My reluctance to buy an iPhone has mostly been the lack of 3G. Recently though, there have been a lot of rumors that 3G will be coming in the future. Do you think that this will work on iPhones that have been purchased to date or will people have to buy a new iPhone to get the functionality?

I saw a headline yesterday that Apple is lowering it's expectations for iphone sales. Also some analysis the day before that iphone sales were not at projected levels.

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/...slashes-i.html

-David

You will absolutely have to buy a new phone for 3G as there is no 3G chip in the current shipping phone. I'll probably give away my current iPhone when a 3G version comes out.

I don't believe that it's possible for existing iphones to support 3G. The hardware simply isn't there. If it were, it could have been enabled at day 1 or by a firmware update.

You will need a new one for 3G support if/when they add it as far as I know.

[ or what stimpy said and posted at the same time I was writing my reply ]

-David

I have a feeling this is what most people will end up doing. I know I will upgrade as the speed increase to 3G is well worth the cost of buying a new phone. My only concern is what impact 3G will have on the battery life.

Regardless, the current iPhone has been well worth every penny I spent. ^

They aren't rumors, both Steve Jobs and Randall Stephenson have stated that the 3G iPhone will be available in 2008. That probably means Nov-Dec, but still 2008.

No, there is no 3G radio in the current iPhones.

Actually there appears to be a 3G capable chip in the iPhone, but no radio.

Data plans with 3G will probably cost more too, no?

And you would have to re-up for another 2 years?

ATT's current plans don't make a difference between "normal" data and 3G.

Are you sure? I haven't seen that and I thought that the main reason there is no 3G in the phone now is because the chips they want to use consume too much battery. They are waiting to integrate newer chips that don't consume as much battery.

Funny, all other cell phone manufacturers have managed to make 3G phones that have acceptable battery life. Looks like Apples developers have quite a few things to learn.

If Apple wants to wait until 3G radio chips have a current consumption comparable to today's 2G radio chips, there will be no 3G iPhone until the 3G standard is rewritten because there's no way to get that kind of performance using the current WCDMA standard.

Not quite true. Chip manufacturers are coming out with combo chips that have 3G, WiFi, and other technologies all one one chip. So it is a very significant reduction in power and heat. That plus new chips come out all the time that are faster, cheaper, smaller and consume less power.

Even GSM used to have large hot battery hogging chips in the early days.

So here's the question du jour, should I wait for the new 3G iPhone or buy one now and resell it when the new one comes out?

Depends on how bad you want an iPhone! ;)

The general consensus among the rumors is that the 3G model will be out during the 2nd half of this year. This late in the game, I'd wait. The resale value on the 2.5G models will drop significantly when the 3G model comes out.

The chip is supposedly there, but does not use the 3g capability, it isn't the sole purpose of the chip.

http://phonedifferent.com/2007/07/ru...e_updates.html

But as I said there has never been confirmation of a 3G radio.

Like who? So far just about every 3G phone out there with iPhone like capabilities has terrible battery life.

LG Viewty. 15 days standby, up to 4 hrs talk time in 3G.