iPhone 5 Release Date: Swedish VP Says Apple Must Upgrade to 4G
Apple’s next smartphone is destined to fail unless the company chooses to make it run on 4G LTE networks, according to Tommy Ljunggren, senior vice president of Swedish wireless operator TeliaSonera.
Llunggren recently made a statement to Telecoms.com saying that Apple is no longer as relevant a factor in mobile as it used to be.
He added that if the company does not make its next iPhone compatible with 4G LTE networks it will be set for failure.
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In order for Apple to stay a major player in the market, it must adopt chips that support fourth-generation cellular networks based on Long Term Evolution radio technology, being deployed by carriers around the world.
He also felt Apple was foolish for not already taking advantage of this technology for its iPhone 4S.
“I don’t think Apple will decide if LTE will fly or not. My expectation is that in 2013/14 we will really see low-end smartphones having LTE as well,” he said to Telecoms.com. “The big question is what frequency bands they will put in for smartphones.”
According to Ljunggren, the current smartphones running LTE in the U.S. drain too much battery life because they operate off of two radios.
“These drain the batteries flat very quickly as they have one LTE terminal for data and a CDMA voice terminal,” he added. “It’s basically a dongle and phone that they glue together. They work-just not for long.”
Despite not taking advantage of 4G technology, Apple’s iPhone 4 is still the highest selling smartphone.
The iPhone 4S is well on its way to taking the iPhone 4’s place after selling 4 million units in the first three days of its release.
Android still remains the leader as far as operating systems are concerned, but Apple continues to dominate in terms of individual handsets sales.
