Mostly, there are 2 cities that have issues with ATT (not including those which don't have ATT at all, which, is smaller than other networks). San Francisco and NYC. I don't know about San Fran, but in NYC the problem is clearly that the signals are much weaker because of the tall buildings and their density. This is not as apparent on other phones, but becomes quite clear on the iPhone, which does a lot more and needs a stronger signal.
e.g. I lost my iPhone 3GS recently, and replaced it with my 5 year old Samsung dumbphone. With the iPhone I barely got a signal, but the dumbphone works perfectly. The worst part is that it is not just an iPhone issue. I also have a work-provided blackberry, which I had to return since I never got a signal at home. There was no point in them giving me a blackberry so they could reach me at all times when they actually could not reach me at all!
You're ignoring the fact that one of the largest cell phone markets in the world is China - and China also has CDMA (like the U.S., they have both CDMA and GSM).
I'm not advocating a CDMA phone, but don't underestimate the potential market.
Not sure about this, but I dont think China's CDMA network is compatible with the USs...
AT&T's performance over the past 3 years is ASS. It pisses me off to no end that I wasted so much time on money on their network just to have your phone.
Just as a refresher, I know you weren't with Apple at the time, but Windows ended up kicking Apple's butt in the 90s by being good enough and cheaper. Unfortunately the same thing is happening today. Because you have to protect the fat margins you get from AT&T, you are blinded to the fact that the Android phones are good enough - and much better in that I can actually make a damn phone call on my Droid Incredible now! What a concept! Good luck with your business. You got beat by Microsoft once, and if you're not careful Google will do it again a second time using the exact same playbook.
I'll see you in 2 years when your contract with AT&T is (finally) up and my Verizon contract is up.
I'm guessing that you've never run a business. You don't change your business plan every time someone who obviously wants to buy your products throws a temper tantrum.
The phone is going to open up to other carriers, but the mountain is not coming to Mohammed so Mohammed (other carriers) will have to go to the mountain (Apple).
Breaking their exclusivity agreement is going to cost Apple $$$ and they will have to modify their hardware which means more $$$ and they will have to produce and maintain and keep inventory of different SKUs of, basically, the same product which means even more $$$.
It makes business sense to produce the best phone you can, and make the best of your agreements. Who would have thought that people would be so upset that a corporation kept its word?
Verizon is going to get the iPhone eventually. But, they're going to have to jump as high as Apple wants them to (in two years). Verizon will modify their network, meets Apple's standards and offer rates that Apple approves of. If not, they'll lose the iPhone again.
You just need to be patient and remember that Apple is a business. If you're that mad, pay the cancellation fees, get yourself a droid, and keep your complaints to yourself.
You can't imagine how ridiculous all this complaining sounds.
"I hate AT&T! I'm angry at Apple! What is Steve Jobs thinking?!?"
"If you're so angry, cancel your contract and buy a different phone."
"NO! Are you kidding! I love this thing!!! I don't know what I'd do without it!"
"To reinforce the claim that the iPhone 4's glass is 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic an "Apple executive dropped it in front of me."
Why is it that supposedly tech-savvy people do not understand the meanings of "stiffer" and "harder" neither one of these has anything to do with dropping them. Standard window glass is both stiffer and harder than plastic. I.e. - it is resistant to bending and much more resistant to scratching than plastic. It will still shatter much more readily when dropped, because it is more brittle. Apparently, this new glass is not. Still - why can't we use the proper terminology. Shatter-resistant or even "stronger" would suffice.
While being anal-retentive about language here, I might as well point out that there would be "fewer" dropped calls, not "less."
Jon Ive's comment on it said it was conparable to the strength of sapphire crystal and the had the hardness 30x that of plastic. Both are marketing but at least it was technically accurate terminology. The best way seems to describe it as Gorilla Glass®.
I had Verizon for years until I switched to the iPhone. I actually have had equal or better reception (Philadelphia marketplace primarily). My wife still has a Verizon phone...I can make calls at my vacation home in the mountains where she can't.
