CNET has reported that the much-anticipated iPhone 5, probably will not feature 4G capability, or, to be more accurate, Long Term Evolution (LTE). The biggest reason for this could be that LTE chipsets would "force a lot of design compromises" to the iPhone, Tim Cook, Apple’s CFO, suggested during a conference call on Wednesday.

CNET questioned Will Strauss, President of wireles chip market research firm Forward Concepts, as to why Apple regards LTE as currently "immature".

"It's not Apple's fault, it's just that the wireless folks don't have what they need at the moment. There are no true LTE handsets on the street aside from the HTC Thunderbolt--and that's a kludge. It's big and it doesn't have a single LTE-3G chip. It has an LTE baseband (modem) chip and a second 3G chip from Qualcomm for the voice functions. They can't do voice over LTE now. Not Verizon. Not anybody,” Strauss answered.

Strauss also mentioned that Apple could have integrated chips by 2012, saying, "by then we'll have integrated solutions from Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson and others". However, the chip expert remarks that the LTE phones will still need an inbuilt 3G component, regardless of what kind of coverage Verizon will be offering 2 years from now.