Apple and LTE: Not yet, but soon

A Reuters report out of China mentiond that Apple had been speaking with the local carriers about connecting their local brand of LTE with the iPhone.

China Mobile Ltd, the world’s largest mobile carrier by subscribers, said on Friday that Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs has expressed interest in developing an iPhone based on the Chinese carrier’s network standard.

China Mobile is developing its next-generation TD-LTE mobile network technology and there have been talks over a possible iPhone tie-up with the carrier.[That’s about as vague a timeframe as you can get.]

There are some compatibilities and similarities between TD-LTE and the LTE that Verizon and AT&T are rolling out in the US.  But does that mean Apple is going to build an iPhone 5 with any type of 4G LTE?  I think it is unlikely.  We do know, however, that Apple has been active in the hiring of LTE engineers over the past few months.

Mr. Debarshi Kar came to Apple in January from Motorola where he was an LTE testing engineer.  His hire might have been for this job.   And that’s just the beginning…

Apple lists a slew of jobs with LTE as part of the description (below).  But does it make sense for Apple to jump on this technology now?  Remember, Apple builds just a few different device configurations.  Most of the world won’t be on LTE for another year.  Even Verizon won’t have much of the US covered by the Summer and AT&T will just be switching people on.

Job title	Req. number	Location	Date Posted
Carrier EPM, Americas iOS Software	6850047	Santa Clara Valley	03-Mar-2011
iOS Cellular Protocol SW Engineer-SH/BJ	6593157	Shanghai (China APO Only)	30-Jan-2011
iOS Cellular Protocol SW Engineering Mgr	6593252	Shanghai (China APO Only)	30-Jan-2011
iOS Modem DSP Firmware Engineer-BJ/SH	6593187	Beijing (China APO Only)	30-Jan-2011
Carrier EPM Mgr (EMEIA), iOS Software	6497489	Santa Clara Valley	19-Jan-2011
Carrier EPM Mgr (APAC), iOS Software	6495536	Santa Clara Valley	19-Jan-2011
Carrier EPM, APAC	6485177	Santa Clara Valley	19-Jan-2011
Carrier EPM, EMEIA	6485246	Santa Clara Valley	19-Jan-2011
iOS IOT Dev and Performance Eng	6442543	Santa Clara Valley	12-Jan-2011
Carrier EPM, Americas iOS Software	5886682	Santa Clara Valley	02-Dec-2010
Log Analysis Engineer	4792913	Santa Clara Valley	09-Jan-2010
Cellular Systems Architect	4763890	Santa Clara Valley	24-Nov-2009
Cellular Systems Perf Eng – Lab Test	4642719	Santa Clara Valley	05-Oct-2009
Inter-Operability Dev and Perf Eng	4318719	Santa Clara Valley	29-May-2009
Iphone Cellular Systems Engineer	4300664	Santa Clara Valley	19-May-2009

Also, remember Apple was slow to jump on 3G, instead choosing to keep the original iPhone on EDGE. It turned out to be a masterful decision which allowed to iPhone to last much longer on battery and a better experience until Apple could get the chip size and energy consumption to acceptable levels.