People who think Verizon is some kind of paradise are in for a rude awakening. Their customer service sucks, they do everything they can to cripple their phones and they were more expensive.
Be careful what you wish for.
Me too. AT&T is far from perfect, but reception wise I haven't had the constant issues some report. Overall, the handset has become important while the network less important since the iPhone's emergence, which is a great thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by addicted44
Not sure about this, but I dont think China's CDMA network is compatible with the USs...
Yes, their CDMA network is compatible with the US. What it's not, is very large. China Telecom is their CDMA provider, the smallest of the MNOs and only have about 70M subs. The US alone has 2.5x that. China' largest carrier, China Mobile, has about 550M subs (nearly 8x as many as China Telecom) and their network is unique to China. It's TD-SCDMA which is a derivative of the 3GPP's (3GSM) W-CDMA utilizing the same UTMS air interface.
Ah, another thread that has descended into madness.
Two points worth repeating here. No one is advocating dumping ATT for Verizon. All Walt Mossberg (and I) said was spread the load over multiple carriers. Then everyone can pick the carrier that is best for them. No one in their right mind would be against this freedom of choice and it would be great for consumers. The only ones who might (probably) get hurt are ATT stockholders.
Second, we need to stop making excuses for ATT. This business about how they are handling more data than anyone else does not dismiss the fact that ATT was dropping calls ten years ago when Apple didn't even want to do a phone.
In the New York Metro Area the coverage is very spotty. You will have a signal in one part of town but not in another. There is something wrong with a network that behaves this way. I could understand not having a signal at all, but the coverage in my area is bizarre.
Of course Verizon's network would strain if they were the exclusive carrier. So would any other carrier. That's why I am against carrier exclusivity as a concept. It's wrong for consumers.
Last I heard, VZW was doing pretty well for profitabilitv and new subscribers, etc. I think the real problem is that they're control freaks and two control freak companies don't work so well together.
I haven't heard of any hard figures on what load each network is taking, I know iPhone is demanding, but that's not the whole picture.
Come on Jeff....
Even if it's true that the iphone is not as efficient as it should be for cellular networks, just look at the sales of smart phones on each network. The Blackberry is known to be very lean on network resources but is available on every network.
The Android phones are not anywhere near the saturation levels that the iphone is at and is available on most of the networks in some form.
If you analyze all available info I think it's clear that any network that has the iphone will be squealing like a pig that knows he's dinner.
I will admit that over time it will become even as other "smart phones" gain momentum and start to eat away at any given network. The difference right now is that the latest "droid phone" doesn't sell or add 600,000 phones in one quarter let alone in one day.
I think Att.'s greed is to blame for some if their network troubles. I bought a first Gen. iphone off of eBay just before the 3g was released. Did a simple unlock and used no data and was happy as a clam until the Death star folks decided I had to have a plan even if I used nor wanted a data plan.
Now I jailbreak and tether and make sure I use a few gigabytes a month just to male sure I am getting my $30 a month's worth.
Perhaps network congestion wouldn't be so bad if people had a choice to skip cellular data altogether?
People who think Verizon is some kind of paradise are in for a rude awakening. Their customer service sucks, they do everything they can to cripple their phones and they were more expensive.
Be careful what you wish for.
Bull, Verizon used to cripple their phones but since they started selling Android phones they have not even come close to crippling them unlike AT&T who is crippling their Android phones.
Get your facts straight before you make statements that are no longer true for smart phones.
As far as CS once in a while I have a problem but 95% of the time their CS is very very good.
You're ignoring the fact that one of the largest cell phone markets in the world is China - and China also has CDMA (like the U.S., they have both CDMA and GSM).
I'm not advocating a CDMA phone, but don't underestimate the potential market.
I was under the impression that the Big C used their own, home grown flavor of CDMA? It's not directly compatible with Verizon's CDMA. Am I wrong?
You're ignoring the fact that one of the largest cell phone markets in the world is China - and China also has CDMA (like the U.S., they have both CDMA and GSM).
I'm not advocating a CDMA phone, but don't underestimate the potential market.
