iPhone 5 to run on HSPA+ “4G”

Japanese websites Macotakara and PC Watch reported that Huang Wenliang, Deputy Director of Research at China Unicom had a thing or two to say about the next generation iPhone at Macworld Asia 2011.

At the conference, Huang Wenliang claimed that the iPhone 5 will support the HSPA+ platform. This will provide users of the smartphone with high-speed data transfer rates of up to 21 Mbps.

China Unicom ran a slide of the evolution of the iPhone since it’s inception and concluded with the prediction that the smartphone will indeed support the “4G” network standard.
   
China Unicom is the company that offers Apple iPhones to customers in China. Since it works closely with Apple, many people feel that Wenliang’s words hold true.

Others are skeptical and will believe Wenliang only when the news comes right out of the horse’s mouth. As Apple is tight lipped about what its new device will offer, fans will have to be content with rumours till Tuesday.

It will be a bonus if the iPhone 5 does come ready to support the HSPA + “4G” service but given Apple’s history, the company might hold back this support.

Remember when the first iPhone came out way back in 2007? Apple released it as an EDGE-only device, while other players in the market were grabbing on to newer, faster technologies. On the cellular network technology front, Apple likes to play safe.

What started with a speed of 480Kbps on an EDGE network for the original iPhone, grew to a speed of 7.2 Mbps with the iPhone 3 and iPhone 4. Surely, the iPhone 5 will take networking speeds a notch higher.

Whether or not the speeds will touch 21 Mbps is something that will only be revealed in the coming week, when the iPhone 5 is rumoured to launch.