iphone + gps + 3G

It might have GPS, but it's been confirmed that it won't be able to download songs from the iTunes Store.

That would certainly be nice, but I'm pretty certain that the launch iPhone will be the one that was shown, perhaps with a few more featurettes.

However, I am of the persuasion that Apple is probably taking several models through FCC. These would likely include a UTMS variant, an HSDPA variant, and hopefully an EVDO variant. I won't buy one until it comes in an EVDO or HSDPA flavor -- preferably EVDO.

As far as it concerns the customer UMTS is WCDMA/HSDPA. However the 4 different bands used in the US do not correspond with the single UMTS band used worldwide.

As for EV-DO that's an evolution of CDMA and Apple has made it quite clear that the iPhone is a GSM device. Not least because CDMA and EV-DO are not major markets compared to GSM. The only big CDMA market outside the US/Canada is South Korea. The only big EV-DO market outside the US is Japan. Other countries do use CDMA and EV-DO (like Romania) but generally have GSM coverage. Could a Revision C or D use CDMA/EV-DO? It's possible, but my bet is that Apple wants to make as few models as possible.

Furthermore the FCC puts all information it gets public, so if Apple was making a 3G version for the Revision A they would have said so at MacWorld because FCC disclosure would tell the world that anyway. If you meant that Apple is developing a 3G model for sale after the first one, then I agree with you in part (still no EV-DO I'm afraid).

Revision B will essentially require UMTS/HSDPA for the following reasons:

Japan and South Korea do not use GSM. However their UMTS networks (WCDMA in Japan on DoCoMo and Softbank, HSDPA on two SK networks) provide near-total coverage. Therefore adding UMTS is the only way the iPhone will work in those two large markets.

The other reason would be that Europe has very good UMTS coverage by a number of carriers and customers have been trained to expect and want 3G.

The third major reason is that UMTS is fast enough to download music over the air and the case study of Japan has shown that is by far the most popular use of 3G speed, video calls are way back in popularity.


I believe adding GPS will be important for the developing location aware market but don't expect it for Revision A.

well i just hope the rumors about 3G radios included are true, that way we only need a software update when the time is right, and i hope it has GPS to let us know where we are, and find the nearest things to us and directions! haha would be awesome

The FCC doesn't allow that, I'm afraid. If there's a 3G radio in the iPhone they'd have to approve that and Steve Jobs would have talked about it. Similarly I'm sure he would showed it off if there was a built-in GPS in the first revision.

Revision B, on the other hand, could (should) have both 3G and GPS.