I've posted the info seemingly hundreds of times. China's CDMA network is the smallest of the MNOs on par with Sprint's sub size so it's a very poor example for arguing the size of China's cellular network.
What the iPhone highlights is that USA networks are complete crap and have been for years. They are incredibly far behind the rest of the world and when you stick a very popular device which uses data it knocks the network for six.
The scary thing is that average iPhone users are only using, on average, 200mb per month. Its pretty doubtful that any USA network would handle the iPhone any better.
Maybe it would be a better idea for Apple to implement an auto off for 3G, so that when you are not browsing it drops back to standard GSM and GPRS data for email like the blackberry devices do.
What the iPhone highlights is that USA networks are complete crap and have been for years. They are incredibly far behind the rest of the world and when you stick a very popular device which uses data it knocks the network for six.
The scary thing is that average iPhone users are only using, on average, 200mb per month. Its pretty doubtful that any USA network would handle the iPhone any better.
Maybe it would be a better idea for Apple to implement an auto off for 3G, so that when you are not browsing it drops back to standard GSM and GPRS data for email like the blackberry devices do.
Other networks outside the US have reported the iPhone "knock[ing] the network for six."
Well fine. Swat me down in no time flat, using logic and facts. How dare you!
I hope I didn't come across too abrasive. I prefer to save that for the posters who really piss me off, but I think it's about time the idea that China has a huge CDMA network or that they have a "special" CDMA network be put to rest.
This Wikipedia entry shows how small their CDMA network is compared to their other services.
Note the data is a couple months out of date. China Mobile has been getting 5M new subs a month and now lists 549M subs on their website for the end of May. Also, TD-SCDMA is much closer in design to AT&T's network than to Verizon's. To put in the simplest terms, W-CDMA was born out of a desire to get away from as many as Qualcomm's excessive CDMA patent fees as possible, while TD-SCDMA was born out of a desire to get away from "Western technology" (ie: to pay even less patent fees), but technically much more similar to the 3G used in the iPhone than to any CDMA device.
What's amazing to me is the way people are so in the tank for SJ and his business savvy but blame AT&T for all the iPhone ills. If it was good for Apple, wouldn't SJ be doing it? I for one would love for Verizon and tMobile to get the iPhone just so people can start bitching about them too.
They are under exclusive contract to AT&T until September 2010 or early 2011.
I hope I didn't come across too abrasive. I prefer to save that for the posters who really piss me off, but I think it's about time the idea that China has a huge CDMA network or that they have a "special" CDMA network be put to rest.
This Wikipedia entry shows how small their CDMA network is compared to their other services.
Note the data is a couple months out of date. China Mobile has been getting 5M new subs a month and now lists 549M subs on their website for the end of May. Also, TD-SCDMA is much closer in design to AT&T's network than to Verizon's. To put in the simplest terms, W-CDMA was born out of a desire to get away from as many as Qualcomm's excessive CDMA patent fees as possible, while TD-SCDMA was born out of a desire to get away from "Western technology" (ie: to pay even less patent fees), but technically much more similar to the 3G used in the iPhone than to any CDMA device.
No, you did not offend me in the least. It's just that you are one of the few posters who when giving me a reply make me nervous.
Why?
Because you're nearly instantaneous reply is always better then any comment I ever leave no matter how much time I put not it.
I have no problem defaulting to your links because what I recalled about those specs was general at best and thats why I left an open invitation for people to correct me.
I must study up on those specs so I don't make the same mistake thrice.
I am Polish and a Male so this will take extra effort on my part.
I hope I didn't come across too abrasive. I prefer to save that for the posters who really piss me off, but I think it's about time the idea that China has a huge CDMA network or that they have a "special" CDMA network be put to rest.
This Wikipedia entry shows how small their CDMA network is compared to their other services.
Note the data is a couple months out of date. China Mobile has been getting 5M new subs a month and now lists 549M subs on their website for the end of May. Also, TD-SCDMA is much closer in design to AT&T's network than to Verizon's. To put in the simplest terms, W-CDMA was born out of a desire to get away from as many as Qualcomm's excessive CDMA patent fees as possible, while TD-SCDMA was born out of a desire to get away from "Western technology" (ie: to pay even less patent fees), but technically much more similar to the 3G used in the iPhone than to any CDMA device.
