Analysis of Likely 3G iPhone Components & Consequences

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There has been an incredible number of rumours on the upcoming 3G iPhone, but little proper analysis of the likely component choices, their technical specifications, and their consequences on the end-product. We hope to fill in that gap with this article, and deliver some useful information to gadget enthusiasts, hardcore techies, financial analysts and investors by doing so.

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After 40 seconds googling I couldnt find a reference to the disruptive atheros wifi package. Engenius seems to be producing wifi adapters.
Anyone care to link to the referenced analysis?
Thank you.
 
My apologies, I forgot to add the link to that. Here it is: http://www.en-genius.net/site/zones/networkZONE/product_reviews/netp_111207

EN-Genius Network is a truly excellent website BTW, much of the content isn't really the kind of thing I'm interested in personally (but some definitely is!), however it's all very high quality and about as exhaustive as you'll find anywhere given manufacturers are often reluctant to give more information than necessary.

And thanks for the kind words! :)
 
Great Article. Answer many questions and speculate with technical merit. Unlike all other site which simply publish without any technical background.

Speaking of CSR they have just announced BlueCore7. I wonder what are the improvement in the new chip?

OLED seems highly unlikely given the price for such screen is still too expensive.

I also question if SGX and VXD will come. I personally want them badly. But how will apple handle the software side? Apple seems to want iPhone to position as a gaming devices as well. While the original MBX Lite is already more powerful then PSP and NDSL; and SGX would put them to shame. But how will apple handle the different hardware power in different generation of iPhone? Does that mean game developers will essentially have to develop for multiple config of iPhone?

It seems no one care about the iPhone camera. Would we get new camera?
 
Great Article. Answer many questions and speculate with technical merit. Unlike all other site which simply publish without any technical background.
Cheers! :)
Speaking of CSR they have just announced BlueCore7. I wonder what are the improvement in the new chip?
BlueCore7 is a really nice chip, it's a substantial improvement in power consumption over BlueCore6; a CSR exec said by how much in a quarterly CC some time ago, but I don't remember exactly. I think it might have been a further 30% lower power than BC6, so >40% lower power than the competition (it's on 90nm, vs 130nm for BC6 and 65nm for Broadcom's chip).

In terms of integration, it's also by far the best solution in the business: Bluetooth 2.1/EDR + GPS + FM RX + FM TX + 'Bluetooth low power' (aka ULP aka Wibree, nobody else supports it yet). That means for, say, a Personal Navigation Device (which needs all of those, except ULP) you can use a single chip instead of 3 or more in current solutions.
OLED seems highly unlikely given the price for such screen is still too expensive.
Agreed, however Apple is certainly one company that could reduce pricing through sheer volume if they wanted to, so who knows what the real cost would be...
While the original MBX Lite is already more powerful then PSP and NDSL; and SGX would put them to shame. But how will apple handle the different hardware power in different generation of iPhone? Does that mean game developers will essentially have to develop for multiple config of iPhone?
The performance gap between the MBX Lite and the SGX 520 is large, but it's not MASSIVE, so it seems doable IMO.
It seems no one care about the iPhone camera. Would we get new camera?
Well yeah, there are some signs we shouldn't expect a proper Image Signal Processor for this generation, so we likely won't see that until 45nm. As for the camera itself, maybe 3-5MPixels, who knows...
 
but what about sgx 530 or even 540. 530 is the one inside omap3 after all. No idea which one apple have chosen after all.
 
super monkey ball game was also announced at $10

16 gig iphone $299.

Oh and the date is July 11.
 
I really thought it would stay around $300 minimum until they released a "mini" or something.

Now I just have to see what Rogers will offer as a plan in Canada.

MobileMe looks pretty awesome. Too bad it costs $99/year. On top of my phone plan, that's WAY too much to pay for phone services.
 
Rogers badly needs an unlimited data plan, until then any real internet use is pretty much wifi only for me.

Sask-tel has an unlimited plan, but they don't do gsm...
 
Rogers badly needs an unlimited data plan, until then any real internet use is pretty much wifi only for me.

Sask-tel has an unlimited plan, but they don't do gsm...

Rogers has an unlimited web plan for something like $7... not exactly the same thing. I'm quite skeptical of it because I'm not sure exactly what would and wouldn't be covered. I'm assuming anything coming over the HTTP port, but how do you really know? It wasn't clear when I read about it.

I'm hoping the iPhone will offer a different plan that has a broader unlimited data plan.
 
Rogers has an unlimited web plan for something like $7... not exactly the same thing. I'm quite skeptical of it because I'm not sure exactly what would and wouldn't be covered. I'm assuming anything coming over the HTTP port, but how do you really know? It wasn't clear when I read about it.

I'm hoping the iPhone will offer a different plan that has a broader unlimited data plan.

Rogers $7 web service excludes smart phones. It's a joke.

although perhaps they'll have some deal with apple, I dunno
 
Rogers $7 web service excludes smart phones. It's a joke.

although perhaps they'll have some deal with apple, I dunno

Weird. My friend has been using it with a jailbroken iPhone. I guess that's how he gets away with it.

Anyway, if the data plan is crap, the plan better be cheap. I'd still be willing to buy an iPhone because I frequent enough places that I could use the WiFi.


Back on topic - there wasn't much talk of any improved internals other than battery life and 3G. They didn't say what the upper limit of the 3G bandwidth was. I'm not sure if there will be much verification or light shed on the internals until release. They didn't say anything about faster graphic performance, and it has the same screen. They also didn't mention a front-facing camera for video chat, from what I read.
 
Ohhhh me wants one. But im wondering what the real price will be. I get the idea apple is subsidizing the hardware a bit and might ask a high price for the phone service. Im looking into a phone to buy and I was looking at the HTC touch diamond but ill get this if the price is acceptable, not 300 for the phone and 30 a month or something like that. Any other phone will almost come free for 30 a month.

Also, what is apple going to do in Countries like Belgium that by law forbid you to sell sim locked phones? will it be just as cheap there?
 
I have no doubt that price is a carrier subsidized US price. You can probably expect to pay a lot more.
 
I have no doubt that price is a carrier subsidized US price. You can probably expect to pay a lot more.

"The price is a maximum of $199 all around the world -- we're really, really excited about the new iPhone 3G."

I dunno. That seems to be a pretty inclusive statement.
 
"The price is a maximum of $199 all around the world -- we're really, really excited about the new iPhone 3G."

I dunno. That seems to be a pretty inclusive statement.
They've just shifted the cost burden around. The carrier will now pay Apple up front and commit to Apple services rather than paying Apple kickbacks over the length of the contract. They'll still have to recuperate those costs somewhere, and it's not as if purchasing a carrier subsidized phone were ever cheaper than getting the same model and appropriate service on the "open market" anyways. The whole concept of "plans" and carrier subsidization is just a con to secure vendor lock-in, obfuscate comparative shopping, and generally keep pricing higher than a genuinely competitive situation would indicate.
 
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