It doesn’t take an expert to know that 4G is getting crazy amounts of attention right now and that handset makers are looking to build products that take advantage of the high speed networks that are currently being rolling out by all four of America’s wireless operators. So it shouldn’t be a surprise then to find out that Apple, on their official job offers website, is looking for an “iOS Cellular Protocol SW Engineer” who will work on “implementation, integration, customization, enhancement and maintenance of L1-3 Protocols for one or more of the following air interface: GSM/UMTS, CDMA (1x/EVDO), LTE etc.”
The next iPhone, due to be announced this summer just like every iPhone that has come before, will most definitely not come with LTE built in, but the iPhone 6 or iPhone 7 almost certainly will. What exactly does one do with the close to 100 Mbps download speeds that LTE is going to deliver is another story all together. While Verizon doesn’t offer that kind of performance right now, Clearwire has shown that they can deliver up to 90 Mbps over LTE, and TeliaSonera over in Sweden and Norway are already offering that to customers today, albeit only for USB modems.
Curiously, this job ad says the position is in China. We thought that Apple does all their intense software and development over in the USA, and then when they know what they want to build, they make an order with Foxconn to start pumping out those delicious products that we end up paying way too much money for, but in the end enjoy. Then again now that the iPhone comes in both CDMA and GSM flavors, it would make sense that Apple considers building products that tailor to the large CDMA operators in China and India. More customers, more money, it’s simple economics.
[Via: Engadget]