I've posted the info seemingly hundreds of times. China's CDMA network is the smallest of the MNOs on par with Sprint's sub size so it's a very poor example for arguing the size of China's cellular network.
According to your own link, the 'pure' CDMA network in China has 65 M users. (I don't know about TD-SCDMA, so I'm not including it). More importantly, the worldwide CDMA market had 518 M users as of last December (however other sources show as few as 300 M CDMA users worldwide - and I don't really care enough to try to pin down the real numbers). Considerably less than 1/2 were from North America (Verizon).
Has anyone released which of those are actual NEW customers? Yea, great for Apple regardless, I understand that... But the true stat would be which of those are NOT upgrades. The interesting numbers will be the August, September adds for AT&T.
What is so "true" about the number you suggest? The TRUTH is the truth (as profound as that sounds). If you don't find yourself asking what percentage of OTHER phone pre-orders are existing carrier or manufacturer customers... then I think its not a reasonable comment. Sales are sales. It IS interesting that a study cited that iPhone customers are much more likely to purchase another iPhone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by daving313
So what is everyone doing that upgraded with their old iPhone? Ebay and Craigslist will be like a Wal-Mart for them.
I must sell my 3Gs. I'm late, but there's still hope. I needed a direct transfer. Dammit. Glut!
Quote:
Originally Posted by daving313
Wonder if Apple is ever going to introduce a recycling program and continue to peddle their "green" motif.
Comments
e.g. I lost my iPhone 3GS recently, and replaced it with my 5 year old Samsung dumbphone. With the iPhone I barely got a signal, but the dumbphone works perfectly. The worst part is that it is not just an iPhone issue. I also have a work-provided blackberry, which I had to return since I never got a signal at home. There was no point in them giving me a blackberry so they could reach me at all times when they actually could not reach me at all!
You're ignoring the fact that one of the largest cell phone markets in the world is China - and China also has CDMA (like the U.S., they have both CDMA and GSM).
I'm not advocating a CDMA phone, but don't underestimate the potential market.
Not sure about this, but I dont think China's CDMA network is compatible with the USs...
Dear Steve,
AT&T's performance over the past 3 years is ASS. It pisses me off to no end that I wasted so much time on money on their network just to have your phone.
Just as a refresher, I know you weren't with Apple at the time, but Windows ended up kicking Apple's butt in the 90s by being good enough and cheaper. Unfortunately the same thing is happening today. Because you have to protect the fat margins you get from AT&T, you are blinded to the fact that the Android phones are good enough - and much better in that I can actually make a damn phone call on my Droid Incredible now! What a concept! Good luck with your business. You got beat by Microsoft once, and if you're not careful Google will do it again a second time using the exact same playbook.
I'll see you in 2 years when your contract with AT&T is (finally) up and my Verizon contract is up.
I'm guessing that you've never run a business. You don't change your business plan every time someone who obviously wants to buy your products throws a temper tantrum.
The phone is going to open up to other carriers, but the mountain is not coming to Mohammed so Mohammed (other carriers) will have to go to the mountain (Apple).
Breaking their exclusivity agreement is going to cost Apple $$$ and they will have to modify their hardware which means more $$$ and they will have to produce and maintain and keep inventory of different SKUs of, basically, the same product which means even more $$$.
It makes business sense to produce the best phone you can, and make the best of your agreements. Who would have thought that people would be so upset that a corporation kept its word?
Verizon is going to get the iPhone eventually. But, they're going to have to jump as high as Apple wants them to (in two years). Verizon will modify their network, meets Apple's standards and offer rates that Apple approves of. If not, they'll lose the iPhone again.
You just need to be patient and remember that Apple is a business. If you're that mad, pay the cancellation fees, get yourself a droid, and keep your complaints to yourself.
You can't imagine how ridiculous all this complaining sounds.
"I hate AT&T! I'm angry at Apple! What is Steve Jobs thinking?!?"
