It appears that Apple is now putting an LTE 4G-capable iPhone or iPad through the usual carrier testing and rhe proof comes from a .plist hinting at LTE in an internal iOS test build that is allegedly from one of Apple’s major carrier partners. Apple would love to get on board 4G LTE, given that some of their competitors already have 4G LTE capable handsets out in the market already and Apple has come out and said that we will not be seeing LTE iPhones this year………….
Smartphone makers have shipped 4G-capable devices using a technology known as LTE and it is much faster than traditional 3G, sometimes as much as 10 times faster. According to a file that was found buried deep within an internal test build of iOS, it now turns out that Apple has been carrier testing the iPhone on LTE, in order to make it compatible with any LTE carrier around the world. Apple is known for conducting heavy-lifted research for years before ever shipping a product to the consumer market. As with any new technology competitors are adopting, it’s understandable that Apple might want to figure out how to best implement 4G into its own products. This will mean that unlike other early LTE-capable smartphones that had little time to mature before they reached the market, a future LTE-capable iPhone might not have many of the common setbacks found in those products, such as an incredibly diminishing battery life. A leaked .plist, which is essentially a preferences file, doesn’t point to how far Apple is into testing LTE on its products. Indeed, it’s unlikely that the iPhone 5 will be built with this technology. Maybe not even the one after that, but the need for faster cellular speed is real and Apple needs to address it somehow. The next step for Apple will be to work with reliable carriers across the world to bring the device to market, such as Verizon which offers LTE service and also offers the iPhone on their network. Judging by how successful the iPhone has been over the years, striking a fairly one-sided deal will likely be a piece of cake Apple.
Photo gallery for images of Apple’s LTE plist file via BGR:
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