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

With Verizon now in the sack with Google on their ludicrous Net "Neutrality" racket and Verizon's constant advertising digs at Apple, I say Apple toss Verizon a big "screw you" and offer devices on every US carrier but Verizon.

I get the sense that Verizon and Google have some secret blood pacts going right now.
 
Makes no sense to me...

One thing that makes absolutely no sense to me about this though is that Apple cannot produce them quickly enough as it is. Right now, there is a 3 week wait time for the iPhone 4 in the US and Canadian Apple Stores. And Apple has rolled it out in only a handful of countries.

If you assume that manufacturing capacity is the main production constraint - rather than the availability of the right kind of GSM radios -, then what exactly does a CDMA iPhone mean to Apple's bottom line? I assume the profit per phone would be more or less the same, but they would have twice as many different models to produce... on the same production lines, I assume. Maybe I am looking at it with too short a perspective, but I really don't think Apple needs a CDMA phone right now. They can sell tens of millions of the GSM iPhone 4 this year, and they will sell them as quickly as they can build them for the foreseeable future. A CDMA iPhone would just make the wait times longer, I think. It would increase demand, but if supply can't go up, it doesn't mean anything.

If they can't sell more due to manufacturing capacity constraints, why would they do it? It would add to consumer confusion and a bunch of uninformed customers would buy the wrong kind, or buy one and then complain that they can't switch from Verizon to AT&T or the other way around. It'd be rather messy, I think. Well, messy by Apple's standards anyway.

I'm not saying it won't happen. I'm just saying that it seems more logical for Apple to wait for LTE before introducing a single iPhone model that will work - if I understand this right - on both GSM and CDMA networks. The iPhone 5 next summer? The 6 in summer 2012? I don't know. I guess it mostly depends on when the networks are ready.
 
wreckshop said:
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.
Click to expand...

Jobs' "BS" is the only reason you're even seeing a somewhat-unshackled Android platform on Verizon today.

Recognize.
 
BigTRQ said:
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!)
Click to expand...

Touchy.

There's a far bigger untapped GSM market than there is an untapped CMDA2000 market, you'll probably see the iPhone in third world countries than Verizon first.

LagunaSol said:
Recognize.
Click to expand...

Oh God, Migraine. @_@
 
May seem like an obvious question but doesn't AT&T have an exclusivity deal with Apple for the iPhone in the US? If so, then how is it possible that Apple would make a phone for Verizon without breaking that exclusivity contract? Last I knew the exclusivity was supposed to last till 2012 (2007 release and 5-years of exclusivity)

Ruahrc
 
ThomasJL said:
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?
Click to expand...

Consider that the phone may have a CDMA/GSM hybrid chipset. Such things do exist.
 
CDMA is old technology. Here in Australia, CDMA was shut down years ago and replaced with NextG or UMTS. No CDMA phones work in Australia anymore. I think its about time the US dumped CDMA, as it appears Australia is well advanced technologically than the US in mobile networks. Im proud im Australian :)
 
Ruahrc said:
May seem like an obvious question but doesn't AT&T have an exclusivity deal with Apple for the iPhone in the US? If so, then how is it possible that Apple would make a phone for Verizon without breaking that exclusivity contract? Last I knew the exclusivity was supposed to last till 2012 (2007 release and 5-years of exclusivity)

Ruahrc
Click to expand...
Contracts are rewritten all the time. That's what a mortgage refi is. Some guess that at some point in time, the contract was rewritten and exclusivity was possibly reduced to a year-by-year status.

We do know that the original contract was rewritten to drop carrier revenue sharing; starting from the iPhone 3G, Apple is paid a straight subsidy from the carrier and no longer shares any subscription revenue. It is possible that other parts of the contract were changed as well. There was recent insider story about Apple and AT&T's tumultuous relationship and both sides considered dissolving their partnership on more than one occasion.

Knowing this, it is likely that at least one if not both sides would have moved to shorten the window of exclusivity. If you hated the person you were sitting next to you on the airplane, you'd wish that the flight was shorter, right?
 
Ruahrc said:
May seem like an obvious question but doesn't AT&T have an exclusivity deal with Apple for the iPhone in the US? If so, then how is it possible that Apple would make a phone for Verizon without breaking that exclusivity contract? Last I knew the exclusivity was supposed to last till 2012 (2007 release and 5-years of exclusivity)
Click to expand...

