iPhone 5 and iPad 3, both with 4G LTE, reportedly due next year

http://www.bgr.com/2011/11/30/iphone-5-and-ipad-3-both-with-4g-lte-reportedly-due-next-year/

by gadgetgurudude • 15 years ago

22 31 15 years ago

Hoping Apple will include some NFC stuff on the next version :)

I've never understood the appeal of this. Why not just tape a debit card to the back of your phone? I've got a VISA with "Blink". It hasn't exactly revolutionized paying for things.

It's not really a technological advance for me to have to take my phone out to pay for something.

cwe• 15 years ago

Especially when apps like Square's Card Case have proven that there is a better system.

InclinedPlane3• 15 years ago

NFC is useful for more than just payments. Need to exchange contact info? Or files? Or URLs? NFC works excellently for that. I predict it will end up being pretty popular.

astrodust• 15 years ago

I think there's serious security implications here.

PLejeck3• 15 years ago

I honestly don't believe this would be a smart move. 4G LTE is still young and the iPhone has bad enough battery life already.

jinushaun• 15 years ago

That's true now, but I think by mid-2012, the "noise" of 4G would be too loud for Apple to ignore. Android has already captured the hearts and wallets of most consumers out there--no need to add "lacks 4G" to the list of iPhone minuses when it comes to purchasing a new phone.

PLejeck3• 15 years ago

It's not a really that big a minus when you think about how common WiFi hotspots are, plus Android only really captures two audiences: those without money (cheaper phones), and those who want "openness" - let's face it, nobody actually would prefer an Android over an iPhone if they could pick either and both were equally open-architecture.

Pewpewarrows2• 15 years ago

At this point they should really consider dropping the "suffix" to the iPhone model name. They've kind of dug themselves into a hole, name wise, since this upcoming one will be the 6th version of the model. They could name it 5, which would probably only upset us geeks that actually know how many models there have been. They could name it 6, but then the general population would start wondering where 5 went. They could even just name it 4G and procrastinate solving the problem for another 12-18 months.

Or they could just go the way of a lot of their other products and just advertise it as the new iPhone (like the new MacBook Air, etc).

tvon• 15 years ago

The suffix was never meant to indicate that it was the Nth model, the only time that happened to line up was with the iPhone 4.

edit: I'm not talking about the iPad, of course.

lyso• 15 years ago

What did the "4" mean in the iPhone 4, then?

roc• 15 years ago

> "which would probably only upset us geeks that actually know how many models there have been"

I thought the geeks were upset that the 4S wasn't a "real" upgrade anyway? It seems to me they can't have it both ways. It either counts, or it doesn't. (Not that logical consistency has ever been their strong suit.)

That said, I agree. The suffix was unnecessary and rather lame from the start. Moving on from that not only feels inevitable, but an overdue correction of a mistake.

onemoreact• 15 years ago

It's based on the ~2 year upgrade cycle based on mobile phone companies. 3G to 4, 3gs to 4s, 4 to 5 etc.

GuiA• 15 years ago

That's a very good point; however they still offer models n-1 and n-2 (and will probably continue that trend for the foreseeable future) so they need some distinction for that.

jl6• 15 years ago

Windows 7 is version 6.1. Welcome to the world of model versioning, where nothing means anything!

Pewpewarrows2• 15 years ago

I remember hearing the reason behind that in one of the BUILD conference talks this year. Apparently (and sadly) there are tons of high-profile Windows apps that would completely break and stop working all-together if the only thing they did in the next version of Windows was bump the major version number up one and changed nothing else. Developers hard-coded many portions of their product to depend on specific version numbers existing (instead of looking for available APIs).

They learned their lesson after Vista, which is why 7 only bumped the minor version number up, and 8 will follow in its footsteps.

ctdonath• 15 years ago

Any rumors of data caps?

There's a qualitative difference between unlimited vs. capped plans, even given equivalent usages.

hkmurakami• 15 years ago

NTT Docomo getting the iPhone would be industry-changing in Japan.

Docomo has by far the best voice and data network in the country, and the users in Japan have been clamoring for it for as long as I can remember. In fact, many of my friends there carry a voice phone on Docomo and an iPhone on Softbank (the 3rd largest carrier which until late this year, was the sole carrier offering the iPhone. They have since been joined by KDDI, the second largest carrier, with the launch of iPhone4S. When this was announced, Softbank's stock price plummeted).

From what I understand, NTT used to be a state-owned entity, and thus their capital infrastructure is seemingly oblivious to the limitations of investment returns. Docomo phones work perfectly fine in the middle of the mountain when all other carriers' phones cease to function.

This being said, I'm skeptical whether they will even choose to carry the iPhone5 (the article only mentions the iPad3), because their iMode service is a massive cash cow. It's been said that the reason they didn't get the iPhone in the first place was because the two sides couldn't come to terms on iPhone's possible iMode support.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mode

Call me an interested observer.

MikeCapone• 15 years ago

As long as the iPad 3 includes a higher-resolution screen, I'll be buying it, even if nothing else is changed from the 2.

iPhone 5 and iPad 3, both with 4G LTE, reportedly due next year

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