"If you're so angry, cancel your contract and buy a different phone."
"NO! Are you kidding! I love this thing!!! I don't know what I'd do without it!"
*Repeat ad nauseum*
"To reinforce the claim that the iPhone 4's glass is 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic an "Apple executive dropped it in front of me."
Why is it that supposedly tech-savvy people do not understand the meanings of "stiffer" and "harder" neither one of these has anything to do with dropping them. Standard window glass is both stiffer and harder than plastic. I.e. - it is resistant to bending and much more resistant to scratching than plastic. It will still shatter much more readily when dropped, because it is more brittle. Apparently, this new glass is not. Still - why can't we use the proper terminology. Shatter-resistant or even "stronger" would suffice.
While being anal-retentive about language here, I might as well point out that there would be "fewer" dropped calls, not "less."
Jon Ive's comment on it said it was conparable to the strength of sapphire crystal and the had the hardness 30x that of plastic. Both are marketing but at least it was technically accurate terminology. The best way seems to describe it as Gorilla Glass®.
edit: Here is some additional info: http://www.getgorilla.com/text/STRENGTH_OF_GLASS.pdf
I had Verizon for years until I switched to the iPhone. I actually have had equal or better reception (Philadelphia marketplace primarily). My wife still has a Verizon phone...I can make calls at my vacation home in the mountains where she can't.
People who think Verizon is some kind of paradise are in for a rude awakening. Their customer service sucks, they do everything they can to cripple their phones and they were more expensive.
Be careful what you wish for.
Me too. AT&T is far from perfect, but reception wise I haven't had the constant issues some report. Overall, the handset has become important while the network less important since the iPhone's emergence, which is a great thing.
Not sure about this, but I dont think China's CDMA network is compatible with the USs...
Yes, their CDMA network is compatible with the US. What it's not, is very large. China Telecom is their CDMA provider, the smallest of the MNOs and only have about 70M subs. The US alone has 2.5x that. China' largest carrier, China Mobile, has about 550M subs (nearly 8x as many as China Telecom) and their network is unique to China. It's TD-SCDMA which is a derivative of the 3GPP's (3GSM) W-CDMA utilizing the same UTMS air interface.
Two points worth repeating here. No one is advocating dumping ATT for Verizon. All Walt Mossberg (and I) said was spread the load over multiple carriers. Then everyone can pick the carrier that is best for them. No one in their right mind would be against this freedom of choice and it would be great for consumers. The only ones who might (probably) get hurt are ATT stockholders.
Second, we need to stop making excuses for ATT. This business about how they are handling more data than anyone else does not dismiss the fact that ATT was dropping calls ten years ago when Apple didn't even want to do a phone.
In the New York Metro Area the coverage is very spotty. You will have a signal in one part of town but not in another. There is something wrong with a network that behaves this way. I could understand not having a signal at all, but the coverage in my area is bizarre.
Of course Verizon's network would strain if they were the exclusive carrier. So would any other carrier. That's why I am against carrier exclusivity as a concept. It's wrong for consumers.
Poor management on ATTs part. To think that they don't understand that when people have a bad experience with ATT they ARE NOT coming back!
Lets hope that this new antenna resolves some of the issues. Well we can dream can't we????
Last I heard, VZW was doing pretty well for profitabilitv and new subscribers, etc. I think the real problem is that they're control freaks and two control freak companies don't work so well together.
I haven't heard of any hard figures on what load each network is taking, I know iPhone is demanding, but that's not the whole picture.
Come on Jeff....
Even if it's true that the iphone is not as efficient as it should be for cellular networks, just look at the sales of smart phones on each network. The Blackberry is known to be very lean on network resources but is available on every network.
The Android phones are not anywhere near the saturation levels that the iphone is at and is available on most of the networks in some form.
If you analyze all available info I think it's clear that any network that has the iphone will be squealing like a pig that knows he's dinner.
I will admit that over time it will become even as other "smart phones" gain momentum and start to eat away at any given network. The difference right now is that the latest "droid phone" doesn't sell or add 600,000 phones in one quarter let alone in one day.
