30% Apple

[Jarod Wilson]

On Feb 19, 2011, at 10:42 AM, Anthony Gabrielson wrote:

> On Feb 19, 2011, at 10:10 AM, Richard Pieri wrote:
> 
>> On Feb 19, 2011, at 8:19 AM, Jerry Feldman wrote:
>>> 
>>> But the real issue is that there carriers are each using different
>>> network protocols and frequencies which mean hardware.
>> 
>> The flip side is what manufacturers have to do to support multiple carriers with a single device.  One option is to manufacture different models of the same device.  Motorola does this with the RAZR and KRZR phones.  They're the same shell and mostly the same innards, but Verizon's models have a CDMA baseband while T-Mobile's have a GSM baseband.  The other option is to use a multi-network baseband.  Apple is moving in this direction with iPhone.  On the one hand, this makes for a higher manufacturing cost per unit; on the other hand, it means a single model line for the device which should improve line production costs due to scale.

And if consumers are lucky, a single model that can be used on both
AT&T and Verizon's network, i.e., the ability to switch carriers
and keep using the exact same iPhone.

> If I read the spec correctly I think Apple is also doing this with iPhone 4b with Qualcomm's chipset.

The chipset in the iPhone 4 for Verizon is indeed both GSM and CDMA
capable, but only the CDMA bits are wired up, and there's no sim card
slot, so the device can't be used on AT&T's network.

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org