Analyst Claims 3 Million CDMA iPhones Set for December Manufacturing Run

[MacRumors]

AppleInsider reports on a research note from Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro, who claims that checks with Apple's suppliers indicate that the company is gearing up for an initial production run of 3 million CDMA iPhones in December of this year. The assertion concurs with a report from last month claiming that Apple had ordered CDMA chips for just such a December production run.

The CDMA phones would allow Apple to extend the iPhone to carriers such as Verizon in the United States that run on the alternative cellular technology to the GSM standard used by all of the company's existing iPhone partners. Reports have claimed that Apple is looking to launch a Verizon iPhone in January 2011.

Analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro with Susquehanna Financial Group said in a note to investors on Wednesday that checks with overseas suppliers indicated Apple is prepared to build 3 million CDMA iPhones in December, keeping the device on track for an early 2011 launch. That would put total GSM and CDMA iPhone production for the quarter at between 21 million and 22 million.

Fidacaro also weighed in on Apple's production for several other products this quarter, including the iPad, MacBook, iPod, and new Apple TV. According to Fidacaro, Apple will likely see production of 7 million iPads this quarter, shipping about 4.75 million of them to customers while the rest are used to fill sales channels that have remained essentially empty as company has struggled to meet demand.

MacBook production rates are said to be above 3 million units for the quarter, which seems rather high considering that Apple sold just under 2.5 million units of all of its portable computers last quarter. While Apple did see 29% quarter-to-quarter growth in portables during the same time last year, which would result in 3.2 million portables sold this quarter if the performance was repeated, only a fraction of those sales would be MacBooks. It is possible, however, that Fidacaro's "MacBook" reference was meant to imply the entire line of portables.

The report also shares expectations of a record 11.6 million iPhones sold during the quarter, along with production of 12 million iPods, although some of that will also be dedicated to channel fill of the new models. Finally, the report claims production of several hundred thousand units of the new Apple TV at launch, increasing to a million in December.

Article Link: Analyst Claims 3 Million CDMA iPhones Set for December Manufacturing Run

 

[NebulaClash]

Susquehanna! Slowly I turned . . .

 

[jeffreyneil]

Why after Verizon has already announced launching an LTE Network do analysts feel the need to continually spew their made up rumors. It is pretty simple...Why would Apple waste millions of dollars to make a CDMA iPhone that is going to be obsolete in 6 months when they could make an LTE phone that works on both Verizon and At&t. Furthermore I am so excited for everyone to jump ship to Verizon, ya'll will suffer the same bandwidth problems as At&t...and with all of you over on Big Red, Ma Bell will be free and clear.

 

[FSMBP]

So basically Apple is going to give iPhone 4 to Verzion in January...then piss off all those customers 6 months later with iPhone 5? (As history has told us, a new iPhone is released every summer.)

Doesn't seem logical but then again, it's Apple.

 

[rxshelbs]

Just Not Adding Up

I think if the manufactors are just giving out model numbers, this may just be the White iPhones and not a CDMA version.

Why would Apple make a CDMA phone when Verizon has stated their LTE service would be avaliable to everyone by Q4 of 2011.

It's just not Verizon's time yet.

 

[MacSKY]

Believe it when I see VZW and Apple actually confirm it. Everyone keeps making comments about how many subs AT&T will lose when VZW or others get the iPhone. I think the bigger question is how many DROID users drop their DROID for the iPhone. I know of two DROID X owners that will be first in line to grab an iPhone if it comes to VZW. I for one will be sticking with AT&T, been a great experience in the Balt/Washington Area. MUCH faster than Verizon's EVDO.

 

[m3coolpix]

I hope this is true!!!!! I so want to see the "I want to switch to Verizon, can I use my AT&T iPhone on their network' threads.

 

[URFloorMatt]

Why after Verizon has already announced launching an LTE Network do analysts feel the need to continually spew their made up rumors. It is pretty simple...Why would Apple waste millions of dollars to make a CDMA iPhone that is going to be obsolete in 6 months when they could make an LTE phone that works on both Verizon and At&t. Furthermore I am so excited for everyone to jump ship to Verizon, ya'll will suffer the same bandwidth problems as At&t...and with all of you over on Big Red, Ma Bell will be free and clear.

You realize that the current iPhone has support not just for Edge but also GRPS, right? Literally no one, not even Apple crazies, would purchase an LTE-only phone on Verizon.

A decade from now Apple still won't make an LTE only iPhone.

 

[macgirlPhD]

. Furthermore I am so excited for everyone to jump ship to Verizon, ya'll will suffer the same bandwidth problems as At&t...and with all of you over on Big Red, Ma Bell will be free and clear.

