Section: Rumors, iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPhone, iPhone OS, SDK and hacks, iPhone Carriers
The Verizon iPhone 4 announcement today contained at least one surprise. When Verizon announced the pricing they let it slip that the 32GB $299 version would have mobile hotspot included. Wait, what? What’s a mobile hotspot and why doesn’t my AT&T iPhone have it?
Mobile hotspot is a great feature that will let you share your cellular data connection with other devices over a WiFi connection. It appears from screenshots that Apple is calling this a personal hotspot and that the capability is built in to the iOS (4.2.5) that was running on the demo Verizon iPhones. It appears this version of the iPhone will be able to share its data connection via WiFi, Bluetooth or over USB. We have been able to do USB and Bluetooth sharing via tethering for a while now even though AT&T was one of the last carriers to come on board with that. But the WiFi option is new and very much in need.
There are still a lot of questions surrounding this “announcement.” The real problem is that it’s not really an announcement at all. It was more of a surprise footnote to an otherwise unsurprising event. The first question is how much will it cost? Verizon typically charges $20/month for its mobile hotspot service on other phones like the Android-based smartphones they sell. However, the Palm Pre on Verizon has the service included. Which route will Verizon go? No one knows, but I suspect they will charge for it unless they see it as a significant advantage over AT&T’s offerings. AT&T charges $20/month for tethering today, but it is only available on a tiered data plan which means you have to give up your unlimited plan if you were grandfathered in.
The next big question is whether this option be available on other carriers such as AT&T? Since this is still an unannounced feature from Apple’s perspective, the official answer would be that we don’t know. However, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say yes. If this had been a separate App that was specific to Verizon, it might be a temporary exclusive, at least. But since this is built into the iOS on the demo phones, it seems very likely it will be generally available to all iPhone 4s—at the very least, when iOS 4.2.5 or a later version becomes available.
However, I suspect the personal hotspot option will replace the USB tethering option, which means your ability to use that feature will be limited by your carrier. If it is, that means the carrier can even make the option disappear from the device altogether if they choose not to allow it. It is also possible they can put conditions on the use of it. Verizon stated during their presentation that it would work for up to five devices. This is a very common limitation to this kind of feature, but the question is if this limitation is hardcoded by Apple or if each carrier can adjust that number. It’s also possible that a carrier might be able to differentiate between the tethering we do today and the addition of the WiFi. This might even allow them to charge for different tiers of the service.
How will AT&T respond? That will be interesting to see. They may decide to ignore the option and leave the choices exactly as they are today, if they can. They may just turn their existing tethering plans into a personal hotspot plan for the same price or higher. Either way, this kind of competition is likely to be good for the user and it may also answer the questions that people have had about tethering the iPad to their iPhone.
This leads us to another question; what about the iPad? The iPad 3G does not currently allow tethering, but the option was reported to appear briefly in one of the 4.2 betas before quickly disappearing in the next beta. It did not reappear with the release. It would be great if an iPad 3G could share its connection. This would be especially useful if you travelled in foreign countries, since the iPad is an unlocked 3G device and could be used more easily than an iPhone on a foreign network. But since the tethering option doesn’t currently exist, it is very likely the personal hotspot will not be an option on the iPad in the near future.
So, the Verizon iPhone will have a mobile/personal hotspot option, and I’m guessing the option will be available to all iPhone 4s shortly.
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Full Story » | Written by Ed McKell for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »
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