Apple is prepping new sixth-generation iPhone and third-generation iPad models with embedded 4G LTE connectivity that will launch next year according to a recent report. Japanese news organization Nikkei Business on Wednesday stated that an iPad 3 with LTE is currently slated to launch on NTT DoCoMo some time during the summer next year, and an LTE-enabled iPhone 5 will launch later in the fall. Apple CEO Tim Cook is said to have met with NTT DoCoMo president Kiyoyuki Tsujimura and VP Takashi Yamada earlier this month to work out the details of the arrangement, and the companies have reportedly reached agreeable terms. NTT DoCoMo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What are “LTE” and “NTT DoCoMo”?
LTE = a next-generation wireless data technology that’s faster than 3G.
NTT DoCoMo = major Japanese telecom firm.
I think NTT is even the historical telecom operator of Japan, like AT&T in the US and Orange/FT in France.
And I bet the newer iPad/iPhone models will have a faster CPU and more RAM… SHOCKER!!!
Stop with your crazy predictions!!! Next you’ll be saying the iPhone5 will look different from the current model and the iPad 3 will have a higher resolution screen.
Stop it I tells ya!!! 😉
My LTE Android phone yields 2 to 5 Mbit/sec on average (in Seattle, WA, USA) where LTE is available.
My iPhone 4S yields 5-6 Mbit/sec on average (again in Seattle, WA, USA) where HSDPA is available.
So, yeah, new network technology is great but unless the carriers really provide better throughput it’s sort of pointless to the average consumer.
AFAIK, LTE is not solely about throughput. From Wikipedia’s article, it seems to offer support for lower latencies (which, in my experience, is a much worse problem than throughput on mobile phones) and operation at higher speed (350-500km/h : finally a mobile protocol which works well in the TGV ?)
Also more efficient spectrum utilisation, cramming more “good enough” connections into it (tech geeks like to have “faster! faster!” but in real world there are very clearly points of diminishing returns, and we might be approaching one with bandwidths relatively soon… at the very least: once you have enough personal bandwidth to completely saturate your senses, what good is more? And so on… http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2422942&cid=37375560 …no need to repost it)
And with TGV, it could possibly be better to just have femtocells in carriages…
Yes, that does leave the problem of “but how to supply the connection to trains?!”
Well I can’t help but notice that the routes of trains are extremely predictable, and rather straight (particularly at, problematic for cellular, high-speed stretches) – personally I would explore the possibility of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-space_optical_communication (if they http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RONJA can do it…), might give a very fat pipe (and the thread along the tracks serving also rural communities)