The details of any exclusivity deal between Apple & AT&T has never been made public. The rumors and speculation about it have ranged all over the place.

Speculation has increased recently because a recent SEC filing by AT&T comments on their belief that losing exclusivity on unnamed products won't adversely impact them:

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/08/06/att.filing.hints.knowledge.iphone.going.away/
 
IBradMac said:
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.
Click to expand...

Good catch! I guess I should always have a coffee before trying to use my brain for anything. Gruber says: "If they’re at that juncture with the iPhone now, expansion means CDMA. And in the U.S., it means Verizon." The question is: Are they? And from the wait times I see for the iPhone 4 - online, at least -, I have to scratch my head and go with a no. Not on pure numbers, at least. Not in the short term. Probably not until they introduce the next one in summer 2011.

But I assume some people would like the choice of network. Some would be happy to wait for a CDMA iPhone instead of going with something Android. Maybe they want to win over the "tech evangelists" (aka "geeks") who are stuck on a CDMA network or another. I can see value in that. But still... I don't quite get it.
 
Totally wrong

The CDMA thing is for the forth coming iPods not the iPhone. iPods and iPads that can run on the CDMA network for data.

I don't see an iPhone CDMA coming at all. You'd not be able to talk and do anything else. Maybe when Verizon gets their network 4G but Apple doesn't usually go backwards with technology......
 
Wow! So perhaps in 2012 when Apple's exclusivity contract with AT&T ends, there might be a Verizon phone? Or perhaps this is a CDMA phone to be used abroad?

Anyway, the January Verizon iphone rumor is just silly. It's not happening.

And I am a Verizon customer who would love to see the iphone come to Verizon. But my wishes do not count. There is no Verizon iphone in January.
 
ThomasJL said:
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?
Click to expand...

Because they will sell millions of iPhones now (Ill take 2 please) and millions more once the LTE is in all the majors. Win win?
 
Iphtashu Fitz said:
The details of any exclusivity deal between Apple & AT&T has never been made public. The rumors and speculation about it have ranged all over the place.

Speculation has increased recently because a recent SEC filing by AT&T comments on their belief that losing exclusivity on unnamed products won't adversely impact them:

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/08/06/att.filing.hints.knowledge.iphone.going.away/
Click to expand...

I read that Apple's Lawyers confirmed it in litigation. A news paper reported it and the lawyers referenced it to say it was never a secret deal.
 
ArmCortexA8 said:
CDMA is old technology. Here in Australia, CDMA was shut down years ago and replaced with NextG or UMTS. No CDMA phones work in Australia anymore. I think its about time the US dumped CDMA, as it appears Australia is well advanced technologically than the US in mobile networks. Im proud im Australian :)
Click to expand...


How the hell do you turn the technology choices of a phone company into a my country is better than yours type of thing. And for the record we have more than just CDMA.
 
likemyorbs said:
not that i will ever switch to verizon, but im glad ill have more people to facetime with. now all apple needs to make is some form of bbm for iphone users.
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It's called texting. Been threading text conversations without the added stalking much better than BBM for a while now...
 
Would a Verizon iPhone be capable of
surfing the web while making calls or is that unique to AT&T?
 
wow. so many fan boys its not even funny... i love apple... and love my apple laptop wayyyyy more then windows... but how is android really that horrible? I love my evo... way more then my friends iphone 4. the huge screen = amazing. sure the app stores are no where close... but androids not that bad...
 
Blorzoga said:
Would a Verizon iPhone be capable of
surfing the web while making calls or is that unique to AT&T?
Click to expand...

That is unique to GSM carriers like AT&T


aimbdd said:
wow. so many fan boys its not even funny... i love apple... and love my apple laptop wayyyyy more then windows... but how is android really that horrible? I love my evo... way more then my friends iphone 4. the huge screen = amazing. sure the app stores are no where close... but androids not that bad...
Click to expand...

Increasing the screen size without increasing the resolution is pointless. You don't get more screen space and everything just looks more blocky.

Sort of like Droid X where all they did is remove the keyboard and make it the size of a toaster. Yea, that's progress.
 
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