Besides a lab tester with experience in HSDPA standards, Apple also needs a guy who is well versed in the ways of HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access). The analyst would run 3.5G benchmarks, perhaps complementing advanced technologies to be employed by an upcoming iPhone model.

Apple's Job Opportunities section reveals that the job for Cellular Systems Perf Eng – Lab Analysis requires the staffer's Full Time commitment. Located in Santa Clara Valley, Apple's test labs have an open spot for someone with over three years of experience in the field and a Masters (EE preferred). While a full job description is yet to be added, Apple's employment section has the standards, equipment, and programming skills required to carry out the analysis:

Standards: GSM-GPRS-EDGE-WCDMA-HSDPA-HSUPA (WCDMA-HSDPA knowledge is a must – rest is optional). Extensive knowledge of each layer of the stack (Layer 1, RLC/MAC, RRC, Mobility Management), inter layer interactions, message flows and system level understanding of the 2G/3G voice and data stacks, as well us multimode/InterRAT operations.

Equipment: Agilent 8960 (Lab App), R&S CMU-200.

Programming Skills: Perl, TCL,Visual Basic, C# (C/C++ is a bonus, but not a must).

Reportedly, the implementation of HSUPA in the iPhone would mean significantly increased speeds. While HSDPA is able to offer download speeds of up to 14MBit/s, upload speeds on HSUPA would allow some 5.76MBit to be transferred per second. Currently, UMTS implementations come nowhere near what today's technologies can support, World of Apple says.

Interested parties can hit up Apple's employment web segment here and here for the two currently open positions – lab tester and analyst (High Speed Downlink/Uplink Packet Access).

Rumor has it that Apple's marketshare in the smartphone segment is about to double. As the iPhone is becoming more popular by the day, Apple is constantly looking to improve this pillar of its business.