I see Verizon trying to put their spin on the firmware with that CDMA, red menu crap they add to all phones that's garbage.
and CDMA phones have this annoying "feature" where you can't talk on the phone and use data at the same time
2G iPhones have this same thing too.
My take is they need to spread the bandwidth out by going with multiple vendors. In the past year I've gone from 3 bars to 2 bars and now to 1/0 bars the past few months at my house (even with a new phone). AT$T is either pulling bandwidth from the 2G space and/or their network is simply overwhelmed. I know I'm not the only unsatisfied customer and pretty soon Apple has to do something as AT$T doesn't care (only about money).
CDMA phones have this annoying "feature" where you can't talk on the phone and use data at the same time
It's AT&T and yes, they are pulling 2G bandwidth and injecting it to the 3G systems. There was an article of that a while ago.
With my iphone 3G, im able to text while talking but i can't use the internet, is this the reason?
if you look at apple's products, it's all about selling the same or very similar product in different packages. Minis and imacs are desktop versions of the Macbook Pro. the only desktop Apple sells is the Mac Pro. AppleTV is an iMac with slightly different software. Same thing with Time Machine or Capsule or whatever it's called.
Everything else you said was pretty spot on, but the above examples you gave are about the stupidest thing I have ever heard.
Not to mention, cripple the heck out of the App Store like they said they would.
I think when ATT loses the iPhone exclusive I bet we can expect to see iPhone prices jump a lot. Right now Apple is forcing ATT to put a $400 dollar subsidize on the iPhone. The other smart phones only have a $250 subsidize on them. I would expect the careers to bring the subsidize in line with the other phones. I could expect in the future Rim to demand that the subsidize on there phones be that to match the iPhone. That or require the iPhone have it raised
You would think that Verizon would make the jump to GSM at some point. It is a very large pill to swallow, but AT&T did it years ago going from TDMA to GSM. Further, Verizon is 40.3% owned by Vodaphone which is internally a GSM company. I mean it does stand for "Global Standard Mobility" already.
John
I see Verizon trying to put their spin on the firmware with that CDMA, red menu crap they add to all phones that's garbage.
Not to mention, cripple the heck out of the App Store like they said they would.
You would think that Verizon would make the jump to GSM at some point.
you can't just make a VZ version of the iphone. you have to support their version of CDMA, Sprint's CDMA, pay royalties to Qualcomm (...)
all that for technology that is already obsolete.
Why would the price increase if other cell services offer iphone? That is against economics. Besides, it has been shown that apple makes a profit on each iphone sold (that is from a cost to sales price ratio)
Verizon has already said that CDMA will be around for at least ten more years. LTE is not being primarily deployed for phone use.
If, in ten years, both ATT and Verizon have widely deployed LTE and switched to LTE phones, then both GSM and CDMA will be dead here.
Every other phone maker does it. Apple can hire the same outside contractors to do a code port as everyone else does.
Moreover, Apple went to Verizon before to propose a CDMA phone, so they're obviously not against it.
Verizon has already said that CDMA will be around for at least ten more years. LTE is not being primarily deployed for phone use.
If, in ten years, both ATT and Verizon have widely deployed LTE and switched to LTE phones, then both GSM and CDMA will be dead here.
I really don't think they're going to be able to wait that long to switch to LTE, once it becomes clear how much more sense it makes as a technology. 100% IP, with the efficiency of Internet routing and the ability to abandon copper entirely (ending reliance on expensive agreements with Telcos for routing calls).
see my above post on how Apple does things. sell the same or very similar hardware in different products with minor differences. a CDMA iphone would probably be too much in manufacturing costs since it would be a limited production item.
only way we'll see a CDMA iphone is if next year Apple can buy radios that do all frequencies very cheap. even RIM offers CDMA/GSM on only a few phone models
I really don't think they're going to be able to wait that long to switch to LTE, once it becomes clear how much more sense it makes as a technology. 100% IP, with the efficiency of Internet routing and the ability to abandon copper entirely (ending reliance on expensive agreements with Telcos for routing calls). I think in 4-5 years both Verizon and AT&T will have implemented LTE in all major metros, covering 80%+ of their subscribers.