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Etisalat makes a statement that they are in discussions with Cupertino to provide the company’s fifth generation iPhone handset later in 2011. This announcement makes the release of the iPad 3 more improbable.
The Chief Corporate Communications Officer for Etisalat, Ali Al Ahmad, recently gave truth to rumors of the company carrying the Apple iPhone 5 sometime this year. Etisalat for those who don’t know is a mobile carrier based in the United Arab Emirates, comparable to Verizon or AT&T in the US. Ahmad stated “We are in talks with most smartphone manufactures including Apple on the rollout of the 4G handset, iPhone 5 later this year. As the first telecom organization to roll out the 4G network, LTE, in the Middle East, we have already started talking ot them for the handsets and chipsets in them”.
Etisalat is currently deploying its next generation LTE network throughout the United Arab Emirates. However similar to the iPad 3, Apple has yet to confirm the existence of the iPhone 5, its launch date, or if it will support LTE technology. Current speculation is that an LTE iPhone would not be released until sometime in 2012. Any release of an updated iPhone in 2011 is reportedly going to be an upgrade to the iPhone 4.
It is also strange that the report is coming from Etisalat and not a US cell carrier. Apple typically looks to US based carriers to user in their new technologies. Currently that would be Verizon and AT&T, with Verizon currently boasting better performance. Verizon has been showing off data speeds that have topped 10 to 15 Mbps. All of this is happening while AT&T is working to close its deal to purchase T-Mobile for nearly $40 billion, claiming that the purchase is necessary to secure the necessary wireless frequencies and bandwidth to support their national 4G LTE push. It truly has been a race amongst the carriers to get 4G data speeds up and running for their customers. All of the wireless carriers have been battling to secure the wireless frequencies and intellectual property necessary to roll out LTE across the nation. Recently, Canadian manufacturer Nortel announced that a number of its patents had implications in the 4G market, and the US Department of Justice expressed that it had some concerns over Apple’s interest in these and other patents.
As we have reported there are rumors that the iPad 3 will also be released featuring 4G. To keep up with the competition this would almost be a must for the iPad. Xoom is currently being sold with a free upgrade to LTE when it becomes available. The latest Samsung release is also going to be released being 4G compatible. For a device most geared for data consumption, network speed is going to play a factor in the market.
This newest rumor for the iPhone 5 certainly makes me doubt a release of the iPad 3 in 2011 however. Unfortunately it seems that there is more and more evidence growing for the release of the iPhone 5 this year. This would surely be the hardware device from Apple for the holiday season. It would be highly unlikely that Apple would release both the iPhone 5 and the iPad 3 within the last half of the year.
Apple of course has not commented on the remarks by Ahmed, nor has it given any indication on the release of the iPhone 5 or the iPad 3. Continue to connect to iPad 3 Release via our Twitter and Facebook pages!