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Leak: Apple prepping Verizon-ready iPhone for fall

updated 05:50 pm EDT, Mon March 29, 2010

Apple may have CDMA iPhone model for VZ


Apple is developing a model of the iPhone for Verizon, an in-development rumor maintained Monday night. In addition to reinforcing expectations for a new iPhone this summer, the WSJ has added that a second model is in development for Verizon. It would use the carrier's existing CDMA network and would be made by ASUS' Pegatron business rather than Foxconn, which makes GSM versions.

Mass production of the new phone would start in September, though it wasn't evident whether it would be announced at the same time or only when enough stock existed to ship. Although Apple has usually shipped iPhone in June or July, it has regularly started mass production in mid-spring to give enough time to build up supply. The timing would put the ship date in the fall, well after AT&T's rumored exclusivity period for the iPhone should have ended.

Talk of a Verizon iPhone has been frequent and lately has suggested that Apple might opt for a Qualcomm chipset to power the CDMA connection. If it exists, the new model likely to be limited to EVDO-based 3G for data, as Verizon's LTE-based 4G isn't slated to get smartphones until 2011 and won't cover more than 30 cities by the end of 2010.

A fall release date would be unusual for Apple, but not for Verizon. The carrier has lately saved November for its largest phone releases, including the BlackBerry Storm and Motorola Droid. If scheduled that way, the iPhone would almost certainly receive Verizon's largest possible marketing effort during the holidays.


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By Electronista Staff

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iPhone, industry, Verizon, AT&T, Qualcomm, Apple

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Previous Comments

  1. bjojade

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2007

    +1
    03/29, 06:18pm | report spam | (1 reply) | reply

    Please!!

    Be a true rumor!! I can hardly wait!!


  1. boris_cleto

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Sep 2002

    -1
    03/29, 06:37pm | report spam | reply

    Not gonna happen

    Ever.


  1. aristotles

    Grizzled Veteran

    Joined: Jul 2004

    -2
    03/29, 06:41pm | report spam | (1 reply) | reply

    Not happening ever CDMA is dead.

    Also, what is up with the confusion over LTE? LTE is 4G GSM technology. It is not backwards compatible with CDMA but may be backwards compatible with HSPA/HSPA+ on which it is based.


  1. coffeetime

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 2006

    +2
    03/29, 09:33pm | report spam | reply

    hope it's true

    ...was going to switch to ATT for iPhone when contract is over but now let's wait and see with my Verizon.


  1. starwarrior

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2006

    +2
    03/30, 06:32am | report spam | reply

    More Likely China Telecom

    Now the 64 million yuan question … Will Apple develop a CDMA2000 3G (EV-DO) iPhone for China Telecom and go after the relatively affluent urban Netizens.


  1. Tanker10a

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2003

    -1
    03/30, 07:46am | report spam | reply

    WAR

    Apple is declaring war on Google with its Android phone!
    Assuming this substantiated story otherwise known as "A Rumor"...


  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    -4
    03/30, 08:09am | report spam | reply

    Can't be true!

    This can't be true! I mean, it would be impossibly expensive for a phone manufacturer to make a CDMA phone AND a GSM phone. It just can't be done. At least not without Apple spending half of their 40 billion of cash on R&D costs.

    Plus, this will do nothing but make the iPhone less secure and more susceptible to viruses and other types of malware! Which, in turn, could take down the entire cellular network of both ATT and Verizon! Do you people really want to be without cellular service for a couple of months? Just for the sake of having the option of Verizon!

    Plus, we all know how confusing this will be for consumers, because choice is bad, and now they'll have to decide what carrier/phone they want. Heads will start to explode! I'm warning you!


  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    +4
    03/30, 08:13am | report spam | reply

    Re: CDMA is dead

    And yet Apple supports EDGE, and EDGE is just as dead. Why do they do that? Oh, right. Because EDGE, while being dead, is still the only service in many of ATT's coverage areas.

    Correspondingly, CDMA will live for years until Verizon updates ALL of their towers and areas. Now YOU might believe them when they say this will be done in 4 years time. Personally, I'll believe it when I see it.

    Just saying something is dead does not make it so. Everyone here claimed floppies were dead in 1998 when the iMac was released. And yet it still took another 5 years, at least, before they even started disappearing, and several more before they became a rarity.


  1. driven

    Addicted to MacNN

    Joined: May 2001

    -1
    03/30, 10:07am | report spam | reply

    testudo

    The difference is that EDGE is the fallback point of HDSPA/WCDMA (3G). It sort of goes with the package.

    If a phone supports CDMA (NOT the same thing as WCDMA) then it's predecessor/fallback technology is 1xRTT. A CDMA phone cannot drop back to EDGE any more than a WCDMA phone can fall back to 1xRTT.

    I'll be happy when Verizon gets on LTE so we can FINALLY have (mostly) everyone on the same standard technology. (albeit with some frequency differences and Sprint's jumping on WiMax).

    Since CDMA as we know it has essentially hit end of life I'd be REALLY surprised to see a CDMA iPhone developed. It might happen, but if I were betting money, I think a bet on a long-shot at the track might be a better investment.

    That said: If this is a rumor I'd bet money that VZW is behind them.


  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    +4
    03/30, 10:52am | report spam | (1 reply) | reply

    driven

    The difference is that EDGE is the fallback point of HDSPA/WCDMA (3G). It sort of goes with the package.

    If a phone supports CDMA (NOT the same thing as WCDMA) then it's predecessor/fallback technology is 1xRTT. A CDMA phone cannot drop back to EDGE any more than a WCDMA phone can fall back to 1xRTT.

    And you missed my point. Any Verizon phone that supports LTE will have to support CDMA since CDMA is Verizon's fallback to LTE (as is EDGE to 3G). Unless Verizon is planning on converting 100% to LTE BEFORE switching (which there's no way they'd do), if you bought a 4G Verizon phone, it would have to support CDMA. Otherwise, the moment you leave the city, you have no phone access (they you might as well be on Sprint!).

    I'm just pointing out to the people on this board who keep telling us that CDMA is dead that it isn't dead, not for many years.

    And if Apple ever wants to expand out of their "We can have only one phone provider, because choice makes people's heads hurt" philosophy (which, in turn, would help grow the iPhones sales, which, in turn helps the stock price, which, in turn, helps me), then they're going to have to have CDMA support. Which takes about as much effort as it took Apple to lose ExpressCard slots on their 15" MBPs. Or for them to add flash card support. It isn't exactly rocket science.


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