Originally Posted by
ScottC
The whole 3G thing is bogus. There ARE chips, and there ARE service providers who can offer a great speed increase. I still fail to see the logic in leaving 3G out of it, especially when they've pretty much already confirmed that Europe will be getting a 3G version soon.
It isn't bogus.
The AT&T HSDPA standard is over 850 (originally it was supposed to be 1900) and isn't used broadly in the rest of the world (if at all, elsewhere). The chipsets aren't available in quantities to ODM/third-parties and, frankly, had Apple gone shopping for them early in the design cycle, it would have tipped their hand in design/market entry, as it's a small world after all.
You CAN get UMTS/HSDPA chips for 2100, though they're still not fully integrated like Jobs was referencing in today's WSJ, so it leads to bulk (another design criteria). If they can get around the bulk issue, the basic deployment of UMTS/HSDPA in those markets will be a lot easier.
Also, with 3G chipsets, their battery life is notoriously worse v. 2.5G/EDGE. A lot of Europeans I know have UMTS turned off to prolong battery life.
Timothy
I'm sure if it HAD the 3G chipset and was slightly larger, you'd complain about that, being that it's an Apple device and all.