is the presence of a SIM slot and the radio firmware. That radio from Qualcomm can support 2G and 3G technologies on all 4 major US carriers.
Nah, if I recall correctly, iSuppli's teardowns of the AT&T and Verizon iPads unveiled different cellular chips.
Agree. I'm in the same situation. As the only tech resource for my aging parents, I loved recommending Macs and Apple stuff because it was so simple. Got a call a couple weeks ago about an iPad from my folks and had a hard time explaining the difference between AT&T and Verizon iPads. Apple engineers are geniuses, all of them. They'll figure out a way to make a "Universal iPad" someday. I hope is sooner rather than later though.
I really have no knowledge on the subject, but what are the chances of standardizing the wireless providers protocols i.e. everyone's networks becoming compatible with one another? Seems like everyone's experience could improve if the big cell companies cooperated a little more?
I'm sick and tired of carrier-specific hardware. C'mon. Get this resolved. Even quicker now hardware can end up in a landfill. Universal all the way, baby. Please stop restricting hardware, for the sake of the planet (and convenience to your customers). Thanks.
Part of the problem (and this is worldwide) is the limited availability of wireless spectrum. Ideally, cellular services would run on the same range of frequencies all over the world. In reality, that's impossible because different regions use different frequencies for different services (e.g., military, emergency services, television, radio). There's a finite amount of available spectrum and it doesn't overlap all over the world.
Also, there's a certain cost associated with the cellular equipment. CDMA is the odd man out with GSM networks serving approximately 85% of this planet's cellular users.
Who should pay the hundreds of billions of dollars to change that legacy CDMA to GSM? Would you like to chip in some money?
Same thing with electricity. It would make sense if the world switched to one standard voltage for consumer use but it's not commercially nor practically feasible due to the existing infrastructure and legacy applications.
Heck, the United States still isn't using the metric system.
If sprint gets an iPad - whether 3G, 4G LTE (if they switch to it) or 4G WiMax - you can then say goodbye to their unlimited data plan. In the beginning AT&T and Verizon may have to raise the caps on their plans to say 5 GB, but Sprint will come in with caps.
In time, however, just as voice minutes have gone to an unlimited model, so will data as 4G build out keeps rolling on. I use an AT&T 3G iPad 2 with the 3G off and tether to a Clear 4G WiMax mobile hotspot, which does offer unlimited data. I wish that iPad 3 would have GPS in the WiFi-only models, I am sure there is some combo Bluetooth/WiFi/GSM/CDMA/3G/4G/GPS chip in development out there by Broadcom or Qualcomm that if bought in quantity would make the iPad 3 (along with Retina display) pretty unbeatable.
Now if Apple were to, say, buy a carrier....
In time, however, just as voice minutes have gone to an unlimited model, so will data as 4G build out keeps rolling on. I use an AT&T 3G iPad 2 with the 3G off and tether to a Clear 4G WiMax mobile hotspot, which does offer unlimited data. I wish that iPad 3 would have GPS in the WiFi-only models, I am sure there is some combo Bluetooth/WiFi/GSM/CDMA/3G/4G/GPS chip in development out there by Broadcom or Qualcomm that if bought in quantity would make the iPad 3 (along with Retina display) pretty unbeatable.
Now if Apple were to, say, buy a carrier....
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They'd never do that. Apple considers mobile operators to be dumb pipes, nothing more.
If it's not part of their core competencies or core technologies, they are happy to let someone else deal with it, just like they outsource landscape maintenance and food service at 1 Infinite Loop.
If it's not part of their core competencies or core technologies, they are happy to let someone else deal with it, just like they outsource landscape maintenance and food service at 1 Infinite Loop.
Yes, people don't realize that in many markets, it makes more sense for Apple to have the same exact resources as their competitors, else they might become too exclusive and make it harder to switch to an apple device rather than easier.
This is how I feel about them buying a carrier, buying ARM, Intel, AMD, making their own TVs, etc. etc.