I think Att.'s greed is to blame for some if their network troubles. I bought a first Gen. iphone off of eBay just before the 3g was released. Did a simple unlock and used no data and was happy as a clam until the Death star folks decided I had to have a plan even if I used nor wanted a data plan.
Now I jailbreak and tether and make sure I use a few gigabytes a month just to male sure I am getting my $30 a month's worth.
Perhaps network congestion wouldn't be so bad if people had a choice to skip cellular data altogether?
People who think Verizon is some kind of paradise are in for a rude awakening. Their customer service sucks, they do everything they can to cripple their phones and they were more expensive.
Be careful what you wish for.
Bull, Verizon used to cripple their phones but since they started selling Android phones they have not even come close to crippling them unlike AT&T who is crippling their Android phones.
Get your facts straight before you make statements that are no longer true for smart phones.
As far as CS once in a while I have a problem but 95% of the time their CS is very very good.
You're ignoring the fact that one of the largest cell phone markets in the world is China - and China also has CDMA (like the U.S., they have both CDMA and GSM).
I'm not advocating a CDMA phone, but don't underestimate the potential market.
I was under the impression that the Big C used their own, home grown flavor of CDMA? It's not directly compatible with Verizon's CDMA. Am I wrong?
****Never Mind****
You're ignoring the fact that one of the largest cell phone markets in the world is China - and China also has CDMA (like the U.S., they have both CDMA and GSM).
I'm not advocating a CDMA phone, but don't underestimate the potential market.
I've posted the info seemingly hundreds of times. China's CDMA network is the smallest of the MNOs on par with Sprint's sub size so it's a very poor example for arguing the size of China's cellular network.
I was under the impression that the Big C used their own, home grown flavor of CDMA? It's not directly compatible with Verizon's CDMA. Am I wrong?
Yes, you're wrong. Their CDMA network is still CDMA.
The scary thing is that average iPhone users are only using, on average, 200mb per month. Its pretty doubtful that any USA network would handle the iPhone any better.
Maybe it would be a better idea for Apple to implement an auto off for 3G, so that when you are not browsing it drops back to standard GSM and GPRS data for email like the blackberry devices do.
What the iPhone highlights is that USA networks are complete crap and have been for years. They are incredibly far behind the rest of the world and when you stick a very popular device which uses data it knocks the network for six.
The scary thing is that average iPhone users are only using, on average, 200mb per month. Its pretty doubtful that any USA network would handle the iPhone any better.
Maybe it would be a better idea for Apple to implement an auto off for 3G, so that when you are not browsing it drops back to standard GSM and GPRS data for email like the blackberry devices do.
Other networks outside the US have reported the iPhone "knock[ing] the network for six."
Yes, you're wrong. Their CDMA network is still CDMA.
Well fine. Swat me down in no time flat, using logic and facts. How dare you!
Well fine. Swat me down in no time flat, using logic and facts. How dare you!
I hope I didn't come across too abrasive. I prefer to save that for the posters who really piss me off, but I think it's about time the idea that China has a huge CDMA network or that they have a "special" CDMA network be put to rest.
This Wikipedia entry shows how small their CDMA network is compared to their other services.Note the data is a couple months out of date. China Mobile has been getting 5M new subs a month and now lists 549M subs on their website for the end of May. Also, TD-SCDMA is much closer in design to AT&T's network than to Verizon's. To put in the simplest terms, W-CDMA was born out of a desire to get away from as many as Qualcomm's excessive CDMA patent fees as possible, while TD-SCDMA was born out of a desire to get away from "Western technology" (ie: to pay even less patent fees), but technically much more similar to the 3G used in the iPhone than to any CDMA device.
What's amazing to me is the way people are so in the tank for SJ and his business savvy but blame AT&T for all the iPhone ills. If it was good for Apple, wouldn't SJ be doing it? I for one would love for Verizon and tMobile to get the iPhone just so people can start bitching about them too.
They are under exclusive contract to AT&T until September 2010 or early 2011.
I hope I didn't come across too abrasive. I prefer to save that for the posters who really piss me off, but I think it's about time the idea that China has a huge CDMA network or that they have a "special" CDMA network be put to rest.
