CDMA-Based iPhone 4 at 'Engineering Verification Test' Stage?

[Amasashi]

As much as I love Apple and the iPhone, I'll never understand why they continue to shoot themselves in the foot in the US by selling SIM-locked iPhones.

Apple sells officially UNLOCKED iPhones in just about every other country in the world, and people in those countries are free to choose their own carrier. And no, the subsidized excuse is total BS because many other countries offer subsidized UNLOCKED iPhones. That's why you get all these people buying iPhones from Hong Kong and taking it back to the States to use.

AT&T must be knocking Steve's socks off in bed because Apple is seriously crippling itself in the US with this practice.

 

[likemyorbs]

The iphone is more than surf and talk. More carriers, more iphones in the wild. Does this hurt Apple?

Guess not, if verizon customers are used to that anyway. now my next question is tethering. do droids do that hotspot thing without paying for extra for tethering? because i keep seeing it in droid commercials. if yes, then the iphone should be able to be made into a hotspot natively too. i have to jailbreak to get that feature

 

[i.mac]

...

I wonder where the Verizon label will go...

Label goes where the sun does not shine?

Inside the battery, that is...

 

[ynotm]

The CDMA phone is the China phone. The Verizon phone is the LTE phone. That means January 2011 shipping to China and CDMA countries. January 2011 Verizon announcement of iPhone coming to their network with a March 2011 delivery date so LTE will be more rolled out on release.

AT&T will announce it has been installing LTE for a solid year and will turn on their network the same day iPhone LTE ships so one can select AT&T with a low cost roaming agreement with Verizon. So AT&T will have a lower base price and verizon's roaming fee will bring the package up to the Verizon base price.

That will make the AT&T iPhone 2011 the first real high bandwidth "world phone".

Maybe not an exclusive, but a leg up.

Rocketman

Apple has nothing to gain by holding back a CDMA iPhone from Verizon if they have one. People who want the iPhone on Verizon will jump at it as soon as it drops, if they want LTE, they'll jump again the next year. Apple wins twice off one customer. Doing a HSPA/LTE phone doesn't work for Verizon any way you slice it; Verizon will only have a fraction of it's network transitioned to LTE in the timeframe you're talking about, which means subscribers won't have service in most of the country or will be roaming on AT&T's 3G network (since AT&T has stated they aren't rolling out LTE until 2012.). So to get on verizon, they need some kind of EV-DO compatible phone for the foreseeable future.

Pretty sure i was able to use both at the same time when i had my original iphone. nonetheless i have 3g coverage all the time and so do most customers, and apple touted this feature in their iphone commercials. so im pretty sure it is a deal breaker.

You were either on WiFi or mistaken; EDGE doesn't support both simultaneously.

 

[i.mac]

...

Where can I queue up for a Verizon iPhone?

In your dreams ...

 

[Nermal]

Plus since verizon is rolling out 4g witch is gsm it's stupid to do such a thing.

GSM is 2G. Verizon is using LTE for 4G.

 

[SAD*FACED*CLOWN]

Pretty sure i was able to use both at the same time when i had my original iphone. nonetheless i have 3g coverage all the time and so do most customers, and apple touted this feature in their iphone commercials. so im pretty sure it is a deal breaker.

I assure you, you were not able to get voice and data at the same time on the original iPhone...I'd bet you my first born

 

[avanpelt]

Assuming the rumor is real, I suspect a CDMA iPhone will also have the capacity to be functional on Verizon's upcoming LTE network, as well. Maybe the phone will have the radio built in, but will need to have an OTA update in order to activate it at a later date.

I can't imagine Apple would develop a CDMA-only iPhone this late in the game considering that CDMA should definitely be out the door within the next 2-3 years. Then again, maybe they'll pitch the CDMA phone as an interim option to "shut people up" (same as they did with the bumpers for the current iPhone 4); but then they will release a CDMA/LTE hybrid phone within the next 12-24 months.

All that to say, I hope a Verizon-compatible iPhone will stay in the "EVT" stage longer than it would seem that the iPhone 4 did. If a Verizon-compatible iPhone turns up in a bar, I won't be in line on launch day to purchase it. I made that mistake with the iPhone 4 and had nothing but problems with that phone's proximity sensor.

 

[MacFly123]

3.5 years too late, but good for them.

NO JOKE! Honestly Android wouldn't be NEAR where it is now if they had done this a couple years ago like they should have!

I'm not against it though, like another person already said its just more people to facetime with. That and maybe it will relieve some of the stress off at&t's network.

i thought people are refering cdma as old and soon to be abandonedwhy is apple still dong this business?

they aren't, i doubt this is us cmda if there even is cmda iphones.