I've asked this once and didn't get an answer, so I'll try again.

With the Droid X, Droid Incredible, Droid, Droid 2, Samung Fascinate--why do people seem so content in thinking that an iPhone will clog up the network?

How can the network survive 5 (if not more) very heavy data-using phones, yet people claim that the introduction of one phone is going to slow the network down beyond belief?

I just don't get it.

 

[DeuxIt]

Why after Verizon has already announced launching an LTE Network do analysts feel the need to continually spew their made up rumors. It is pretty simple...Why would Apple waste millions of dollars to make a CDMA iPhone that is going to be obsolete in 6 months when they could make an LTE phone that works on both Verizon and At&t. Furthermore I am so excited for everyone to jump ship to Verizon, ya'll will suffer the same bandwidth problems as At&t...and with all of you over on Big Red, Ma Bell will be free and clear.

china. china's largest wireless provider is cdma. they have more customer than there are people in the usa. that is why they would spend millions on a cdma phone in light of lte.

 

[jmull]

But I already picked up an iPod. If they ever let Verizon have the iPhone after years of begging Apple, I will be very unhappy.

 

[guzhogi]

Why after Verizon has already announced launching an LTE Network do analysts feel the need to continually spew their made up rumors. It is pretty simple...Why would Apple waste millions of dollars to make a CDMA iPhone that is going to be obsolete in 6 months when they could make an LTE phone that works on both Verizon and At&t. Furthermore I am so excited for everyone to jump ship to Verizon, ya'll will suffer the same bandwidth problems as At&t...and with all of you over on Big Red, Ma Bell will be free and clear.

Just remember: once Verizon releases LTE, they won't just turn off CDMA. Everyone on Verizon won't be given a new LTE phone that day. That's like saying your car would stop working when the company puts out a new model. Plus, can you afford to buy a new model every time a new one is released?

Besides, going from CDMA to entirely LTE would take years to happen, not just instantaneously.

So basically Apple is going to give iPhone 4 to Verzion in January...then piss off all those customers 6 months later with iPhone 5? (As history has told us, a new iPhone is released every summer.)

Doesn't seem logical but then again, it's Apple.

Hey, it's business. Apple's in there to make money, not make everybody happy.

 

[sniffies]

Ghost iPhones!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Plutonius]

china. china's largest wireless provider is cdma. they have more customer than there are people in the usa. that is why they would spend millions on a cdma phone in light of lte.

+1...

Verizon is not getting the iPhone.

 

[imikem]

Why indeed

Why would Apple waste millions of dollars to make a CDMA iPhone that is going to be obsolete in 6 months when they could make an LTE phone that works on both Verizon and At&t.

Why indeed? Probably because, like every rollout before it, 4G/LTE will literally take years to reach everywhere. The existing CDMA/EVDO is here now, it works, and can support users. The CDMA network will be here for many years to come yet. A CDMA iPhone is still perfectly reasonable from a technology standpoint. If LTE penetration rates it, a year from now a new version can be released to satisfy the frothing bleeding edgers.

I'm on AT&T, and am neutral regarding them. Love the iPhone. I would look at Verizon with the iPhone, but like every telco I've ever dealt with, there are issues. Having both AT&T and Verizon though, clearly benefits Apple since they are the two biggest US carriers, expanding iPhone's potential market to VZ fanboys as well as those with legitimate AT&T issues.

 

[iSee]

...Why would Apple make a CDMA phone when Verizon has stated their LTE service would be avaliable to everyone by Q4 of 2011...

Because of all the $$$ they could make.

So basically Apple is going to give iPhone 4 to Verzion in January...then piss off all those customers 6 months later with iPhone 5? (As history has told us, a new iPhone is released every summer.)

Doesn't seem logical but then again, it's Apple.

Because of all the $$$ they could make. (Also, it wouldn't piss anyone off -- obviously anyone who wants to wait for the next version of the iPhone can do just that.)

...Why would Apple waste millions of dollars to make a CDMA iPhone that is going to be obsolete in 6 months when they could make an LTE phone that works on both Verizon and At&t....

Because of all the $$$ they could make.

 

[bks691]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

If and when they make a CDMA iPhone it will be for other countries and carriers! Jobs will never forgive verizon here in the states!!

 

[URFloorMatt]

I think we should institute a rule. If the extent of your understanding of cellular technology is: "In the US, Verizon uses CDMA but most of the rest of the world uses GSM," then save everyone a headache and restrain yourself from commenting. You don't understand anything.

