Could the next iPhone & iPad be part of the reason for accelerated LTE deployment?

[strung]

I'm sure you guys have already thought of this

 

Just thinking with the next iPad having LTE and rumored to be released on March or April, and then if the next iPhone is released in June which would be 2 years from the iphone 4 release (so as to keep the 4 buyers who are coming off their 2 year commitments). That would be a good reason to accelerated LTE and have it lit up a lot of places by mid year. It seems like they really want to light up LTE even faster than planned.

[pezasied]

Sprint wont get the iPad, or at least isn't rumored to. And I bet they try to have a few markets covered with LTE by the time the next iPhone is released, an unlimited LTE iPhone would be a huge draw.

[legion125]

Although LTE will be up and running, I'm skeptical about Apple and LTE. As every one is aware, Apple likes every thing in tidy little packages. That's why you see only incremental changes to its devices and OS's from year to year.

 

IMO LTE is going to be a headache for Apple due to every carrier has its own bands of spectrum. Unless Apple has access to a super-duper chip that can handle8-10 different bands of spectrum, you will not see a universal LTE device. If Apple does go the LTE route, I would think it would be carrier specific and I'm not sure at this point Apple will do that. But with the iPad 3 debuting in two weeks, we'll see.

[irev210]

Although LTE will be up and running, I'm skeptical about Apple and LTE. As every one is aware, Apple likes every thing in tidy little packages. That's why you see only incremental changes to its devices and OS's from year to year.

 

IMO LTE is going to be a headache for Apple due to every carrier has its own bands of spectrum. Unless Apple has access to a super-duper chip that can handle8-10 different bands of spectrum, you will not see a universal LTE device. If Apple does go the LTE route, I would think it would be carrier specific and I'm not sure at this point Apple will do that. But with the iPad 3 debuting in two weeks, we'll see.

 

That's the qualcomm 28nm baseband.

 

The bigger issue is the antenna. You will need a lot of antennas.

[S4GRU]

 

That's the qualcomm 28nm baseband.

 

The bigger issue is the antenna. You will need a lot of antennas.

 

Definitely. However, we will probably see it in the iPad first because of the additional real estate on board for additional antennas.

 

Apple definitely needs to adopt LTE this year, or its going to start falling behind. But I'm concerned that they may not include all the LTE frequency sets of their current iPhone and iPad carriers.

 

It would be really sad for Sprint if it gets left out of new LTE products. They need it to keep their numbers up to have any chance of meeting their numbers with Apple.

 

Posted via Forum Runner

[legion125]

Definitely. However, we will probably see it in the iPad first because of the additional real estate on board for additional antennas.

 

Apple definitely needs to adopt LTE this year, or its going to start falling behind. But I'm concerned that they may not include all the LTE frequency sets of their current iPhone and iPad carriers.

 

It would be really sad for Sprint if it gets left out of new LTE products. They need it to keep their numbers up to have any chance of meeting their numbers with Apple.

 

Posted via Forum Runner

 

If the iPad has LTE, then the iPhone will have some variation of it. Whether Apple has solved the antenna issue in a secret lab or if it will be carrier specific we'll have until this fall.