Isn't Verizon planning to roll out GSM-based LTE next year? If so, why is Apple creating a product that will drastically lag behind literally every GSM-based LTE phone that Verizon will offer next year?

You're assuming the rumor is real?

Those people are wrong about the "soon to be abandoned" part. Even though Verizon is in the midst of building out their next-generation LTE network, they still have hundreds of millions of devices on their CDMA network. It is likely that they won't be able to turn out the lights on their CDMA network for 10-15 years.

If Apple does release a CDMA iPhone next year, in the future they will probably release a combination CDMA/LTE iPhone. In places where there is no LTE coverage, the handset would fall back on the existing CDMA network.

Is CDMA old? Yes. Is it useless or facing an imminent shutdown? Certainly not.

The lesson here: don't believe everything you read.

LTE won't be pervasive for another 2-3 years and if Apple doesn't do something YESTERDAY about opening up to other carriers in the USA, Android is going to take over!!! I am convinced that if Apple had done this a couple years ago like they should have, Android wouldn't be a fraction of what it is right now! This has been Apple's biggest mistake with the iPhone platform! I know Steve and them have been wanting to open it up but contracts and business politics have been in the way. The longer they take to open up, the more ground Android is going to gain! I think a large percentage of Android phone owners would actually have chosen an iPhone had they had the chance! The only ones that wouldn't are the geeks that wanna hack crap.

I think that T-Mobile still has a good chance of getting the iPhone this year because there is really no other logical explanation for Apple upping their financial forecast by billions more than normal!

All I know is I want the iPhone to kick Androids trash. I welcome competition, but I want the superior product and platform to dominate for once! Android is PCs and the iPhone is a Mac. The same thing is happening in the mobile computing revolution as the desktop computing revolution... Only this time, the part of Microsoft is being played by Google, and there will be more than 2 players in the game! Windows Phone 7 might come to bat, and HP has WebOS now which is a greater threat I think! And let's face it RIM & Symbian are just about done lol! This round will be Apple & Google, and the wild cards are still WP7 and WebOS.

I WILL be pissed if this Verizon iPhone is designed differently as that would be an admission of hardware weakness, but hey...

-Less stress on AT&Ts network
-More market share for the iPhone
-More FaceTime
-Competition with plans

BRING IT ON APPLE, ABOUT TIME!!!

After this Apple will consolidate back to one model with a world iPhone that supports all networks including 4G LTE! That will be iPhone 5 next summer!

 

[MorphingDragon]

Where can I queue up for a Verizon iPhone?

On your bed.

 

[RidleyGriff]

If Gruber is correct, Apple may very well be going all in. I wonder if we'll see a phone capable of working with T-Mobile as well, or if N92 would possibly be a world phone? Either way, I think Apple is going to be open to as many carriers as possible after this Christmas.

I don't ever see Apple giving up their once-a-year update cycle though (it provides a certain comfort for the consumer, knowing they can buy a phone in December and not have it be outdated the following month a la Evo/DI/what have you). This makes a January on-sale slightly strange; the CDMA iPhone would almost immediately get a refresh in June of 2011.

Then again, perhaps this would be a non-issue for many (relentless march of technology and all that).

 

[Simsonic]

LTE is not GSM based, it is backward compatible with HSPA and CDMA. But if it comes to Verizon I will say good bye Blackberry. I think ATT will be a world of hurt if they release the iPhone to all carriers. Bad service and even worst customer service.

I have used AT&T for over one year. I switched last year to buy the iP3 and just got an iP4. Before that I had t-Mobile. Before that I had Cingular (AT&T now). I have had a cell phone for over 10 years. I have nothing bad to say about any of the companies, including my current provider AT&T. So having said that, I am happy that Verizon gets the iP4 as well because competition is good.

 

[NoStopN]

AT&T will announce it has been installing LTE for a solid year and will turn on their network the same day iPhone LTE ships so one can select AT&T with a low cost roaming agreement with Verizon. So AT&T will have a lower base price and verizon's roaming fee will bring the package up to the Verizon base price.

That will make the AT&T iPhone 2011 the first real high bandwidth "world phone".

Maybe not an exclusive, but a leg up.

Rocketman

While I like this line of thinking, we know the rules. Until it is in customers' hands, it is rumor.

 

[IBradMac]

Gruber does have a good track record. There is no doubting that.

In the end of his statement he did leave a nice little disclaimer.

..conveniently I might add.

 

[BigTRQ]

On your bed.

I don't think I'm dreaming about the VZW iPhone. It will happen. The question is when.

(And if that was some sort of cheeky remark, then piss off!)

 

[HDVRSCAW]

Off topic I know but why does the iPhone screen look like this online but doesn't look like that in person. I'm referring to the call information in the picture on the left in this post. When ever I have a call going, the image of the contact fills the entire screen, however I always see these screen shots of the phone showing the contact in a small image in the upper right.

