Lalit Sharma writes for TechzTalk, “there are three very good reasons why Apple will wait for next generation LTE chipsets, which Qualcomm will start sampling by end of 2011 with volume production aimed for 2012.”
• Size and Power efficiency: Qualcomm has already announced second generation LTE chips that will be based on 28nm process technology resulting in size reduction by as much as 50% and power efficiency improvement by at least 67%. [UPDATE: 6:25pm EDT: Percentages fixed by TechzTalk.]
• Design Compromises: For example, the HTC ThunderBolt is 0.56-inch thick, whereas iPhone 4 is just 0.37-inch thick, and yet many reviewers rate ThunderBolt’s battery life as very poor when compared to the iPhone.
• Cost: Adding LTE chipset to iPhone could increase the production cost 25%. For half of that cost Apple could add more RAM, bigger storage and faster dual-core processor resulting in improved user experience.
Read more in the full article here.