TechCrunch is reporting that the next-gen iPhone which is assumed to be released in mid-2011, will be equipped with a dual-mode GSM/CDMA chip. That means one single model could work on either Verizon or AT&T.
First things first – the iPhone CDMA model due in January won’t support LTE. But here’s where it gets really interesting: sources tell me that the iPhone refresh in mid-2011 won’t support LTE either. Instead, Apple will produce a dual mode iPhone containing 3G flavors of GSM and CDMA, which operates on all carriers worldwide. If this holds true, Apple won’t support the LTE standard until some time in 2012.
Also noted in the report, the new device will not support the emerging 4G LTE due to technical issues, and lack of significant coverage when it is first being deployed by carriers.
Apple simply doesn’t want to be the guinea pig on new LTE networks that aren’t ready for primetime, and Steve Jobs knows not to trust the hype that’s spewed by the carriers on 4G. The truth is that 3G networks have many more years of life, and the transition to LTE will be much slower than the carriers want you to believe (LTE doesn’t even have its voice standard fleshed out yet).
Apple did something similar with the launch of the original iPhone. That is to say, the original iPhone was only compatible with EDGE networking. Not until a year later with the introduction of the iPhone 3G did Apple take advantage of the 3G networks that were had already been in place in the top U.S. markets.
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