iPhone: For the rest of the world it’s wait and see on 3G

Stan Beer
Monday, 02 July 2007 09:50

Business IT - Technology

It’s a testimony to the drawing power of the iPhone and marketing prowess of Apple that consumers are prepared to overlook the fact that it’s only available in the US on an obsolete Edge network. That may be good enough for US consumers but it probably won’t wash in Europe, much of Asia and here in Australia.

In the developed world outside the US, consumers have come to expect 3G and 3.5G as the standard mobile networks. In Australia, even cheap pre-paid plans are now being offered on 3G networks. Thus, when an impressive multi-function communications device like an iPhone goes on sale in places like Europe and Japan, consumers will probably expect it to be at least 3G and preferably 3.5G capable.

Apple obviously knows this and, though Steve Jobs did in January say that the iPhone would be available on 3G networks in future, company executives have since side-stepped the issue when questioned. In all probability, the problem for Apple is battery life.

Let’s face it; consumers are not buying the iPhone just to make telephone calls.  A device with this sort of power is begging to be used as a ubiquitous Internet device, for placing video calls and (when it eventually becomes available) chatting via instant messaging. It will probably eventually be able to wirelessly sync with PCs and Macs. It will probably one day also house its own version of iTunes for wireless music downloads. All of that takes loads of power.

When iPhone was originally announced, Apple stated that talk time for the non-removable battery would be about five hours. This was later upped without explanation to eight hours. It is not known whether the battery itself was upgraded or whether Apple simply found that turning off the Wi-Fi feature Ask to Join Networks drained a lot less power.

The fact is, however, all the battery life tests of iPhone were conducted on an Edge network. If the same battery is used on a 3G or 3.5G network, there is a high probability that battery life would approach that of say the Nokia N95, which claims a talk time of just 2.5 hours.

Battery life is a bigger issue for the iPhone than other smart phones because it doesn’t have a removable battery. High-end phone users often possess a spare battery and battery charger. This obviously isn’t a possibility with the iPhone, therefore Apple may have to wait until better batteries are available before it can confidently release a 3G version to market with acceptable battery life.

It will be interesting to see what Apple comes up if it releases iPhone on schedule in Europe before the end of 2007. While there has been speculation that Apple will go to market with the current Edge device, it’s hard to imagine. Therefore if a 3G iPhone is in the pipeline, for Apple it may be a question of battery power rather than marketing power.