Further to my rant about True last week, here is an excellent article on just how corrupt and ridiculous the Thai Telecoms scene is. The whole article is worth reading, but here are the key points of insanity…
The headlines today are proof, if ever we needed, that if Thailand is to move forward and joined the developed world in telecommunications, the Cat and the Turtle should be put to sleep, once and for all. Firstly, the Turtle. TOT had a bid for its proper 2.1 GHz 3G project, ZTE and Ericsson were excluded. ZTE for offering too much core network capacity and Ericsson for not having its own antenna equipment brochures in the bid pack.
On TOT, and the money it collects on Thailand’s behalf from the companies who actually provide network services…
On the one hand it is still 100 percent owned by the Ministry of Finance and thus the taxpayer, on the other, it currently acts as a gatekeeper, taking revenue share from AIS and using it all up before it returns the spare change to the exchequer.
If it were to give up the revenue share, perhaps the taxpayer could let this bit of incompetence go, but it does collect revenue share, and it does managed to use it almost all up. As a tax collector, it is not particularly efficient.
On CAT Telecom and how it has favoured True, and screwed DTAC and Thailand’s 4G future…
As for the Cat, the story is that Cat Telecom (often mis-represented as Cattlecom for subliminal reasons) has helped TrueMove buy out Hutch and True, now Real (the names are lovely and confidence-inspiring) will use the 850 MHz frequency currently used by Hutch for CDMA 2000 and CDMA EV-DO to offer 3G services on 3G HSPA+.
This is called in-band migration.
In 2007 Dtac told, not asked, told CAT that it would be conducting in-band migration from its 850 1G AMPS network (of which it had 12.5 MHz) to 3G HSPA. Fast forward almost four years and CAT has still not decided whether this constitutes a new network or an upgrade and only has just recently allowed for a non-commercial trial network to be built out.
The point here is that Dtac had the frequency. It was not re-allocation. They just wanted to change its use from AMPS to HSPA and yet, four years later, Cat, the concession holder and de-facto regulator, cannot decide whether to allow it or not.
Yet, in much less than four years, it has decided that True can take over another company and switch from one 3G technology (State-side style CDMA EV-DO) to HSPA. True (or Real) never had frequency, it had to buy another entity to get it. This would seems like re-allocation to everyone but the bureaucrats at CAT, while at the same time, they have denied Dtac the right to use their own frequency.
In summary…
Why is this a big deal? Because 850 is prime 4G LTE frequency, but in order to do LTE effectively, you need big chunks – 20 MHz or even larger chunks of spectrum. HSPA operates on 5 MHz (or in some, very, very rare cases, 10 MHz). Allowing True / Real to continue would mean fragmentation of spectrum that will hurt Thailand’s move to 4G when the time comes.
Not that anyone cares, of course. This is Thailand.
Everyone is focused on the status quo, on the near term kick-backs and money for the upcoming elections to look at a 4G future. The myopia of the government will hurt Thailand in the long run.
Today we took the display of the forthcoming iPhone 4G under the microscope in a laboratory test.
Calculate the resolution of the display was not too difficult, certainly for the resolution exactly double compared with the present, thus resolution of 960 x 640 pixels.
I have been wondering why the guys in Vietnam, or Gizmodo did not do this with their iPhone 4Gs. It seems that the guys at superiphone.cz have a little more creativity and foresight about them.
From their examination the new iPhone 4G screen seems to be confirmed at 640 x 960, with a pixel density of 320 ppi, and is not OLED.
Screen, of course we can not turn on, so why not lit, as the trio of displays at the top. Image is taken at the same zoom microscope and if you are a larger version compare side by side, you will notice a thick double points in the same area. But see for yourself that this is a regular RGB matrix, which shows rather a different display than the OLED display, with the family.
It is not no secret that the current capacity in the OLED display is fully booked, and Apple would hardly find a manufacturer able to deliver in a short time, millions of pieces of displays produced by this technology.
The IPS screen technology Apple uses (from the iMac to the iPad) provides wide viewing angles, a more accurate color gamut, and fewer potential problems in production. OLED screens are plagued with manufacturing issues, production is constrained, and nobody is manufacturing the screens in large numbers.
