How would you like your emails, tweets, and Web searches delivered? Slowly? Really slowly? If the latest sign of the next-generation iPhone is to be believed, you’ll have a choice.
According to a discovery by Chronic Productions, published earlier this weekend, and relayed by MacRumors, Engadget Mobile, et al., prospective users of the next iteration of Apple’s most ambitious mobile device will be given the option to browse the Internet via 3G broadband or by way of the now-standard 2.5G/EDGE connection. All you’ll have to do is flip a software-based switch, similar to how iPhone users currently transfer between EDGE and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Good deal? Perhaps. Ideally, sure. Of course, it’s well known that 3G chipsets routinely consume more battery power than their EDGE-based equivalents. Therefore, presenting users with an either-or option would make sense.
What’s more, it may be unlikely that subscribers of 3G services for the iPhone will be treated to a discounted payment plan, as they are today through a special arrangement made between Apple and AT&T. Currently, iPhone users are required to pay roughly $20 per month on top of standard voice and SMS rates. Yet 3G subscribers must often pay $39+ for unhindered Web data access on any compatible devices. So there may logically be fewer 3G iPhone subscriptions registered upon delivery of the new handset. (Which is widely expected to occur sometime next month.)
As an iPhone owner subscribed to the most inexpensive corresponding voice/SMS/data plan available ($60), I personally find the EDGE data access to suffice for most tasks. Email, Twitter, the occasional request for news stories through Safari, Google Maps searches, and the everyday stock and weather checks come through relatively easily. Some pages take 15-30 second to pull through, but the iPhone is a mobile machine, so I usually find myself willing to “walk and wait.” In short, 3G may hasten those data transfers somewhat, but my impression is that the advent of 3G iPhone services won’t be enough for most present subscribers to willingly relinquish another $20 per month for the privilege of faster speeds.
My sense is that the iPhone’s browsing capabilities - which are clearly very appealing to many users - matched with a popular flat-rate $20 data plan is what has enabled Apple to achieve the sales it has so far secured. And since there is likely to be less incentive for AT&T to follow iPhone’s current data rate special with an equally attractive 3G pricing structure, considering the relative youth of its wireless broadband network, I dare say Apple would be smart to maintain an option for a potential customer to purchase the 3G-capable iPhone sans a premium 3G subscription.