Comments on: Report: Apple to launch Verizon iPhone in Q3 2010

By: Alan Spicer Marine Telecom Blog » Blog Archive » Verizon iPhone in the works…

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:00:15 +0000

[...] http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/11/06/report-apple-to-launch-verizon-iphone-in-q3-2010/ [...]

By: MipWrangler

MipWrangler — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:35:02 +0000

Those iLounge images were posted 17 months ago. What is the connection between the smaller screen size and the hybrid CDMA/UTMS baseband processor?

By: masternav

masternav — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:03:15 +0000

@NormM: agreed. One of the presenting issues for dual mode is the higher demand that earlier chipsets required – and thus poorer battery performance – which would have been a deal-killer for Apple early on as they tried to balance ubiquity with performance. The new Snapdragon chipsets remedy that considerably with the smaller profile and power requirements, while providing the latest in performance.

By: NormM

NormM — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:57:05 +0000

@masternav says, “@NormM: that chipset is vintage 2007 and the specs read like it. Dual mode is very retro but if you compare it to the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform it seriously lacks”.

I’m not arguing that Apple should use an old chipset — they are surely aware of the QSD “Snapdragon” follow-on to the Qualcomm MSM chips used in the Blackberry Storm and the recently released HTC Droid Eris (which is also a multi-standard “worldphone”). My only point was that, since there are many existing worldphones, Dan shouldn’t have been surprised that supporting both standards is not a hardware issue .

By: lowededwookie

lowededwookie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:48:49 +0000

@tundraboy,

All it would take is 1% of Chinese to buy an iPhone and that’s around 13,419,701 iPhones. Considering the coastal population is around 500,000,000 then that seems relatively achievable.

You’re also forgetting that a large part of China’s population is spread around the world and is putting money back into China so the idea that China is very poor is not as correct as people are making it out to be.

Given that China’s economy is booming largely due to countries outsourcing their manufacturing to China then the potential is rather large.

Don’t discount China. There’s a lot we westerners don’t know about it due to their government hiding things from us so don’t write the nation off just yet.

By: masternav

masternav — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:28:45 +0000

@NormM: that chipset is vintage 2007 and the specs read like it. Dual mode is very retro but if you compare it to the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform it seriously lacks: running ARMv6 vs the Snapdragon ARMv7, 133 MHz ARM9 companion processor, ARM TrustZone technology, Embedded QDSP4000 or QDSP5000 DSP (CDMA2000 1X Rel. 0 / Rev. A, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rel. 0 / Rev. A, GSM, GPRS Class 10, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, MBMS baseband), Embedded gpsOne GPS module, Qcamera, Qtv, Qcamcorder, Qvideophone vs. Embedded 600MHz DSP (GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS/WCDMA, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps, HSPA+ 28Mbps/11Mbps, MBMS, CDMA2000 1xRTT, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. 1, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. B, baseband), Embedded Seventh-generation gpsOne GPS module, gpsOneXTRA Assistance and being able to be clocked up to 1500 MHz.

By: daGUY

daGUY — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:59:27 +0000

I cannot see the logic of making the iPhone smaller. Don’t you want the screen to be as *large* as possible while keeping the device pocket-sized? The current 3.5″ model already fits in your pocket quite well.

This rumor only makes sense to me if the 2.8″ model is an additional, lower-end (free with contract?) version that lacks certain capabilities (no third-party apps or something). I can’t imagine that it would replace the current 3.5″ iPhone.

By: tundraboy

tundraboy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:34:40 +0000

@lowededwookie. Okay, okay, let’s not get too carried away about China’s market potential. Their per capita GDP is still around the same level as Angola, Namibia and Egypt. Though the coast is quite prosperous and dynamic, the interior is still a third world country with peasant farmers barely scratching a living. Potential, yes. But we’re not talking 3-5 years here more like a generation, at least, and assuming social strife doesn’t engulf the interior in the meantime.

I’m not saying the demand generated by the coast is negligible but a lot of people just look at their total population and then severely overestimate China’s market size.

By: masternav

masternav — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:23:44 +0000

@stormj/avatera: while the Snapdragon chipset has been around since roughly 4Q2008 (QSD82508650 single core VLP integrated series), they just recently introduced the 45nm version, QSD8672 dual core running up to 1.5GHz, which not only handles the ARM-style app processing, but also integrates its predecessors’ cell modem and GPS function, but also adds integrated Bluetooth, high-def video recording/playback, WiFi, mobile television MediaFLO/DVB-H/ISDB-T technologies and upgrades to HSPA+. So the new chipset version is a significant upgrade on a much smaller footprint than the original. I can see why Apple would be rumored to express interest in this.

By: lowededwookie

lowededwookie — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:15:54 +0000

Hang on hang on hang on.

Everyone’s claiming Daniel is wrong for his previous article all based on a report that is not confirmed as being the case?

Seriosly, the idea of Apple supporting a dying technology is stupid especially when you see more and more CDMA based cell companies ditching the technology for WCDMA (it’s just happened here in New Zealand with incumbent Telecom ditching CDMA for WCDMA technology in order to be able to roam more easily (forced in part by Telstra in Australia who recently shut down their old CDMA network therefore killing off access to Telecom).

The majority of the world uses WCDMA so it makes sense to go where all the money is. It makes more business sense to go with the actual majority than the perceived majority. The idea that Apple needs to sell to Verizon to make more money is so narrow minded and typical of the blinkered view of the world that most Americans seem to have.

LTE may be used in the future but you have to see what the rest of the world is doing before you make your move so the companies to watch at the moment are ones like Orange, Vodafone, Softbank, Unicom, etc.

Actually China is going to be the one to watch I think. It may have slow sales starts but the potential is massive for a country with over a third of the world’s population.