In his checks with suppliers, Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee has heard that support for China Mobile's TD-SCDMA 3G network will be a "key feature" of Apple's sixth-generation iPhone. China Mobile is the largest cellular operator in the world, with more than 650 million mobile subscribers.
Wu noted that trials for high-speed 4G long-term evolution networks are currently underway in China, but widespread adoption of LTE is likely to be 2 to 3 years away. In his eyes, strong 3G support is "critical" for the next iPhone to find success with China Mobile.
In addition, Apple is also enhancing support for Chinese-language users with iOS 6, which he thinks will make the iPhone an even more attractive platform for customers in China. With iOS 6, Siri will be able to understand and speak Mandarin and Cantonese, while the software update will also offer easier Chinese character input and integration with popular Internet services like Baidu, Sina Weibo, Youku and Tudou.
Beyond enhanced support for China and compatibility with China Mobile, Wu said the next iPhone will feature three key improvements: a new form factor, a slightly larger screen, and a 4G LTE wireless modem.
"We believe these new features will likely help drive a significant upgrade and new user cycle more powerful than what we saw with the iPhone 4 and 4S," Wu wrote in a note to investors on Thursday.
He expects the next iPhone won't arrive until October, placing it a full year after the launch of the iPhone 4S. In the meantime, he expects Apple to sell 27 million iPhones in the June quarter, and 25 million in the September quarter, ahead of the launch of the next-generation model.
"This is more of a function of the transition ahead of the upcoming 6th generation iPhone refresh likely in October timeframe as opposed to weak demand," Wu noted.
30 Comments
You do realise there is already GSM networks in China? So this wont allow you to roam into any more countries, exactly the same that happened between the 4 and 4S.
The amount of research that AppleInsider does into mobile technology is incredible (not).
I will believe this when I see it.
Apple went through the Siri language support rather breezily at the WWDC and was seriously vague about what kind of support it was really talking about (languages alone or country support). Since Siri support is basically non-existent outside of the USA, I find it very hard to believe that magically with the next OS it will support the entire world and pretty much every main language out there including Japanese, Chinese, etc.
Siri doesn't even understand a mild Canadian accent at this point.
Yea, it works with Mandarin (taiwan) and (China), and Cantonese (Hong Kong SAR)
iOS6 has English (canadian), but I can't guarantee it will work with the mild you talk about.
[quote name="Therbo" url="/t/150839/china-mobile-support-likely-to-make-apples-next-iphone-a-true-world-phone#post_2131862"]You do realise there is already GSM networks in China? So this wont allow you to roam into any more countries, exactly the same that happened between the 4 and 4S. The amount of research that AppleInsider does into mobile technology is incredible (not). [/quote] I'n not sure what your point is. The use of "world mode" even though without TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE it still works in that part of the world via CDMA/CDMA2000/GSM/UTMS. I guess I can see that point but the term is really more about marketing of the baseband. Calling it multiple cellular technology basebands just doesn't have the same ring. Even if the next Qualcomm baseband does support TD-SCDMA along with the current technologies there is no guarantee that it will be "world mode" in the way Wu thinks it will. There are plenty of support chips that are needed and there is only a limited number of operating bands that can be used per device. GSM and CDMA/CDMA2000 are easy as there seem to be only 4 and 2, respectively, but UMTS has a lot more than are being used now. Do any of them cross over and be used across UMTS and TD-SCDMA because they are related? What's more complex is LTE. Apple uses 3 bands just for the AT&T and Verizon. What are Sprint's (and T-Mobile USA) operating bands? How many LTE operating bands can be used in the next iPhone? It was only 2010 that we say 5 bands for 3GSM networks. There are dozens of LTE bands and what looks like about 10 that are needed to cover the majority of the world's most popular LTE networks.
[quote name="Gazoobee" url="/t/150839/china-mobile-support-likely-to-make-apples-next-iphone-a-true-world-phone#post_2131874"] I will believe this when I see it. Apple went through the Siri language support rather breezily at the WWDC and was seriously vague about what kind of support it was really talking about (languages alone or country support). Since Siri support is basically non-existent outside of the USA, I find it very hard to believe that magically with the next OS it will support the entire world and pretty much every main language out there including Japanese, Chinese, etc. Siri doesn't even understand a mild Canadian accent at this point. [/quote] Siri is similar to map support -- the new feature has a basic structure on the device, but most of the action occurs on Apple's servers. Once the structure is on the device in the apps and in the OS, it can be fleshed out continuously -- by adding capability to Apple's servers. Dictated on my iPad