News

iPhone: but what happened to 3G?

by Guy J Kewney | posted on 09 January 2007

The iPhone, said Steve Jobs, is a full-featured cellular phone. At $500 including a two year contract, it had better be. So: where's the 3G data capacity?

Almost nobody seems to have noticed that this is a quaintly old-fashioned phone. It has EDGE - the poor man's higher speed data - and CDMA, and GSM. But not WCDMA - it is not a UMTS device. It is not 3G.

Almost certainly, this will lose potential sales. Almost certainly, Apple doesn't care. Putting 3G onto the Mk I device would cut the already-ordinary battery life, while making the electronics more complex.

Expect the 3G version this time 2008, say commentators.