The iPhone-to-Verizon rumors will never end. This week it’s The Wall Street Journal claiming that CDMA iPhones will hit Verizon in early 2011. If you’re keeping score, an analyst already said that three-million CDMA iPhones will be made at the end of the year. This was followed by Verizon’s CEO saying that the company won’t have the iPhone until its LTE network is ready for prime time. Here’s a clip from the WSJ article:
Apple Inc. plans to begin mass producing a new iPhone by the end of 2010 that would allow Verizon Wireless to sell the smartphone early next year, said people briefed by Apple.
The new iPhone would be similar in design to the iPhone 4 currently sold by AT&T Inc. but would be based on an alternative wireless technology called CDMA used by Verizon, these people said. The phone, for which Qualcomm Inc. is providing a key chip, is expected to be released in the first quarter of next year, according to the same people.
The reporting is kind of weak. Everyone has accepted that Apple is making a CDMA iPhone, but nobody has seen evidence of Verizon committing to it. It’s not like Verizon is the only CDMA carrier in the world. These phones could be headed to carriers in numerous countries.
Furthermore, Verizon’s CEO seemed confident that an LTE iPhone would be the better way to launch. I agree with that approach. As stable and reliable as Verizon’s network is, the 3G speeds are much slower than AT&T’s. For a lot of people (that don’t live in New York or San Francisco), it would be an inferior iPhone experience.
Then again, maybe none of that matters. Maybe the world is just like Xtra Normal suggests and people are all, “iPhone 4. I want an iPhone 4!” For the 90th time this year, what do you think of the latest iPhone-to-Verizon rumors?
If Apple releases an LTE iPhone they have to have a CDMA radio in it anyway for voice. Verizon said yesterday that LTE phones will rely on EVDO 3G for voice. Voice won't be migrated to LTE for a while still.
I'm beginning to think this rumor is going to pan out.
-Verizon plans on implementing tiered/bucket of bytes data plans in the upcoming months
-aforementioned iphone release will coincide with new data plans
-Apple has to put a CDMA chipset in the device for voice anyway
-It would really hurt ATT, Apple would like that. Jobs is vindictive.
I tend to think now that they are gonna wait for an LTE iPhone, and that all of these rumors keep coming because people want to see the iPhone on Verizon's network.
It's funny, the WSJ completely changed the article. It now says that this is definitely happening.
@Ray
See my comment above