The leaked iPhone 4G had a tag that said “N90,” which is the internal development codename for the iPhone 4G, and very few people outside the company knew about it prior to the leak.
On a side note, Apple initiated the iPhone 4G project at the end of 2008. According to our sources, Apple actually has another product codenamed N91 for the project, which offers less change from previous iPhones compared with the N90. It’s a parallel product to back up the N90 in case there are major delays due to significant modifications in casing, display resolution, digital camera support and so forth.
Makes sense.
Display resolution is a critical specification, since two of iPhone’s competitive advantage are the App Store and support from application developers. If Apple changes the resolution for every new iPhone, it makes life extremely difficult for application developers since they would have to adjust the applications to ensure graphic quality.
Ok.
At the moment the highest resolution offering from the Android segment is 854×480, so the resolution of the iPhone 4G should at least be higher than 854×480, and mostly likely up to 960×640, which should provide the least interruption since it has the same length to width ratio as the resolution in current iPhones.
Yep. This is the strongest argument for a 960×640 screen, as it will run all current iPhone apps exactly pixel doubled. It’s such a compelling reason for the screen size being 960×640 I am almost certain that’s what we will get.
It is also the same resolution as offered in the iPad, which should be a plus for developers to create applications that fit both devices.
Pardon? The iPad screen is 768 x 1024.
Perhaps something got lost in translation there in the Q&A.
That screen resolution choice would leave a lot of iPhone app developers a bit grumpy, or mean that “pixel doubling” of existing iPhone apps would be a tad more complex for iPhone OS 4.0. But it would make for an amazing iPhone. One which could run iPad apps… and allow Apple to call the new iPhone the “iPhone HD” legitimately.
I still have my fingers crossed for the unexpected. However, I fully expect to be disappointed. And being realistic for a moment, iPad apps on a screen the size of an iPhone would probably be taxing on the eyes!
The iPhone 4G will also come with IPS (in-plane switching) panel with FFS (fringe-field switching) technology, which offers wider view angle and lower battery consumption. This is Apple’s attempt to strengthen the iPhone’s e-book reader functionality.
Back on track again… Moving on…
Samsung has a Cortex A9 multi-core processor under development as well, but it requires OS support to take advantage of the enhanced power. Since the launch schedule of the Cortex A9 processor is estimated for year’s end and iPhone 4.0 is not ready to fully utilize a multi-core processor, the A4 is the mostly likely candidate.
Not quite sure what they are talking about here. Of course it’s very likely to be an A4 in the iPhone 4G. The prototypes we’ve seen have an A4. But there is nothing stopping Apple going for a Cortex A9 (Apple A5) if the silicon exists – which admittedly it probably doesn’t yet.
According to our internal tests, iPhone 4.0 Beta is quite memory hungry compared to iPhone 3.0, and with more complex apps, increased multi-tasking needs and a 5-mega-pixel camera built in, the iPhone 4 needs 523MB (sic) RAM.
I presume they mean 512MB. That is what I am hearing. And what will be required. The iPad currently has problems with 256MB after all. And it’s not multi-tasking yet.
It’s worth noting that Foxconn will be making all of Apple’s iPhones well into 2011, and Pegatron, their second tier manufacturer is unlikely to come on stream until next year…
Pegatron will indeed assemble an iPhone, but the manufacturing cooperation is still at the EVT (engineer verification test) stage. There are two more stages – DVT (design verification test) and PVT (process verification test) – before mass production. Though there were reports that shipments for this particular device will begin in the second half, we believe 2011 is more likely.
One final thought… N91 is a higher number than N90.
What if the “Gizmodo iPhone” is the “safe bet” iPhone.
Sterne Agee analyst Vijay Rakesh writes this morning that his checks with the company’s supply chain finds that the company has been been producing the tablet at a rate of 1 million to 1.5 million units a month – higher than most estimates – and that production could crank up to 2.5 million units a month or more in the September quarter. He says that some previous manufacturing bottlenecks have been solved, though memory remains “a constraint.”
This account of analysis from Vijay Rakesh was fairly boring until a rather strange throw away line about the new iPhone was casually chucked in at the end…
Meanwhile, Rakesh also says that checks indicate that new iPhones are coming in the September quarter, which is consistent with investor expectations, the recent leak of a next-gen phone and a sharp price cut on 16 GB 3GS phones at Wal-Mart.
