Since last year, several smartphone manufacturers have decided to adapt the 4G LTE technology for their devices' cellular wireless standards. So what's the deal with 4G? As you may have deduced from its name, 4G is much faster than 3G with the potential of being ten times faster. Although several smartphone manufacturers have boarded the 4G, one prominent company hasn't adapted the technology to its devices yet, and that is of course, Apple.
The lack of 4G capable Apple devices isn't really all that surprising. Remember that this is the same company that only implemented 3G into the iPhone back in 2008. There have been reports that the iPhone 5 will have 4G LTE capabilities, but as it stands, those were nothing more but rumors. But all that may change as there's a report from BGR which indicates that Apple is in the process of carrier testing the iPhone on LTE. The evidence lies in an internal document that's found buried deep into a test build of the iOS.
Of course, this in no way indicates that the soon-to-be-announced iPhone 5 will have 4G LTE support. But with these internal documents as evidence, it should be safe to assume that Apple is already entertaining the possibility of launching a 4G capable device in the future.
The lack of 4G capable Apple devices isn't really all that surprising. Remember that this is the same company that only implemented 3G into the iPhone back in 2008. There have been reports that the iPhone 5 will have 4G LTE capabilities, but as it stands, those were nothing more but rumors. But all that may change as there's a report from BGR which indicates that Apple is in the process of carrier testing the iPhone on LTE. The evidence lies in an internal document that's found buried deep into a test build of the iOS.
Of course, this in no way indicates that the soon-to-be-announced iPhone 5 will have 4G LTE support. But with these internal documents as evidence, it should be safe to assume that Apple is already entertaining the possibility of launching a 4G capable device in the future.
Should this come as a surprise? Well not really. Apple is a company which is reputable for their thorough research that could take many years before they decide to release their products to the consumers. While 4G LTE is certainly the inevitable way of the future, the technology is not yet perfect. For example, one of the common drawbacks of LTE is that it is currently a battery killer. So who knows? Maybe when Apple finally releases an LTE capable iPhone, they will somehow overcome the problems that goes with the technology.
Of course if you have owned the original iPhone, this particular scenario will hit you with the familiar sense of Déjà vu. Back in 2007 when Apple released the original iPhone, many were caught off guard by one notable omission, the lack of 3G support. The reasoning of the company behind the omission is that they have no way of implementing 3G without considerably affecting the device's battery life. And of course after one year, the iPhone 3G was released with 3G support and better battery life. So it is likely that Apple is taking the similar approach with the implementation of 4G.
So will the iPhone 5 have 4G LTE capability? Well, chances are very slim. But once the company indeed decides to finally adopt the 4G technology, then their next logical step would be to find carriers worldwide that offer LTE such as Verizon. Considering just how successful the iPhone is, it shouldn't be a difficult task for Apple. [via BGR]
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