There is a lot of rumor about when the next iPhone, the Verizon iPhone, will be out in January. I have to admit that this does 2 things, it puts the iPhone out of the standard development cycle and releases a phone onto a brand new network, an UNTESTED network. Well, the network trials are going on now and limited user trials are rumored to be going on now.
LTE or 4G is being rolled out this January by Verizon. LTE is built on the 700MHz band that was purchased a few years ago by Verizon and AT&T. The promised speeds can be up to 5 – 12 Mbps. This is different from Sprint’s 4G service which is WiMax and it is not based on the 700MHz radio band.
There are several articles on Verizon’s 4G network and the Verizon iPhone. What I think we will see is an iPhone 4[X], or 4G, that is the same device with the 700MHz chip set. That way there will be a phone that covers the new services being rolled out by Verizon and AT&T in 2011. It makes sense that even if Verizon is rolling out the new service in January that Apple would wait until the summer before delivering the new device; that way Apple will cover 2 networks at once. I believe there will be an announcement in January and the phone in late June. Apple likes to plan things out and deliver their products with panache.
iron wil
Update, 2010.08.16
Adam from MacCast also supports my beliefs on the full 700MHz spectrum iPhone 4. It was also discussed on TWIT.tv on TWiT #260 and TNT #49. Some of the panelists feel the same way, others share their points of view.