But he notes that builds on the new phone “are barely starting.”
Has he got his dates mixed up? Or is the iPhone 4G going to be seriously late. By late, I mean in relation to the timescales that most of us seem to be expecting, which seem to point to a June launch. July at the latest.
One thing is for sure. If iPhone manufacture is “barely starting” this will be another US only launch of a new Apple iDevice if it hits retail any time soon..
Is Flash Memory in that short supply globally right now?
Or does Apple have yet more supply chain / manufacture issues?
Not running any new software. No iPhone OS 4.x. But some nice closeups of buttons and the Front Facing Camera…
Part 2 is better in my opinion (for showing the camera), hence top billing on this page :
It’s easy to see that the case design (re: the slight difference in size between the surround and the front and back faces) is engineered in such a way as to make the iPhone easy to grip with your fingers. I am liking this industrial feel the more I see of it…
Foxconn will ship 4.5 million [iPhone 4G's] in the first half [of 2010] and 19.5 million units for the rest of [the year]. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 4G on June 7, 2010 during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
Let’s hope they can support those volumes. Or we might revisit the current iPad nightmare. In fact we still might, even with those initial production volumes. This new iPhone is going to be popular. Even if we get no more surprises about it.
It’s a shame that it doesn’t look like we’ll get a true 720p display with a 1024 x 768 resolution, like the iPad. But then I doubt anyone can make a screen in the volumes, or at the price that Apple wants to pay, at that resolution. Yields would also be an issue. I’ve already discussed my views on screen resolution, and what I was hoping for. But what we are probably getting is more in line with what we should realistically expect from Apple.
By incorporating FFS technology, which enables a wider viewing angle and clearer visual quality under in sunlight, Apple is aiming to improve the handset’s e-book reader features and promote its iBooks Store.
I love my iPhone 1st Gen. as an eBook reader, and still use it as such. This is going to be even better.
The iPhone 4G will run on the Arm Cortex A8 processor and a 512MB memory module from Samsung Electronics, doubling the memory capacity seen in the iPhone 3GS to take advantage of the multi-tasking capability of the iPhone 4.0 platform.
512MB is sorely needed. At 256MB the iPad already has problems with multiple tabs open in Mobile Safari, for example.
To solve battery life issues, the new iPhone’s panel is 33% thinner than in previous iPhone versions to permit more space for larger battery modules…
Apple is apparently doubling up on suppliers for all of these components. Panels coming from LG Display and Prime View International and Batteries from Simplo Technology and Dynapack International Technology.
Perhaps they are hoping to head off supply chain issues they got bitten by with the iPad.
So the prototype definitely has an Apple A4 processor in it. Suggesting that the iPhone 4G is basically a small iPad.
It’s amazing to me that no-one has taken any macro shots of the screen, on any of these “acquired” iPhones, so that we can try and figure out the screen resolution.
This is the best sleuthing so far :
But it’s hardly the most scientific approach. It is clear though that new iPhone’s screen is definitely of a higher resolution. I wouldn’t rule out 768 x 1024.
Even at a resolution 640 x 960, and assuming the final product has the same silicon inside as the iPad, that means that performance for games is still going to be roughly the same as the iPhone 3GS – when one considers fill-rate.
Not sure if anyone [..] has noticed this same thing, but my Upgrade Eligibility date on my AT&T account switched from 11/21 to 6/21 in the last day or so. I bought a 3GS on launch day last year, and my upgrade date read 11/21 since then. A few other folks in my office have noticed the same changes happening to their accounts as well.
And now AT&T seem to be doing everything they can to conclusively spill the beans on when the new iPhone will be launched. Remember that last month they blocked staff holidays in June; something they only do for iPhone launches.
However, it is worth noting…
June 21st is a Monday, whereas Apple has launched every single previous iPhone on a Friday.
Apple’s got two venues from which they could announce the fourth gen iPhone: WWDC (where they’ve announced every other iPhone), which begins on June 7th this year, or the Yerba Buena Arts Center, which Apple has purportedly locked down for June 22nd (one day after the upgrade eligibility date).
