3G iPhone Coming?
Posted by Steve Laser on 11/21/07 in HSPDA, iPhone
Rumors. Gotta love them. May will be the first anniversary of the iPhone and Apple often celebrates anniversaries with upgrades. Apparantly, Spain’s Telefonica cell carrier stated that Apple is bringing out a 3G version of its iPhone.
Currently, the first generation iPhone uses the slower EDGE network. The good thing about EDGE is that it provides greater availability, as it is more widespread. The faster 3G (HSDPA) has a maximum theoretical data transfer speed of 2Mbps, though in actuality 400 - 800kbps is more realistic. However, this is significantly faster than the theoretical maximum of EDGE, which is 473.6 kbit/s for 8 timeslots. That is about 20% the speed of HSDPA. Further, HSDPA can carry transmit more calls at a time. So 3G is very significant.
Once the 3G version comes out, I expect to see more onboard memory on the phone as well as a greater availability of applications. I also expect complaints from First Gen iPhone owners wanting free upgrades. Ain’t gonna happen.
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