CES 2011: Verizon Makes No Mention of iPhone, iPad Competitors Take Shape

[NeuralControl]

Honeycomb looks fantastic. Google really evolved the OS into something truly meant for a tablet, as opposed to just putting a phone OS on a big screen.

I really hope the next iPad has a reworked OS. iOS is a stable and solid OS, but Apple should modify it already (at least for iPad).

 

[iPhysicist]

Because every carrier in Germany made a huge thing out of "iPhone4 is coming to (insert carrier)."

If a Verizon iPhone is coming then with its next revision were the CDMA capability is implemented and Apple does not have to build 4 iPhones. Maybe the leaked frame with the obviously new arranged interior is a sign for it coming. So be patient.

 

[Stella]

So a few small mobile operators migrated from CDMA. How does this translate to CDMA dying?

Those companies referenced aren't 'small'. There is an over all trend of carriers moving towards HSPA and better, leaving behind CDMA for customers who won't change their phones. Bell and Telus may be scam artists ( along with Robbers - with their three year contracts etc ), but not small.

CMDA is dying: Only a small percentage of the world bothers with CDMA and that number is rapidly decreasing.

 

[kirk26]

It wasn't expected anyways of him to mention the iPhone.

 

[bradl]

Now, could someone please tell all of those 'prominent analysts', 'sources close to VZW and Apple', and WSJ reporters to shut up, as time and time over they are proven otherwise? Granted, they are there to fuel hype/speculation, but it clearly shows that they are more about selling papers and making money than reporting what is currently the facts..

BL.

 

[aristotle]

So a few small mobile operators migrated from CDMA. How does this translate to CDMA dying?

Wow. Are you serious? GSM/HSPA already had a larger share worldwide. Not only is the CDMA Total Addressable Market smaller that before but it is divided by completely incompatible variants.

Out of the CDMA markets in Asia which have not yet migrated to HSPA+, the rest are planning on going to LTE ASAP and that CDMA gear that they use right now uses something called a CSIM while CDMA carriers in the US use phones that are programmed for a specific carrier. Then you have the Chinese CDMA carrier that use a completely different radio standard which is also incompatible with Verizon and Sprint.

 

[NKT]

Those companies referenced aren't 'small'. There is an over all trend of carriers moving towards HSPA+ and better, leaving behind CDMA for customers who won't change their phones. Bell and Telus may be scam artists, but not small.

CMDA is dying: Only a small percentage of the world bothers with CDMA and that number is rapidly decreasing.

So that's why the number of CDMA subscribers worldwide is shrinking then...


CDMA is going to be around for quite some time. There's no logical reason Apple couldn't make a device to utilize that tech and gain access to a sizable market for their wares.

 

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-gb; GT-P1000 Build/FROYO) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Android 3.0 for tablets looks AWESOME!!! Is superior to the iPad's iOS in some major way!! About time we got some actual pressure put on Apple - now they're going to be forced to innovate even more quickly with the iPad. The iPad 2 better set it up significantly in terms of the software, but as of now it looks like the T-Mobile G Slate and Motorola Xoom are the ones to beat! It's nice to see some healthy competition in this space, but as usual what I'm really looking forward to is how Apple will respond.

Let's not call this 'competition' to the iPad until it's selling a million a month, and it's clearly putting a dent in Apple's sales. Competition is this sense can only be measured in sales, and so far, android 3.0 tablets have not sold anything.

Limiting your view of sales only as the metric for competition is very blinkered.

Mac OS X sells very lightly compared to Windows but is just as much competition in features, ease of use, asthetics e.t.c. To write it off based on its impact of sales compared to Windows would be silly.

 

[lsvtecjohn3]

Assuming you are right, that didn't stop Apple from releasing an EDGE-only compatible iPhone.

An edge is under the GSM umbrella

 

[charlituna]

Most people didn't realistically think the iPhone to Verizon would be announced at CES.

Not after Ivan refuted several rumors saying if there ever is a Verizon iPhone, apple will make the big announcement, not Verizon

 

[NKT]

Wow. Are you serious? GSM/HSPA already had a larger share worldwide. Not only is the CDMA Total Addressable Market smaller that before but it is divided by completely incompatible variants.

Smaller than before? Link please.

Out of the CDMA markets in Asia which have not yet migrated to HSPA+, the rest are planning on going to LTE ASAP and that CDMA gear that they use right now uses something called a CSIM while CDMA carriers in the US use phones that are programmed for a specific carrier. Then you have the Chinese CDMA carrier that use a completely different radio standard which is also incompatible with Verizon and Sprint.

VZW is testing CSIM's for their devices. So that's a moot point...

As for different radio standards, you have that today with GSM.

 

[phillipduran]

I think he's trying to avoid a McGraw-Hill moment.

 

[deadkennedy]

Honeycomb looks fantastic. Google really evolved the OS into something truly meant for a tablet, as opposed to just putting a phone OS on a big screen.

I really hope the next iPad has a reworked OS. iOS is a stable and solid OS, but Apple should modify it already (at least for iPad).

Agreed, I'm waiting for iPad 2, for my first tablet purchase. But it will have to be something really big if they want to surpass Honeycomb. I'm not paying that money for giant iPod Touch.

 

[Mister Snitch]

That RIM Playbook looks slick. Multitasks several processor-hungry apps at once. Bright, sharp screen. Impressive.

I also imagine it goes through a battery charge inside two hours. No one seems to be asking them about that, though.

 

[NeuralControl]

Agreed, I'm waiting for iPad 2, for my first tablet purchase. But it will have to be something really big if they want to surpass Honeycomb. I'm not paying that money for giant iPod Touch.

