[bmdbaseball]

After Think Secret took out the sim card in the iPhone it has 3Gon it. It could be wishful thinking but is it possible that the iPhone has the ability of 3G but just needs a update. Is Steve Jobs waiting for cingular to expand the 3G coverage and then updating the phone to take advantage of it. It would make since if they are going to release a 3G iPhone in europe and not update the phone by then. I dont think Apple would have 2 diffrent versions of a product in the US and europe. With Apple already saying that they are going to add features to the phone could the possibly be one of them?

[rasmits]

Wouldn't including a 3G radio require approval by the FCC? You can't hide things like that.

[Kickaha]

Well, would it be possible for them to request pre-authorization for the 3G functionality, but claim trade secret status? No clue on this one, shooting in the dark... anyone have better knowledge of the ins and outs of FCC approval?

Or, can they ship the hardware, but non-functional, and then request an authorization later when the enabling software is added through update?

[Majost]

Why would they wait? ATT's limited 3G deployment doesn't make sense... obviously it'd be backwards compatible, so there's no need to hold back those (me!) in 3G territory.

Plus Steve Jobs has publicly stated that EDGE was a deliberate power/size compromise. An excerpt from that interview reads:

WSJ: A lot of attention has been focused in some of the initial reviews of the iPhone on the EDGE network that this phone is going to be on. Steve, we saw somewhere that your concern in putting a 3G chip in the first edition of the iPhone was that the current generation of that technology would drain the battery a lot, and that there were also some issues of coverage of the AT&T 3G network at the time you did this deal. Is that correct and have those issues been resolved over time as we've seen the technology evolve? Mr. Jobs: You know every (AT&T) Blackberry gets its mail over EDGE. It turns out EDGE is great for mail, and it works well for maps and a whole bunch of other stuff. Where you wish you had faster speed is…on a Web browser. It's good enough, but you wish it was a little faster. That's where sandwiching EDGE with Wi-Fi really makes sense because Wi-Fi is much faster than any 3G network. What we've done with the iPhone is we've made it so that it will automatically switch to a known Wi-Fi network whenever it finds it. So you don't have to go hunting around, resetting the phone, flipping a switch or doing anything. Most of us have Wi-Fi networks around us most of the time at home and at work. There's often times a Wi-Fi network that you can join whether you're sitting in a coffee shop or even walking along the street piggybacking on somebody's home Wi-Fi network. What we found is the combination is working really well. When we looked at 3G, the chipsets are not quite mature, in the sense that they're not low-enough power for what we were looking for. They were not integrated enough, so they took up too much physical space. We cared a lot about battery life and we cared a lot about physical size. Down the road, I'm sure some of those tradeoffs will become more favorable towards 3G but as of now we think we made a pretty good doggone decision. WSJ: Can you say whether 3G technology has evolved to the point where you're already working on including that in the next edition of the iPhone? Mr. Jobs: No, we just don't comment on future stuff.

[bmdbaseball]

Originally Posted by Majost Why would they wait? ATT's limited 3G deployment doesn't make sense... obviously it'd be backwards compatible, so there's no need to hold back those (me!) in 3G territory. Plus Steve Jobs has publicly stated that EDGE was a deliberate power/size compromise.

But why would apple have 2 versions of the same phone except one would be 3g in europe. As far as I know europe is almost all 3G.

[scratt]

Nah.. You've got it all wrong. It will be a US$2.99 upgrade, just like faster WiFi.. Free for us in Europe and Asia.

[bmdbaseball]

Originally Posted by scratt Nah.. You've got it all wrong. It will be a US$2.99 upgrade, just like faster WiFi.. Free for us in Europe and Asia.

I dont think apple would charge they said they would issue free upgrades with new capabilites already. It would be apple to charge though.

[Kickaha]

Scratt's nutpanties are just in a bunch tonight. What's up man?

[scratt]

Just pissy 'cos I haven't got an iPhone (yet). You got a problem with that Kick!
If so come round the back of my tree and we'll 'discuss' it face to face.

[Kickaha]

Naw, embrace your inner bitchy queen, I always say.

[FFL]

Edited misleading thread title.

[Majost]

Originally Posted by bmdbaseball But why would apple have 2 versions of the same phone except one would be 3g in europe. As far as I know europe is almost all 3G.

Because the 3G implementations are not compatible. Although the protocols themselves are very similar, they use different frequencies due to different regulatory agencies divvying up the airspace.

They'll need multiple versions if they want to deploy a 3G version to both Europe and the US.

[Electric Monk]

Well…

There are three main UMTS (3G) bands, excluding T-Mobile:

2100 MHz Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia, pretty much everywhere but North America.
850/1900 MHz North America, Australia.

So a UMTS iPhone would require a tri-band chip (big, expensive) or two separate models not including Japan-specific features of which there a lot.

The answer to the question is that this iPhone does not have 3G—Apple would have said so as tear-downs would have revealed it by now.

3G iPhone by summer, at the latest, for all markets.

[jcoley2]

I am not an engineer, but would it be possible for, say a $99 each upgrade, you ship the iPhone back and they install a larger:

1. Longer life battery
2. More RAM
3. 3G

Say at the end of the year? This would go a long way to installing consumer confidence in a new product line for Apple.

[torifile]

BTW, all Cingular's new SIM cards say 3G. The 2 SIMs I got with my w810 phones (not 3G phones) said 3G, too. It's indicative of nothing.

[scratt]

Originally Posted by jcoley2 I am not an engineer, but would it be possible for, say a $99 each upgrade, you ship the iPhone back and they install a larger: 1. Longer life battery 2. More RAM 3. 3G Say at the end of the year? This would go a long way to installing consumer confidence in a new product line for Apple.

In a word. No.

You may find a third party will do battery upgrades which you can self install, or pay someone else to, and invalidate any warranty.

RAM, no chance. I believe it's surface mounted on the PCB.

3G. Different chip set unless Apple has done something very funky with the chips they have on their PCB, and mislabeled them, and got the silicon maker to lie...

Things are going to move so fast with the iPhone these will be obsolete by year end. Steve is talking about a whole range of iPhones, moving at the same speed the iPod did in terms of innovation and updates.

If you have ever felt screwed by Apple before, brace yourself, you ain't seen nothing yet. Neither has AT&T, between you me and the gate post. You heard it here first.

[RobM]

You da' man, Scratt !

Totally agree - by the time we get 'em here in NZ (next year sometime) there'll be heaps of different models offering different functionality.

Segment that market and rule, Stevo !

[AWR]

Maybe it is still a good time to buy Apple stock.