4G or Not 4G, Apple Saying No

Despite rumours to the contrary, iPhone users won’t be able to get use a 4G network at any point in the next 14 months.

This flies in the face of earlier reports that Apple would be aligning with Verizon to enable Apple to utilise the 4G network. "At some point our business interests are going to align," Verizon Communications Inc. President Lowell McAdam said, referring to Apple. "I fully expect it, but I don't have anything to say [yet]."

With users expecting a shift transfer as early as January 2011, the news will come as a slight shock, although maybe not that much of a shock: iPhone waited for the 3G network to mature before they moved across in 2007. iPhone’s apparent stagnation could encourage competitors to drive forward and make further headway into the 4G smartphone sweepstakes; 4G-enabled Android phones already utilise Sprint’s WiMAX network, and dual-mode LTE-enabled Android phones will start to emerge for use on Verizon’s new network in the first half of next year.

iPhone are standing back on the new 4G, possibly because “Apple simply doesn’t want to be the guinea pig on new LTE networks that aren’t ready for primetime,” according to TechCrunch’s Steve Cheney. iPhone did the same in 2007 when they “waited to support 3G for one entire cycle, opting to release the original iPhone on AT&T’s mature 2.5G EDGE network, despite wide availability of 3G by early 2007.”

Other networks however are looking to cease the opportunity before Apple get involved. Oporators are pushing technology so that the infrastructure can meet demand, telecom communications companies are all vying for the right 4G network solutions. These will be discussed at a closed-door NG Telecoms Summit in North America, where representatives from AT&T and Comcast (among others) will have the opportunity to tackle infrastructure concerns and how to juggle software that requires a heftier bandwidth.

iPhone are clearly weary of jumping in with 4G, when they can “make a unified model that works across 3G networks on all carriers, and innovate with incredible new features like NFC which mirror what they accomplished with FaceTime on iPhone 4,” according to Cheney.

It is clear however, that iPhone, along with all smartphone providers will all make the jump to 4G, whether it is in 2011 or 2012, and companies will be more inclined to do so when there is better infrastructure in place to support and outstrip strong 3G networks.