This Wikipedia entry shows how small their CDMA network is compared to their other services.Note the data is a couple months out of date. China Mobile has been getting 5M new subs a month and now lists 549M subs on their website for the end of May. Also, TD-SCDMA is much closer in design to AT&T's network than to Verizon's. To put in the simplest terms, W-CDMA was born out of a desire to get away from as many as Qualcomm's excessive CDMA patent fees as possible, while TD-SCDMA was born out of a desire to get away from "Western technology" (ie: to pay even less patent fees), but technically much more similar to the 3G used in the iPhone than to any CDMA device.
No, you did not offend me in the least. It's just that you are one of the few posters who when giving me a reply make me nervous.
Why?
Because you're nearly instantaneous reply is always better then any comment I ever leave no matter how much time I put not it.
I have no problem defaulting to your links because what I recalled about those specs was general at best and thats why I left an open invitation for people to correct me.
I must study up on those specs so I don't make the same mistake thrice.
I am Polish and a Male so this will take extra effort on my part.
Looks like a winner!
I only have to wait one more year before I can upgrade from my 3G because in Canada, you have to sign a 3 year contract!
On the flip side, we can actually make calls
look call rogers and tell them u need to make your present plan a family plan and add the IP4g
the down side to that is its another 3yr contract
I hope I didn't come across too abrasive. I prefer to save that for the posters who really piss me off, but I think it's about time the idea that China has a huge CDMA network or that they have a "special" CDMA network be put to rest.
This Wikipedia entry shows how small their CDMA network is compared to their other services.Note the data is a couple months out of date. China Mobile has been getting 5M new subs a month and now lists 549M subs on their website for the end of May. Also, TD-SCDMA is much closer in design to AT&T's network than to Verizon's. To put in the simplest terms, W-CDMA was born out of a desire to get away from as many as Qualcomm's excessive CDMA patent fees as possible, while TD-SCDMA was born out of a desire to get away from "Western technology" (ie: to pay even less patent fees), but technically much more similar to the 3G used in the iPhone than to any CDMA device.
I've posted the info seemingly hundreds of times. China's CDMA network is the smallest of the MNOs on par with Sprint's sub size so it's a very poor example for arguing the size of China's cellular network.
According to your own link, the 'pure' CDMA network in China has 65 M users. (I don't know about TD-SCDMA, so I'm not including it). More importantly, the worldwide CDMA market had 518 M users as of last December (however other sources show as few as 300 M CDMA users worldwide - and I don't really care enough to try to pin down the real numbers). Considerably less than 1/2 were from North America (Verizon).
http://www.cdg.org/worldwide/cdma_world_subscriber.asp
GSM numbers are even harder to pin down. In just a quick search, I found numbers ranging rom 600 M in 2009 to 1.86 B in 2009.
Once again, I'm not advocating that Apple should make a CDMA phone, but simply pointing out that Verizon is not the only CDMA carrier.
Why do people keep citing the pre-order figure?
Has anyone released which of those are actual NEW customers? Yea, great for Apple regardless, I understand that... But the true stat would be which of those are NOT upgrades. The interesting numbers will be the August, September adds for AT&T.
What is so "true" about the number you suggest? The TRUTH is the truth (as profound as that sounds). If you don't find yourself asking what percentage of OTHER phone pre-orders are existing carrier or manufacturer customers... then I think its not a reasonable comment. Sales are sales. It IS interesting that a study cited that iPhone customers are much more likely to purchase another iPhone.
So what is everyone doing that upgraded with their old iPhone? Ebay and Craigslist will be like a Wal-Mart for them.
I must sell my 3Gs. I'm late, but there's still hope. I needed a direct transfer. Dammit. Glut!
Wonder if Apple is ever going to introduce a recycling program and continue to peddle their "green" motif.
I wonder... Oh, what's that?
http://www.apple.com/recycling/ipod-cell-phone/
Why wonder, when you have search engines? Bonus points if you can find out how long this particular program has been running. Hint, its not recent.
~ CB