4G Android Apps: Imagine the Possibilities

by Antonio Wells Mar 21, 2010 7:38 AM – 8 Comments

Sprint has launched it’s 4G wireless network reaching speeds of 3-6Mbps, which is about 10 times faster than 3G speeds. Accompanied by new devices capable of receiving these speeds are the Overdrive mobile hotspot and U301 USB Modem… and much rumored Android phone HTC Supersonic. When the surge of Android phones capable of 4G speeds hit the market one naturally figures 4G Android Apps will hit the Market too.

A few ideas we ponder are:

Streaming HD TV
Live social video streaming
Video phone calls and video chat sessions
Live multi-player online gaming

So we pose this question back to you, answer in the comments:

Android Developers. What kind of 4G Android apps are you or could you create?
Consumers. What types of 4G Android apps would you like to download or buy?

Tags: 4G, Android App, Android Developers, LTE, WiMAX

Categorised in: Apps Blog

8 Comments

By GeoTrail on March 21, 2010 at 4:37 am:

3-6 Mbps isn’t 4G, that’s below the 3G in Norway. NetCom in Norway launched 4G in 2009 and has a max speed of 100 Mbps. Btw, NetCom was the first operator in the world to offer 4G.

https://netcom.no/mobiltbredband/4g/4Gengelsk.html

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By ExtremeT on March 21, 2010 at 12:42 pm:

Live multiplayer games already exists but not on a grand scale that you should see in a true MMO. I think the coming of 4G could very well encourage something of a true MMO to hit Android devices which is what I would like to see regardless if it’s an FPS, RTS or RPG style game.

Top that off with the upcoming ability to install and run apps from the SD Card (natively instead of having to use something like apps2sd to do it) and we could see a whole lot of great games coming soon.

Same thing would apply to a lot of social kinds of apps like live streaming which I think would be great if we could get HD streaming. Those are pretty much the two things I would like to see coming with 4G.

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By Super Jamie on March 21, 2010 at 4:45 pm:

3G and 4G are just communications standards defined by the ITU. A technology which wishes to be branded as “3G” or “4G” has to meet certain criteria. For example EDGE, CDMA2000 and UMTS are all technologies which meet a standard, we use these technologies right now on our various phones and call them “3G”. The 3G standard is capable of up to 14mbps, however most implementations are on GSM networks and are Type 6 (3.6 Mbps) or Type 8 (7.2 Mbps) HSDPA which is a protocol of UMTS.

Sprint is launching WiMax (802.16e-2005) which is not a true 4G technology but pretty close to the ITU’s requirements. It can offer up to 144Mbps downstream and latencies <100ms depending on carrier backhaul. This extremely low latency, almost comparable to DSL, makes mobile gaming a real possibility.

NetCom's 4G is LTE (also known as 3GPP) which is not true 4G either, though is also pretty close and marketed as a 4G technology. A single device can get up to 80Mbps with latencies comparable to WiMax. The advantage of this type of network is that carriers can spend a little money and upgrade existing UMTS 3G networks to 3GPP instead of having to spend a lot of money building an entirely new network as they would if they adopted another standard. In America, Verizon have performed LTE testing and have said they'll roll it out this year. AT&T have committed to LTE upgrades beginning 2011.

No carrier will offer the full speed of the technology. Having the network infrastructure to support a million subscribers' simultaneous mobile 100Mbps transfers is just not possible. However, 5-10Mbps at the handset isn't an unrealistic figure.

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By DL on March 21, 2010 at 5:23 pm:

Telia in Sweden launced true LTE, i.e. 4G this year in Stockholm and is expanding to five other metropolitan areas in Sweden during 2010. This is the globes first true 4G network.

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By DL on March 21, 2010 at 5:30 pm:

The sprint network isn’t 4G. The specs you list is what, at least European, 3G networks have done for years, apart from the HD TV, but you can’t do that on 3-6mbps anyway.

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By GeoTrail on March 21, 2010 at 5:48 pm:

Yeah that’s true.
Here we call type 8 for super 3G, or 3.5G.

Anyways, we’ve come a long way since I first started surfing with a 9600 kbps modem with a download speed of 2 or 3 kbps, if I remember correctly.

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By Rob on March 24, 2010 at 3:33 am:

Who cares about whether its a true 4G or not. What it is, is a huge upgrade from 3rd Generation to a 4th Generation. I have lived in Germany for the last 4 years and I am very familiar with the advantages of the European cellular technology. For instance, Europeans have been able to do video chat on their cell phones in a 3G market for years that we still can not do in the States without the new 4G network. However, for the States to be getting an upgrade to WiMax and LTE, I am grateful. Regardless of true 4G or just meeting a standard to carry the name.

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By Julie on May 25, 2010 at 8:27 pm:

I agree with Rob. HTC needs to not be so “quietly brilliant” in this aspect. I believe HTC to be the smartest lines of phones on the market. I have had both an I-Phone and plenty of HtCs, and HTC has impressed me with their capabilities (with both windows mobile and android equipment). The EVO is only the beginning of a mobile competition.

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