Filed under: Macworld, Analysis / Opinion, iPhone
Analysis: The Elephant in the Room - EDGE on the iPhone?
There's no question that today's iPhone annoucement is huge news both for Apple fans and the wireless industry in general. Apple has beat my (and I suspect almost everyone else's) expectations in almost all areas, save one--the cellular technology they've chosen to integrate with the iPhone. For those of you who may not know EDGE is a so-called 2.75G technology and not one of the new 3G technologies now being rolled out by most of the big cell carriers. The upshot of this is much lower bandwidth than 3G standards like EVDO (on Verizon and Sprint and other CDMA providers) and UMTS/HSDPA (on Cingular and other GSM providers). The analogy many people use is that EDGE is more like dial-up and HSDPA is more like broadband. EDGE tends to get real world speeds in the range of 70Kbps to 135Kbps (on a good day), while wifi is of course much faster (real world is generally about half of the rated speed, so about 27Mbps for 802.11g).The Keynote seemed to demonstrate pretty quick downloads on the iPhone, but the real question is how fast things will be on the EDGE network rather than via wifi. Obviously the inclusion of wifi mitigates the problem when you're in range of a base station, but I'm really curious to see how data intensive services like Google maps and web browsing really work when you're on Cingular's network.
A final question will be Cingular's data pricing: will there be an affordable all you can eat data plan for the iPhone?. We're so used to seeing Apple push the technology envelope in other areas, it really seems like a strange choice to integrate last generation wideband technology in its new flagship product. Of course, none of this is going to stop me from getting one. What do you think?
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Kesey said 6:46PM on 1-09-2007
What they're doing here is obvious. The average person won't realize how painfully slow EDGE is prior to purchasing this device and it's going to be mostly the average person/ipod owner who is going to purchase one of these. Once they realize that EDGE is awful, Rev B, which will include 3G, will be out and people will pay for the upgrade. Since I'm never around WiFi when I'm out of my house (where I use a full computer), this device is useless to me without 3G speeds, over something cheaper.
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Keith Sheehan said 6:56PM on 1-09-2007
My guess is that they will price the data package in the range of the PDA since it contains many PDA-like features. Cingular is not known for doing it's customers any favors.
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diskgrinder said 7:02PM on 1-09-2007
I think I'm going with the wifi swing here - it makes more sense to download the good stuff when wified right up; the cost for doing it on the clingylar thing would seem to be prohibitive.
I can see this scenario - download movie at home on my wificulated network and then watch whilst commuting to shirk, I mean work. I'd have to be billionised money-wise to afford the alternative.
Anyway, knocks the brown out of the zune.
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guilhas A said 7:02PM on 1-09-2007
I agree with most of you. My take regarding EDGE choice: for the time being, in time for macworld, this was the only possible way to show off such a nice, dimension wise, device. However here in Europe EDGE was introduced, a long long time ago as a GSM/GPRS improvement and was never a sucess. 3G/HSDPA is the logic way to go, I'm talking about 14 Mb over the air. I'm really waiting for some improvements in the European model until the end of the year, why? Because introducing a iPhone by the end of 2007 with Edge is like rolling out today a Macbook Pro with 802.11g. Just doesn't sound right.
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n8 said 7:09PM on 1-09-2007
Here are my main concerns:
1) Real world battery life. For those who have Treos and other types of smartphone, those damn things eat up a ton of batteries. I guess it would be smart to turn off the wifi when not in need of it.
2) Scalability. We're talking a two year contract here, how upgradeable is it when Leopard is due in less than half a yr, if even possible. How about the flexibility for 3rd-party programs?
For those who are concerned about cost. I can see where most people are coming from because many of us already have an iPod, and the iPhone makes that obsolete in some ways since we won't be needing to carry both any longer. While $600 is pretty steep, you really are getting a lot for your money because the iPhone is essentially a new generation of mobile phone w/ an video iPod included. Not to mention the wonderful world of OSX. Damn you Steve, now I must save my money!
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Jon said 7:28PM on 1-09-2007
What do I think? I think you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about if you think that "in the real world" wifi gets 27 MBs/second!!!!!!!!!!! Not a chance; not a freaking chance you have EVER seen anything like that even on an 802.11n network. "Theoretical" bandwidths are just that -- very theoretical, not "half" of what they say. Have you ever seen 240 mb/s (480 being the "theoretical" maximum) a second on USB 2? I can tell you that you have not.
