Bloomberg.com is reporting a version of the iPhone that will supports AT&T’s 3G (3rd generation) network is coming next year.
Says who?
Says the CEO of AT&T, Randall Stephenson in this story.
Did Apple agree to this public outing of a future product?
Not sure but I doubt it. Apple loves surprises and secrets, so it’s reasonable to assume they didn’t know this would be said.
For those that don’t know, the current iPhone uses AT&T’s EDGE data network when surfing the web and not connected to wifi and the use of EDGE is one of the most criticized things about the iPhone. EDGE is slooooooow.
If the iPhone were to be able to use AT&T’s 3G network instead of EDGE, data speeds would see a noticeable bump (in some cases a 10x speed boost or more).
Why doesn’t the current iPhone use the 3G network?
Primarily because of a dramatically shorter battery life, but also because the 3G network is (as of the iPhone launch, anyway) only in some major metropolitan areas, whereas the EDGE network has better coverage.
Stephenson claims that by next year they hope to see better battery life for 3G chips. Check out the report at Bloomberg.com for the full story.
Filed under: tech