CDMA is used in many lucrative markets.

CDMA will be a fall-back data standard for at least another decade.

LTE is not the universal 4G standard you think it is.

What everyone understands to be "4G" will not be widely available in the US for several years.

Saying that the Verizon iPhone should just support LTE is the equivalent of saying the first AT&T iPhone with LTE should drop support for 3G (and Edge and GPRS). None of those contentions is even remotely reasonable or informed.

Announcing the Verizon iPhone in January would be a gift to AT&T because of contract timing. Announcing it in June 2011 would be a knife in the back. The fact that iPhone 5 will come in June is largely irrelevant. iPhone 5 will be an incremental improvement on iPhone 4, just like 3GS was largely an incremental improvement on iPhone 3G. Reports have suggested that the iPhone runs on a three-year development cycle. The next major revision would be the iPhone 7, not iPhone 5.

Recent analyst reports suggest that the greatest threat to the iPhone's continued success is exclusivity to AT&T. The very reason that Android has emerged as the most popular phone software, eclipsing iOS, is precisely because of that exclusivity contract. If you refuse to believe that the iPhone is not coming to Verizon in 2011, then you might as well refuse to believe the sky is blue.

 

[Xenomorph]

So basically Apple is going to give iPhone 4 to Verzion in January...then piss off all those customers 6 months later with iPhone 5? (As history has told us, a new iPhone is released every summer.)

Doesn't seem logical but then again, it's Apple.

Maybe those people could just wait for the iPhone 5 from Verizon then...?

No one is forcing them to buy the iPhone, especially since people know by now they have a yearly release.

My wife's friends said something like that. Back in May or June or whatever, a bunch of them all went out and all bought a new iPhone 3GS. Of course Apple then released the iPhone 4 in July, and they were FURIOUS!

How *dare* Apple sell them one phone and then bring out another immediately after!
I said that pretty much everyone has known for years that Apple would be releasing a new phone in July, and rumors of the design had been talked about for months before that. Why would you buy a phone right before the newer/better one comes out *at the same price*???

Even if it does come out on Verizon, I don't even know that would be a big deal to most customers.
Verizon is just as evil and expensive as AT&T, and from what I've read, AT&T has only had issues with network saturation in very few markets.
Switching to Verizon won't suddenly make things better for most users.

AT&T works almost everywhere I go, and I'm locked into my unlimited plan. Both because I'm grandfathered in, and because of the complex contract situation and family plan. I can't be the only one like that.

 

[Ping Guo]

china. china's largest wireless provider is cdma. they have more customer than there are people in the usa. that is why they would spend millions on a cdma phone in light of lte.

Fact check. They don't have more customers than there are people in the USA. They have 62.36 million mobile subscribers. This is from their own website.

Out of that 60-some-odd million, how many are going to be able to afford the iPhone? Besides, the iPhone 4 is launching on China Unicom (GSM) on September 25th. The base 16GB model will sell for $745 without contract. The size of China's domestic market is seriously overblown. You do know 2/3 of Chinese still live in poverty?

 

[neilw]

3 million, that should just about cover the first week or two's sales in the US.

Given VZW's treatment of Android phones these days (and their success with them), though, it's getting harder and harder to envision their ceding control to Apple with the iPhone.

It'll definitely be China-bound, but VZW still seems far-fetched. I hope I'm wrong, as I've been holding out for a Verizon iPhone for far too long already.

 

[Tibs066]

VZW Iphone

It seems unrealistic for apple to release an iphone to china before the US i dont know of any product of apples that has a received a world release before the US. I have to think that Apple is jumping ship with just att due to the fact that every new phone that comes out is going to att and pushing the iphone out of the limelight. Most likely if ever the iphone comes to verizon i will be one of the saps in line to get one because i have been with big red for 14 years and it is nice to have att and vzw with me when i travel cause some places just suck for one or the other. As for data overload on big red i think that is a mythical beast that has no proof, i use as much or more data on my droid as i do on my iphone and they both move at about the same speed.

 

[goobot]

I love it when people get really excited about a rumor with 0 proof and has been around for over 3 years and then watch them get crushed and cry them self to sleep for the next week and spam our forms. Best feeling in the world.

 

[iBaloney]

these iphone-vzw hopefulls never seem to quit getting their panties in a bunch with these RUMORS.

 

[bergmef]

these iphone-vzw hopefulls never seem to quit getting their panties in a bunch with these RUMORS.

I don't think their panties are in a bunch, most seem to just say 'I hope it's true', that they will switch if it does or I'll believe it if I see it.

I hope it does so we can talk about other stuff on here.