Verizon iPhone is coming

Background:<p>In early August, John Gruber wrote that: “The wheels are turning on N92, the CDMA variant of the iPhone 4... It’s right about where you’d think it would be if it were scheduled to go on sale in January. The CDMA iPhone is no longer a cold storage, keep-it-alive-just-in-case-we-need-it project.” [1]<p>He noted that the CDMA iPhone could be headed for China Telecom first - the competitor to China Unicom, who just launched a GSM iPhone 4 in that country.<p>He cites anonymous tipsters, as well as:<p>- Bloomberg says Verizon iPhone coming in January [2]<p>- CEA announces the Verizon CEO as the keynote speaker for CES in January [3]<p>- Steve Cheney claims that Apple has placed orders for “millions of units of Qualcomm CDMA chipsets” for December [4]<p>- Digitimes reports that Pegatron Technology will begin mass production in December of CDMA iPhones for Verizon and China Telecom [5]<p>[1] <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2010/08/n92" rel="nofollow">http://daringfireball.net/2010/08/n92</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-29/verizon-wireless-said-to-start-offering-iphone-ending-at-t-s-exclusivity.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-29/verizon-wireless-sa...</a><p>[3] <a href="http://cesweb.org/news/080410.asp#4200" rel="nofollow">http://cesweb.org/news/080410.asp#4200</a><p>[4] <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/08/verizon-iphone-january/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/08/verizon-iphone-january/</a><p>[5] <a href="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20100809VL202.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20100809VL202.html</a>

Verizon and Apple blew it on this one IMO. While the iPhone has been wildly successful by pretty much any metric, there is a not-small market segment that hasn't picked up an iPhone solely because it is encumbered with AT&#38;T. (I am one member of that group.)<p>AT&#38;T gave up its exclusivity deal with Apple for the iPhone back in the spring of this year. Verizon and other insiders had to have known well in advance that they were going to. They should have been ready for a release in July, at the latest.<p>Instead, Android has made great strides. I'm not a gadget guy when it comes to my phone; I just want it to work and be easy to use and not frustrate me. So, I've played with the various releases of Android and have continued to hold out for an iPhone ... until 2.2. 2.2 is good enough for me, and best of all, Android appears to be gaining ground on the iPhone, and it isn't being crushed by Apple's thumb.<p>It's tough to tell for sure, but if I'm not alone in all this, then when the iPhone finally does come out for Verizon, it could fall flat on its face. It just took too damned long and frustrated everyone that has been patient enough to wait for it for years.

We've been hearing that the iPhone will be on Verizon "any day now" for the past three years. I'll believe it when I see it in a Verizon store. They can't even fill the preorders for white iPhones....

Folks seem to forget that not everyone has the option of switching carriers. The most obvious example of this are people who get their phone from their company via a bulk contract with a particular provider, as I used to when working at a large bank. If your company is only offering you Verizon service, you're not going to give up an essentially free wireless account on that carrier to pay $100/mo for an ATT account, even if you would rather have an iPhone. A lot of folks are also not aware of number portability yet - I still see notices that folks have changed their numbers because they got a new carrier - so they may think that buying an iPhone on ATT would mean changing numbers.<p>It's also worth noting that overseas, where the iPhone is not tied to ATT, Apple continues to outpace Android significantly: <a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/stats/1733041/apple-google-continue-smartphone-growth-europe" rel="nofollow">http://www.clickz.com/clickz/stats/1733041/apple-google-cont...</a>

This isn't happening for the exact same reasons it's never been happening:<p>1. Newspapers and bloggers love this story. It generates clicks.<p>2. People want an iPhone on other networks. This makes them want to believe this in spite of the evidence.<p>3. CDMA doesn't do simultaneous voice and data. Apple is unlikely to try and explain such a difference to consumers given their focus on user experience.<p>4. CDMA is a dead/dying technology. Jobs summed this up In his D8 interview (when talking about Flash): Apple picks technologies in their "Spring". CDMA will be phased out in favor of LTE.<p>5. Most of the world uses GSM. The market for CDMA is small. People in the US forget this because of Verizon.<p>6. Apple tests far more products than they release. I'm sure there has been a CDMA iPhone. That doesn't mean it will be launched as a product.<p>7. AT&#38;T had a five year exclusivity deal with the iPhone starting in 2007 according to court documents. While this may have changed it seems unlikely that AT&#38;T would give this up without getting something huge in return. The only possibility realistically us that AT&#38;T has failed to meet it's contractual requirements somehow.<p>8. AT&#38;T service apparently sucks in SF and NYC, where most tech journalists and bloggers are. They are fine in most of the rest of the country. But this creates a huge sample bias in the press.<p>If Apple does a CDMA anything it will, in my opinion, be an iPad.

If you want device specs for the Verizon Apple iPhone:<p><a href="http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&#38;id=2548&#38;c=verizon_iphone_4_apple_iphone_3,2" rel="nofollow">http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&#38;id=2548&#38;c=verizon...</a><p>The database at pdadb.net has specs on a number of "known but unreleased" devices.

The only thing that matters to me now is the day apple starts selling all iphones unlocked. I don't want to go through firmware hacks to unlock an iphone or be forced on to a contract in order to buy it, I just want to be able to throw in any sim card and just go.

Which other countries is US CDMA technology compatible with?

... along with Verizon Math: one cent is equal to one dollar.

Sweet - we've only heard about it for 4 years. O_o

So basically entire report based on stuff some people heard from some other people. "Apple is also developing a new iPhone model, said people briefed on the matter"

But Verizon doesn't have simultaneous voice/data, so how will this work out? One of the main selling points (in the iPhone commercials) is that you can check your email/use Safari while making a call.

Moto suing Apple over WCDMA patents..its about to get very interesting

If the time comes when Apple does release a Verizon iPhone, it won't matter. Apple has already alienated potential customers by forcing them to switch to AT&#38;T. Droid's success is an indicator of peoples' unwillingness to switch. Verizon's customer service can be lacking at times, but not enough that I would have switched to AT&#38;T.