Swedish carrier TeliaSonera SVP Tommy Ljunggren thinks the iPhone 5 may be outdone by the competition if it does not offer support for 4G LTE networks. Ljunggren even took jabs at the current iPhone 4S and said that Apple may be losing its superiority in the mobile space as Android picks up its pace. “Apple [is] not unique enough and there is disappointment over the 4S — it was too small [of a] step for them,” he told Telecoms. “If you asked me two years ago I would have said Apple would be very important. But now it will be a bad mistake not to include LTE in the iPhone 5 as otherwise they will really be run over by the others.” TeliaSoneria does not yet offer LTE smartphones, and Ljunggren explains that is because the carrier wants devices with a single radio, not two, so that the battery doesn’t drain as quickly. Ljunggren thinks LTE smartphones will “mature” in the coming years and, until then, we won’t see large volumes of the devices. BGR exclusively reported in August that carriers were already testing 4G LTE versions of the iPhone, so it is possible we’ll still see the company’s next-generation iPhone packing support for LTE networks in the near future.
[Via 9to5 Mac]
