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Interesting bit of speculation over at Macenstein. That is, what if Apple doesn’t release a 3G iPhonethis year, if ever? That would annoy people who said “non!” to the current iPhone in hopes of buying one that’s not stupid slow. At the same time, it may play right into both Apple and AT&T’s hands.
Take AT&T. The corp just won a large swath of spectrum that the FCC put up for auction. The part of the spectrum that it bought, 700MHz, is perfect for large scale Wi-Fi deployment. Wouldn’t AT&T be better served by rolling out nationwide Wi-Fi? It could start a little AT&T hotspot business, the first movements of which we’re just seeing today. No nationwide 3G, no 3G iPhone. Simple as that.
Then consider Apple’s position. Should it develop a 3G iPhone, wouldn’t inquisitive bloggers and other media folk find the filings on the FCC’s Web site? There’d be no “one more thing” moment for Jobs. Also, Apple has said time and again that current 3G tech is too power-hungry to be shoehorned into the iPhone. Battery technology just isn’t there yet. And why would Apple want to focus on 3G when its iPod Touch is a perfectly capable Wi-Fi device? Why shut out those users from widely available iTunes Store content?
All wild speculation, mind you. But that’s what keeps this game interesting: trying to predict what’s what.
The 3G iPhone: Do we have it all wrong? [Macenstein]