No one was surprised when Apple and Verizon announced a CDMA iPhone 4 earlier this year without the inclusion of LTE, or the technology that Verizon uses for its 4G network. We did have our hopes up, however, though it seemed like we’d have to wait another year before an LTE model of the Apple iPhone would be released. However, Steve Jobs may be mulling a TD-LTE iPhone for China Mobile, according to the carrier’s chairman.
“Jobs has expressed his interest in an LTE iPhone and is willing to start the development at an early date,” said Chairman Wang Jianzhou.
It would be a great move for Apple to tap the enormous China Mobile 4G network once it’s fully built out. Right now, the carrier is working on and testing a TD-LTE network, and Jobs & Co. may build an iPhone that will support it.
Reuters reports:
The company has been talking to Apple for years to develop an iPhone that runs on its homegrown 3G TD-SCDMA standard, but rival China Unicom remains the only operator to sell the phone as it runs on the global data standard.
Nabbing the iPhone would be great not only for China Mobile, but for Apple as well. This might also indicate that Apple would be working on LTE devices for the U.S., too, if 4G is what it has in mind for the near future. By 2012, we might see iPhone models that support 4G networks of all kinds, except maybe WiMax and T-Mobile’s “4G” network, HSPA+.
[Via: Reuters]