iPhone 4G

The iPhone 4G is possibly the hottest and most anticipated device yet to be launched to the public this year. After a series of mishaps, one being the prototype being left behind in a bar, which of course could have just been a massive publicity stunt, the public finally get to see the real thing, which does offer a great deal in the way of added applications and features which allow the user to organise the content on their phones much better.

The latest iPhone runs on 4G connectivity, which is of course a step up from 3G connectivity, but it is widely known that 3G coverage in some areas is scarce. Signal is poor and often highly unreliable, so is it wise for carriers, who are already struggling to offer the slower service, to now start offering a 4G faster service when it is likely that there will be as many if not more problems with coverage? 3G speeds in an area with strong signals can be up to 14.0Mbit downlink and 5.8 Mbit uplink. The 4G can hypothetically reach speeds of 100Mbit downlink and 50Mbit uplink, but to be honest, does anyone need to have speeds this fast?

Concerns

It is widely believed that if the 3G coverage can be improved sufficiently to only run at half its top speeds that this will sufficient for most people. The 4G coverage will remain patchy in a lot of areas, and so general consensus is that it is better to have a good quality connection and slower speeds than a high speed device that is unreliable.

Differences

The latest iPhone offers the user the opportunity to multi-task much more successfully, allowing more than one application to be used at any one time. This is a feature which has already been seen on smart phones manufactured by rival companies, though was not available on the iPhone 3G. The phone makes its own decisions on how important each application is, so the user may still find that some applications are harder to run with others open, but this is still a step up from the 3G phone.

The phone now has a folder organisation system for users to allow them to organise content much more successfully, but again, this is a feature that has been offered for some time on phones available from rival manufacturers. The phone will also allow users to deal with email attachments and the use of exchange accounts, giving greater flexibility for email applications.

Those who have already successfully used the iPhone 3G version will, of course, want to upgrade to the iPhone 4G, as the latest model has a lot more features and more in the way of applications than previous models; this should mean that sales will be good despite the potential problems. The iPhone is one of the most popular smart phones on the market and other manufacturers are working hard to keep up with the image that the iPhone is the ‘must have’ phone handset.