LTE

Apple could be setting its sights on a feature well-known to Android smartphone owners, the over-the-air (OTA) update. Currently iPhone users are required to connect their handsets to a computer and deliver operating system updates via the iTunes application. Lately these updates have been around 600 megabytes, containing a new version of iOS in its entirety.

Moving to OTA updates would avoid the entire process of having to be around a computer to get the latest iOS features and fixes, but would also require Apple to reduce updates in size significantly. 9to5 Mac reveals that Apple and Verizon Wireless have been in talks over enabling OTA updates for iOS for over a year.

Hoping for a blazing fast 4G LTE compatible iPhone 5 to hit shelves later this year? Don't hold your breath. Although competitors to Apple's iPhone are already coming out with LTE phones, analyst Sam Greenholtz from Telecom Pragmatics claims Apple will wait for the iPhone 6 use the technology.

A report in The Street explains that Greenholtz has communicated with sources who say the LTE iPhone 6 is already under development. June or July 2012 is Apple's target launch date, which also gives carriers including AT&T and Verizon more time to roll out their LTE networks to full capacity.

Millions and millions of wireless customers from Verizon and AT&T have said they're waiting to buy an iPhone until the device is available on America's largest carrier. Comments by Verizon Wireless CEO Ivan Seidenberg to investors at a Goldman Sachs conference give the impression that these people could be waiting a lot longer than they thought. Rumors have indicated the company will partner with Apple on the release of a CDMA iPhone as early as January 2011.

Instead, Seidenberg associated the iPhone with Verizon Wireless' upcoming Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, rolling out now and not scheduled to cover the entire US until December 2012. If you bought an iPhone now, that's only three months after your two-year AT&T contract would expire.

With all of the hoopla over the white iPhone 4 launch and a possible Verizon Wireless CDMA model it's easy to forget that carriers are frantically working to upgrade their cellular data networks. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, and its the technology behind next generation 4G wireless networks. AT&T along with Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile have all committed to LTE standards.

AT&T, currently the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the US, plans to begin rolling out its LTE network in mid-2011. Trials of LTE are currently underway in Dallas and Baltimore as the company continues to expand HPSA+ 3G availability across the nation. The implementation of LTE could coincide with Apple's iPhone 5 launch next year.

With all of the anti-iPhone advertising coming out of Verizon lately you'd think the company had no interest at all in dealing with Apple. Apparently this is not the case, considering the words of Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg during a third quarter earnings conference call.

Seidenberg explained that the decision to launch an iPhone on Verizon's network is "exclusively in Apple's court. Obviously we would be interested if they thought it would make sense for them to have us as a partner."