Initially I thought I'd purchase the next generation iPad as soon as it came out. Unless the next iPad really blows the competition out of the water, I don't think I'll be able to make that purchase right away. My fingers are crossed.

 

[ten-oak-druid]

...
A CDMA version of the iPhone compatible with Verizon's network is still widely expected to make its debut early this year, possibly within the next few weeks, but we have yet to hear word of any Apple media event that would presumably accompany the introduction.

...

Or perhaps all the rumors you hear are in fact pertaining to a new carrier option in 2012. Perhaps, if Apple plans to offer a phone on Verizon, it will be on a newer network but needs to be backward compatible; hence the CDMA testing you are hearing about.

And perhaps the rumors you report are plans more long term? Later this year may in fact be an announcement of the upcoming phone instead of the availability of the phone.

And perhaps Apple would like to release phones for next generation networks all at once instead of 3G type on one network and 4G type on another?

And perhaps you should remind people that your sources (ex. WSJ) previously "expected" the Verizon iphone in the fall (September was reported by WSJ) of 2010 and so these "expectations" aren't always reliable.

Why don't you do a poll asking people if they would seriously spend the money on a CDMA iphone with 2 year contract knowing Verizon is developing the LTE network?

 

[NoExpectations]

Did anyone else catch the fact that during the video Verizon showed the AT&T 3G version of the iPad!?!?!?

 

[SockRolid]

Word of the day: "Vaporpad"

And you thought *last year* was bad. CES 2010 was littered with quite a few slates, pads, e-readers, whatever, in various states of mock-up. All designed and built in the dark, with no knowledge of what Apple's "tablet" was going to be like.

And few if any shipped. HP Stale never shipped. Oops, did I say "stale"? I meant "slate." The wannabes didn't ship because their designers ran straight back to the drawing board the moment after iPad was first announced.

Remember the Lenovo U1 Hybrid Notebook? Laptop with removable tablet. And dual OSes.

Then there was the Hearst Skiff. A flexible e-reader for flaccid old-school media.

And of course there was Innovative Converged Devices' Tegra tablet. Close but no cigar.

All of those, and plenty more, were rushed to market to beat iPad. The thinking was that by being first, they could get a head start and build market share before the Apple "tablet" hit the market. Wrong. Hardware is easy, software is harder, infrastructure is hardest.

This year, even more pad computing wannabes are being either rushed to market or shown in alpha prototype form. But now the thinking is that pre-announcing a really great iPad clone could help win the battle to be #2. Because that's the only battle any of the cloners can win.

 

[Popeye206]

That RIM Playbook looks slick. Multitasks several processor-hungry apps at once. Bright, sharp screen. Impressive.

I also imagine it goes through a battery charge inside two hours. No one seems to be asking them about that, though.

I saw another review of the Playbook from CES that talks just about that. The problem RIM is having is Battery life. Right now, it's about 2 hours of use and they are shooting for 8 hours when shipping.

This is where Apple gets it right. Yes, they may not have all the bells and whistles, but what is there works very well. That is the challenge some of the new players are trying to achieve.

With that said... good for more competition coming. It will definitely keep Apple on their toes and we should benefit with lots of cool new things.

 

[sethjk]

Forget just CDMA, VZW said today that all future devices are going to be upgradeable to 4G. Apple was not quick to embrace 3G and therefore before it's been proven with speed and battery life, I'm not sure they're going to release a 4G phone, especially this early on. Plus, how would an Iphone be upgradeable in store like the XOOM will be?

 

[NKT]

And perhaps you should remind people that your sources (ex. WSJ) previously "expected" the Verizon iphone in the fall (September was reported by WSJ) of 2010 and so these "expectations" aren't always reliable.

Actually, they only expected production in the Fall, not launching.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...42601774892.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories

One person familiar with the situation said Pegatron is scheduled to start mass producing CDMA iPhones in September. Other people said, however, that the schedule could change and the phone may not be available to consumers immediately after production begins.

 

[deadkennedy]

Initially I thought I'd purchase the next generation iPad as soon as it came out. Unless the next iPad really blows the competition out of the water, I don't think I'll be able to make that purchase right away. My fingers are crossed.

Whatever is better at the time of release, I don't care. Curiosity leans me slightly towards Honeycomb, consistency towards iPad 2.

 

[bdkennedy1]

Apple is never going to let someone else announce a product for them, and there's no way Apple is releasing a Verizon iPhone 5 months before the next gen ones come out.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Those companies referenced aren't 'small'. There is an over all trend of carriers moving towards HSPA and better, leaving behind CDMA for customers who won't change their phones. Bell and Telus may be scam artists ( along with Robbers - with their three year contracts etc ), but not small.

CMDA is dying: Only a small percentage of the world bothers with CDMA and that number is rapidly decreasing.

Verizon has 87.7 million subscribers. There are less than 35 million people living in Canada. How can one of at least 3 Canadian carriers be called big when Verizon has almost triple the number of subscribers as people living in Canada???

 

[Stella]

Verizon has 87.7 million subscribers. There are less than 35 million people living in Canada. How can one of at least 3 Canadian carriers be called big when Verizon has almost triple the number of subscribers as people living in Canada???

Bell and Telus are more than just cell phone carriers. I wouldn't call them 'small' companies. I was referring to them overall, and not just their carrier business.

OK - so CDMA subscribers are increasing but CDMA is still on its way out.... CMDA carriers will move to HSPA or better and leave behind CDMA, as we are currently seeing. The current trend is to drop CDMA.

Personally, I wouldn't touch CDMA with a barge pole - too incompatible. Go almost anywhere in the world and your CDMA phone is a door stop ( CDMA is used in Asia, but again, incompatible with north america - apparently).