When the iPhone 4S was announced and was shown not to be LTE capable, a lot of the tech press and blogosphere were up in arms that this was going to damage Apple, since both Android and Windows Phone 7 were rolling out lots of models that were 4G/LTE capable. Apple was doomed™!
Well, not so much. So far Apple hasn’t been hurt in the least by not having LTE on the iPhone 4S. (LTE stands for “Long Term Evolution,” and is a faster and more efficient use of cellular bandwidth. It’s not exactly the same thing as 4G, but it’s close, and the terms are often used interchangeably.) They sold 37 million iPhones in three months, or about 5 phones per second, surpassing the birth rate of the world.
So why hasn’t Apple gotten into the LTE game? There are a number of reasons, from the relative scarcity of the proper chipsets, to the fact that those chipsets aren’t yet optimized for the iPhone form factor, and the fact that LTE still doesn’t have a lot of coverage compared to 3G (and outside of the United States, where the bulk of iPhones are sold, there is even less coverage).
But the primary reason may be Apple’s overriding insistence on maximizing the quality of the user experience. One of the biggest achievements of the iPhone in all its iterations was an incredible battery life. The executives at RIM (the maker of BlackBerry phones) flat out refused to believe the iPhone could get the battery life Jobs claimed when he unveiled it.
What does this have to do with LTE/4G? Take a look at the chart below, and all will be clear.
Apple is perfectly willing to sacrifice a bit of speed in order to maximize the battery life. That’s Apple’s priority. Other manufacturers, trying to create a differentiation with their products, are pushing LTE/4G phones for those who want them.
So far it looks like the competitive advantage goes to Apple. They will have to get on the LTE bandwagon sooner or later, and I’m guessing they’re working hard right now to find the right balance between performance and battery life for the upcoming iPad 3 and iPhone 5. I’d be surprised if the iPhone 5, at least, wasn’t LTE capable, but that’s all going to depend on the engineering. If battery life is not where Apple wants it, they’ll wait another year, regardless of the outcries from the tech press that such a move will Doom™ them.
