Comments on: How Apple could screw the U.S. wireless industry

By: Peter Sills

Peter Sills — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:39:57 +0000

I know plenty of people who own tablets but I don’t know anyone who wants to connect that tablet to a wireless cell network. They either tether them to the plan the phone carries or they use a free hotspot. Are there people who are actually paying for a data plan for both phone and tablet? Huh?

By: Dries Grobler Jr

Dries Grobler Jr — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:27:14 +0000

Great article about the future and not just focusing on what Apple will be releasing but how it affects the “world”. Thanks!

By: Kindroid

Kindroid — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 06:37:32 +0000

Apple’s legacy support of older iPhones is already causing them problems. Higher crash rates since the release of iOS 5. Older phones with lower hardware specs struggle with newer OS complexity. Developers face challenges sorting out how to support varying hardware specs and API updates. A frustrating form of fragmentation, where older iPhones become less stable. This is the primary reason Android phones are not as backward mobile…less legacy issue. With the added advantage of allowing new model hardware and Android updates to evolve faster.

As far as iPhone 5 LTE and battery issues…the Razr Maxx has proven the battery life of LTE devices does not have to be dismal. As far as LTE speed is concerned…Android user who have LTE phones are pretty much universal in their praise of LTE speeds. And as far as data usages are concerned…if it comes down to not getting as much done because of slow 3g speeds and not getting as much done because of 4g data caps…I will take the 4g data caps. At least what I do get done…will be faster.

By: Alex Clark

Alex Clark — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 06:16:12 +0000

Kevin,
“the world’s
single-most-popular smartphone and
tablet”…? According to a January 2012 Neilsen study, Android commanded just shy %40 market share globally. Apple came in just under %30. Popularity must be in the eye of the beholder these days. I digress…
LTE, just as EVDO/HSDPA+ before it and TDMA, will be the industry standard. Regardless how tech savvy people feel, its the masses that will beg for 4th gen cell tech, without actually knowing what it is, or how it works. Phone technology, for the everyday common man/woman/teeny-bopper, is created by a carrier’s marketing department not the manufacturer. Carrier’s are the ones who sell these devices that contain technology that is beyond the grasp of their largest core group of custy’s. As long as the every-man is somewhat satisfied with price and performance, us titans of tech and sultans of spec will be cast to the fringes as mere minorities and small voices. But one day, I’m confident, we shall have our day in the sun.

By: Kevin Fitchard

Kevin Fitchard — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:49:30 +0000

I actually agree with you on all counts, Michael. I’m still skeptical we’ll see an LTE iPad tomorrow, but many of my colleagues in the tech media assure us we will. I want to believe them, but Apple has pulled some bait-n-switches before.

That said it’s far more important that the iPhone have LTE connectivity. It’s what’s loading down networks today and the expectations of mobility are far higher.

By: Kevin Fitchard

Kevin Fitchard — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:42:53 +0000

It’s pretty mainstream here in the U.S. and it most certainly be when the new iPhone comes out.

I agree with you, Apple probably doesn’t care. But it should care because it affects its customers, the rates the pay and the speeds they have available to them. Unless LTE moves forward mobile broadband stays static.

By: Michael Makary

Michael Makary — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:41:56 +0000

i don’t think the ipad’s unveiling tomorrow will be an indicator whether or not apple is behind LTE or not. the ipad will lag the iphone. Apple could have released a retine display ipad in the ipad 2. it was a few months before the iphone 4, but it didn’t.

Also, the ipad is a device that, for most people, is used at homes, offices, coffee shops, where wifi is available…. it’s more of a home device, unlike the iphone where i need information at any given moment, and all i have to rely on is my carrier’s network, in which case i do support LTE.

If you really wanna get down down to it tho, people with iphones are practically married to that OS and divorce is EXPENSIVE. we rely on our phones in familiarity, in apps, in different apps that claim to have the same functionality until we’ve found the one that suits us…. no one is going anywhere…. it might be a bumpy ride.

By: Kevin Fitchard

Kevin Fitchard — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:40:09 +0000

I suppose if any company had the power to impose an ad hoc standard on the wireless industry, it would be Apple :)

By: Kevin Fitchard

Kevin Fitchard — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:39:08 +0000

Hi Tim,

Well you could argue that a lot of 3G networks were half-baked when the iPhone 3G came out. How often did AT&T’s network basically go offline in your city. That was a capacity issue not a network signaling one, but the point is no network is every going to be ‘ready’ for the iPhone. But LTE is where the future is and Apple needs to be there. By Fall of 2012, when the new iPhone comes out, LTE is going to be as ready as it will ever be here in the U.S.

By: Kevin Fitchard

Kevin Fitchard — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:33:50 +0000

Thanks for commenting, Matthew.

If you ask me a lot of the LTE battery problems are Android vendors cheaping out on the battery cost. LTE needs a lot more powerful battery (at least for now). Now Moto and Nokia are starting to pack in lithium ion it’s becoming less of problem. Still, the three day phone charge is a thing of the past unless the fuel cell suddenly becomes viable for handsets