Comments on: Most convincing guess so far about why the iPhone has no 3G

By: mxz.lv » Apple prezentÄ“ telefonu, smejas visai pasaulei sejÄ?.

mxz.lv » Apple prezentÄ“ telefonu, smejas visai pasaulei sejÄ?. — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:27:12 +0000

[...] TÄ?pat kÄ? ar 3G neiekÄ¼auÅ¡anu. Skat. Most convincing guess so far about why the iPhone has no 3G. [...]

By: Basic Thinking Blog » Apple: aussen hui, innen pfui

Basic Thinking Blog » Apple: aussen hui, innen pfui — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 06:31:26 +0000

[...] z.B. hier: Most convincing guess so far about why the iPhone has no 3G. In Europa koennte das durchaus aehnlich aussehen. Direktlink No. [...]

By: Josh Bancroft

Josh Bancroft — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 04:11:51 +0000

Will, I don’t buy the “3G components aren’t small enough” argument, at least, not without some proof. There are HSDPA phones out there that are just as small as 2G phones. EVDO, too.

By: Will

Will — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 01:18:37 +0000

Sometimes, Cringely’s arguments are intriguing, well-considered and strangely plausible.

Sometimes, his arguments are a big steaming pile of crap.

This one’s a number two (so to speak).

2G mobile technology is very mature, and the companies who make the internal components have had plenty of time to refine and miniaturize them. 3G technology’s still fairly young, and the components are just plain bigger. It’s a lot harder to make a small 3G handset than a small 2G handset. If you want a reason for iPhone’s limitation, look no further. It’s most likely a matter of engineering feasibility.

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:43:13 +0000

As I understand it, the iTunes Store makes money. It doesn’t make alot of money, but it makes money. At the very least, it breaks even.

By: Josh Bancroft

Josh Bancroft — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:47:13 +0000

If Apple doesn’t make money from iTunes music sales, why keep the store around? Of course they make money. Why else would Steve Jobs point out that 2 billion songs have been sold during his keynote?

This article talks about Apple’s attitude towards iTunes sales.

And what “battery life problem” with 3G phones? I don’t have any battery life problems with my 3G phone, and I’ve never seen any data that suggests an EDGE radio uses less power than an HSDPA radio. Just because UMTS/HSDPA is faster doesn’t mean it takes more juice to run it.

By: R Boylin

R Boylin — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:39:24 +0000

Cringely’s point depends on Apple making serious money from iTunes sales on the web. It doesn’t!!! This kind of analysis is suffering from extreme nearsightedness. Look at the battery life problem with G3 phones. Apple will have advanced phones next year as battery performance increases.

By: Josh Bancroft

Josh Bancroft — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:45:46 +0000

Not to mention the MANY times I’ve been able to use my EVDO-enabled phone as a modem to get online where there wasn’t any WiFi (or any free WiFi) available, like in hotels, at conferences, at airports, etc.

If the iPhone ships with no 3G wireless data service, it will be essentially useless for that (EDGE is way to slow). And that’s one more thing that the iPhone would do worse than the current phones out there.

By: Josh Bancroft

Josh Bancroft — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:41:34 +0000

Do you have a link to reliable information (not speculation or hearsay) that Apple has said 3G will be enabled later? No linky, no believey.

Here’s why I don’t buy the “it has WiFi - you don’t need 3G” argument:

WiFi isn’t everywhere - in the car, waiting for the train, out shopping, etc. And when it is available, you have to take the time to turn on the WiFi, see if there’s an open network, connect to it, and then hope you can get online. Doesn’t work when you need to be connected more or less constantly for things like push email, a quick lookup of something online, etc.

For perspective, my current phone, a Windows Mobile Samsung i730 on Verizon, with EVDO high speed 3G wireless data access, also has WiFi built right in. I’ve had the phone for a year and a half, and I’ve used the WiFi exactly twice - both times at home, because the EVDO network was down. The rest of the time, I just use EVDO, because 3G wireless is just as fast as WiFi, it’s there all the time, and doesn’t require ANY fiddling. It just works. The WiFi just isn’t worth the hassle compared to always on 3G data service.

If WiFi were enough connectivity for the iPhone, why even bother to put EDGE in it at all? Why not make people use only WiFi for internet connectivity?

By: jonathan

jonathan — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:30:09 +0000

It connects with wifi so it isn’t crippled and Cingular / ATT has yet to roll out much of its faster network. But no, weird speculation about motives is far more realistic than fact or Jobs’ own comment that the device will support 3G later. We’ll have to see how things work, but it seems the device is designed with the idea that you’ll use normal bandwidth for calls and messaging and wifi for the internet (and then faster networks as those become available).