 

[SAD*FACED*CLOWN]

I think this CDMA iPhone is for China, but will still be compatible with Verizon's network similar to the way the GSM iPhone 4 works on tmobile's network (I saw one today)...If you look at my post history you'll see that I've always doubted a verizon iPhone but what I think will happen is Verizon will unlock these "international" CDMA iPhones and allow them on their network because Apple will secretly or perhaps purposely add verizon compatibility.

 

[nbuubu]

I wouldn't immediately assume the default CDMA carrier will be Verizon. Sure, Apple has Verizon test equipment at their campus, but I wouldn't completely rule Sprint out of it.

Verizon is doing very well on their own, and though the iPhone would certainly net them switchers from AT&T, brand and image-wise they're positioned well.

Sprint on the other hand, they need the help. They're usually last to the table as far as new phones go, and they are going after both AT&T and Verizon hard with competitive monthly service fees. If they got the iPhone before Verizon did, even if only by a few months, it'd be huge for their brand.

Sprint needs the iPhone a lot more than Verizon does.

 

[goobot]

I assure you, you were not able to get voice and data at the same time on the original iPhone...I'd bet you my first born

well you just lost your first born cause on wifi you can.

 

[Bonds79]

Daring Fireball's John Gruber has penned an interesting piece about Apple's CDMA-based iPhone 4 that has been rumored to be coming to Verizon as soon as this coming January. According to Gruber's sources, the device, which carries an internal code name of "N92", has reached the "engineering verification test" (EVT) stage of development, the point at which prototypes are moving through the final steps of the testing process to ensure that they function as intended.Gruber qualifies his statement by acknowledging that a CDMA iPhone is not yet a "sure thing", and even if so, not guaranteed to be coming to Verizon, citing Sprint or other international CDMA carriers as potential partners for the device.

He also notes that now is about the time that Apple will have to begin committing to full-scale production for such a project if it is planning a January launch as rumored, and consequently leaks are likely to begin appearing from Apple's manufacturing partners who need to be brought on board. Increasing claims in recent days have been suggesting just that, providing the best evidence yet that a CDMA iPhone may finally be becoming a reality.

Article Link: CDMA-Based iPhone 4 at 'Engineering Verification Test' Stage?

where are all the folks that said "the iphone will NEVER come to VZW, Apple would never create a CDMA iphone, apple is happy with att"

Where are all the folks that repeated that same crap for the last month!
Hold your HEAD!

 

[wreckshop]

HA!!!! If Apple plays this smart, they can make BIG RED beg for the CDMA version of the iPhone and i wouldnt be surprised if Apple does this too, because Verizon and Google have been getting pretty cozy lately... I would totally laugh if Sprint gets it first, just to spite Verizon. Verizon may be the last carrier to get this CDMA verision....

Stay Tuned Folks....

What makes you think VZW even wants an iphone now? Seems like VZW has no problem selling android phones and its their own brand. I have a hard time believing VZW would invest in building up their own brand only to bring on an iphone which would cannibalize their sales.

Sprint and tmo are hurting, so they're willing to deal with jobs BS to get the iphone, but VZW, I just cant see it happening now.

 

[RonHC]

I'm sick of hearing/reading the word: "Verizon"

I wonder how people from other countries are putting up with the countless articles/ rumors for a carrier only in America

 

[MayterTayter]

Extra Verizon Crap?

As a current Verizon customer (unfortunately), I am curious about whether the iPhone really will come this way. There are issues with AT&T, but in my area AT&T's reception is actually incredibly clear. I was looking forward to moving to AT&T this coming January.

If iPhone does come to Verizon, I wonder how Apple is planning to respond to Verizon's stance on loading their crap on my devices. I currently have a Storm 1, and I count over 10 apps that Verizon loaded onto my phone that I absolutely cannot delete- I can only "hide" them. Oh ya, and when Verizon thinks I need another one, they automatically load that onto my phone too.

Does AT&T do the same thing?? If not, I wonder how Steve's gonna like them apples.

 

[alectheking]

What makes you think VZW even wants an iphone now? Seems like VZW has no problem selling android phones and its their own brand. I have a hard time believing VZW would invest in building up their own brand only to bring on an iphone which would cannibalize their sales.

Sprint and tmo are hurting, so they're willing to deal with jobs BS to get the iphone, but VZW, I just cant see it happening now.

I believe there was a article about verizon saying they were interested in taking on the iPhone, but nothing in the short term future. Right before the ip4 was officially announced.

 

[RonHC]

Does AT&T do the same thing?? If not, I wonder how Steve's gonna like them apples.

No