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Jason said 7:29PM on 1-09-2007
Thanks, Mat. You said exactly what was on my mind about this device. Now read my mind on the other one :)
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pixelslut said 7:40PM on 1-09-2007
Well i definitely think they are looking forward to wifi rollout in the future. Now if they could only make it switch to VOIP when on wifi....
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Q said 7:49PM on 1-09-2007
I believe someone mentioned already. I believe the reason why EDGE is left in is because of a) power conservation and b) cost.
a) Adding HSDPA would only increase power consumption on a device that is a power whore. That processor in there probably isn't your run of the mill 400mhz intel. Combine that with a very large bright LCD plus wifi and you would end up below the acceptable 5 hours of varied usage
b) this device is already expensive enough with all the engineering that has gone into it. Adding a HSDPA radio would only increase the cost without adding much value in return due to the presence of wifi.
I would much rather take wifi due to it's higher bandwidth. I can imagine streaming your itunes library of music and movies over your wifi network while you're on the jon. Something that's harder to do over 3G.
Besides, I lived with EDGE on my Treo 650 and now I'm living with it on my BB 7130c. It isn't that bad for normal none multimedia heavy usage. Google maps works like a charm over EDGE.
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UnseenLlama said 8:19PM on 1-09-2007
What are the chances that the iPhone does support 3G, but has been turned off by Apple for the time being? Just like Apple turned off Wireless N for the new Macs. Is it possible to hide two cellular radios like that and disable one?
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Allan W. said 8:31PM on 1-09-2007
Don't forget that this device still has to get FCC approval. I'm thinking that there's a convenient time lag in which we may see some improvements in features, battery life or power consumption.
My hopes are fading (nay, dashed) that we'll ever see an unlocked Apple phone for sale. I had hopes that Apple, with such an amazing gotta-have-it device, could supply the leverage to move phone networks away from long-term contracts.
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Mike A. said 8:51PM on 1-09-2007
There are only two companies that have reliable HSDPA chipsets today - Nokia and Qualcomm (inside Samsung & LG). Both of these suppliers are not being considered for the iPhone for competitive reasons. Watch for other company's HSDPA announcements later this year. A 3G iPhone then a WiMAX version are definitely coming.
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fuzzybassoon said 9:03PM on 1-09-2007
I use an EDGE-based phone on T-Mobile, and its fine for optimized websites, but I can imagine it being a drag when using the safari browser.
On the upside, Windows Live Maps, very similar looking to the Google maps program on the iPhone works fine on EDGE.
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Oki said 9:31PM on 1-09-2007
im wandoring since for my treo i use medianet unlimited as my source as internet, (works just as good as the data connect, and i can goto anysite, stream music etc, and with a $40 difference) if u can do the same with iphone just run off medianet than might be ok for 2yr contract. hopefully they'll sell unlocked ones. if not than anyone here work at apple? internal orders are much much better with out contracts
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a concerned individual said 9:33PM on 1-09-2007
erm, no comment on skype yet?
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Jeff said 9:47PM on 1-09-2007
Nice product, but I don't see a compelling story here.
Why would I pay $599 PLUS sign a two year deal? Also, the phone will be locked, and no way to know whether or not it can be unlocked.
It's like selling a $600 iPod with a 2 year iTunes contract at $50+ per year........when you can ONLY use iTunes.
I think this is a bit of a miss.
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Jeff said 9:51PM on 1-09-2007
I mean $50/month, not per year.
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James Dehnert said 12:07AM on 1-10-2007
I'll get 2 right away (1 for me 1 for the wife) and when HSDPA comes out, if the battery life is good I'll get that and my kids will get the older units.
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Braxton Beyer said 9:49AM on 1-10-2007
I currently use Cingular with my Treo 650 and Google maps works great on it. Loads fairly quickly. Surfing inn the browser seems to be slower though.
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John Laur said 10:10AM on 1-10-2007
Well I can tell you this: Without going through a recompressing proxy of some sort (RabbIT, Opera Mini, etc), EDGE is dog slow even when it is going "fast". God help you if you're downloading email (or i guess now, voicemail) while you are trying to pull up google maps in hybrid mode!
The real problem here is that by June, it's very likely that any of the other smartphones available from Cingular will be screaming along with UMTS while being less expensive than the iPhone. I think the decision to buy an iPhone will be a bit harder in June than it seems like it will be today.
It's also a possibility that this will hit the market with UMTS capability also. 6 months is quite a while.
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