Friday 20 April 2012

New iPad 4G dispute in Australia

It's been a month since the new iPad first came out, and there's already quite a few criticisms about it. People complained that it can get really hot, it's heavier than iPad 2, and all sorts of other things. In Australia, there's also a problem about its description as a 4G-capable device.


Image taken from an article in Gizmodo (link).

In Australia, Telstra is the only telecommunication company that offers 4G LTE mobile internet data plans, but unfortunately their LTE standard does not cope with Apple's new iPad, and this arouse problem on whether the new iPad should still be marketed as a 4G device or not.

According to a recent article by 9to5Mac.com (link), Apple claimed in a news report by The Australian (link) that their device can actually perform 4G internet speed on all carriers available in Australia, despite the carriers still calling their network "3G". In fact, CNet.com actually did a worldwide speed test (see video below, Flash required), and turns out that although the new iPad doesn't work with the 4G network in Australia, the speed is still pretty fast, at about 17 Mb (Mega-bit) per sec!



On the other hand, Apple also argued that if the users take their new iPad to countries such as the U.S. where compatible 4G network is widely available, the new iPad can run in full 4G internet speed, thus should not be charged by the court as false advertising.

Ultimately, given such dispute in Australia, I think the telecommunication companies around the world should really come to agreements on the standards of 4G network, so that such incident will not happen again.

Further Reading:
Article about 4G on Wikipedia


Posted by Samuel Ip

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