3G iPhone Battery Life & Data Download Performance: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

For anyone thinking of visiting their local Apple or AT&T store Friday to buy the new 3G iPhone, take notice. You are NOT going to be happy with your Web surfing experience and you are NOT going to be happy as you watch the iPhone's battery drain like an SUV sucking gas. The hype continues.

Walt Mossberg in his Wall Street Journal 3G iPhone review was too nice. But at least he published his test data in today's All Things Digital to warn off the wary. The user comments will fill you in on other complaints about iPhone features--or lack thereof--I won't cover here.

In my previous post "Steve Jobs, Hype and the 3G iPhone," I wrote about the latency (crawl-and-stall) nature of AT&T's broadband mobile network--and the battery drain problem. Mossberg's review confirms what I wrote.

Mossberg, testing the 3G iPhone in New York City, only achieved download speeds of 200Kbps to 500Kbps. (That's KILOBITS, not MEGABITS.) Due to the large screen size and resolution of the iPhone, 3G vs. Wi-Fi web surfers will be greatly disappointed. Add the fast battery drain and web surfing will be like ocean surfing on a slow wave that dissipates before reaching shore.

Why is this? Why will 3G iPhone users NOT achieve AT&T's 1.4Mbps (that's MEGABITS) claim? Why does the battery drain quickly, like other AT&T 3G phones?

As Verizon rightly claims, "it's the network." Despite the best 3G radio in the iPhone, it can't overcome the built-in latency (crawl-and-stall) and turtle-speeds inherent in AT&T's 3G network. The company is furiously installing 3G cell phone towers across the U.S. But it will take at least another year before most areas of the country have 3G and even average 1Mbps mobile download speeds.

This is not true in most European and Asian countries where mobile carrier networks, optimized for high-speed Internet downloads, deliver 6Mbps to 20Mbps on average. Even smaller countries--such as Finland and Denmark--average 7Mbps. (Listen to my podcast interview with Lennart Svanberg on MarketingBeyond). Svanberg is an Internet and mobile expert. In the podcast, he talks about mobile network data speeds in Europe and Asia.

And the battery drain? It's draining quickly because the 3G radio in the iPhone needs to draw more battery power to maintain the signal and maximize the download speed. And it's not only data speeds draining the life out of the iPhone. Mossberg's tests revealed a maximum of 5 hours talk time vs. 8 hours on the original iPhone, requiring Mossberg to re-charge the iPhone daily.

Considering the additional $240 AT&T is now charging for the data plan ($30 vs. $20) per month without text messaging, I wouldn't buy the first 3G iPhone version. If you have the original iPhone, keep it, unless you're very dissatisfied with AT&T or touch phones in general.
If you're dead-set on buying a 3G iPhone, WAIT for at least a few months until AT&T and Apple fix bugs and optimize the device.

As AT&T--now approaching 75 million customers--continues expanding, network demand for voice and data services will grow faster than AT&T can deliver. Wait for the dust to settle before changing carriers or mobile devices.

Touch Me, Talk to Me: Mobile Device Convergence

A recent BusinessWeek article about Google in Japan, describing the Japanese preference for Web browsing on their mobile devices, reminded me again how the world is heading inevitably from the PC to mobile handsets. The Japanese best demonstrate this trend as mobile users surf the Web, view maps, download music, text and email from their homes, businesses, parks, street corners and subways. To the Japanese, mobile is where you are--not necessarily when you leave home.

Voice and data integration still remains a mystery to me. While many handsets throughout the world offer voice dialing, controlling your mobile device's functions by voice alone is growing more slowly than touch screens. This is especially peculiar since speaking is easier and faster than operating keypads or using touch screens.

In my ideal Android mobile device PDF, which is available on MarketingBeyond, I summarize my four requirements--including voice control:

• Global Mobility--handsets running on 4G networks with download speeds exceeding 100mbps accessing the Web from anywhere on Earth. A "global hotspot" connecting all mobile device users.
• Multi-Dimensional. VOIP connectivity for all phone calls and multi-media messaging.
• Voice Control. Operating all device functions and enabling speech-to-text input in any language.
• Solar Powered. A solar panel underlies the mobile device's large touch screen, powering devices, similar to hybrid cars running on both fuel and electricity.

A fantasy dream of mine? Not really. The PDF contains links explaining existing and new technologies for such devices in the next few years. As 3G and 4G networks emerge across the globe, the greatest challenge is market acceptance. Mobile users in Asia, the U.K. and Europe already embrace more powerful wireless devices and applications. The majority of people in the U.S. and third-world countries, except early adopters, will take time to realize the benefits of advanced wireless technologies.

As mobile devices take over many functions handled by personal computers, however, the mental chasm between voice and data will disappear. In the next five-to-ten years, mobile users will communicate with their devices as they do with people. "Touch me, talk to me" will not be an advertising slogan. It will be a mobile reality.