Won't happen. Any development of a CDMA phone will require a complete reconfiguration of the device, complete redesign because of the additional components CDMA phones require, and is going to be worthless in a matter of years because Verizon is going to LTE, which is GSM-based, for the 4G network in a matter of years.
I wouldn't say a new CDMA phone would be worthless. We're realistically looking at 5-6 years before we see any real adoption of LTE in the US. Do YOU keep your phones for 5-6 years?
However, a CDMA iPhone will pose some significant challenges for Apple. For one thing, it won't be a world phone if it's CDMA only. The same phone that can go different places on AT&T won't Be able to on Verizon. You'll get maybe Russia, Asia and some latin American countries, but not nearly the reach GSM has. Unless they add yet another set of radios to the existing design (CDMA + EVDO + WCDMA + GSM + WiFi + GPS + Bluetooth?).
If they decide to strip out the GSM and WCDMA electronics for a Verizon version in exchange for CDMA/EVDO, imagine the class action lawsuit that some dummy will file because their Verizon iPhone didn't work in the UK?
Maybe Apple will be able to pull off a true multiband, multi-protocol iPhone, but it'll probably be at the expense of any new features. Don't expect that 32GB iPhone anytime soon if you want Verizon service: the internals just won't have the room.
I realize that a lot of people think Verizon will be lots better than AT&T, but as someone who was on Sprint and Verizon for years before switching to AT&T, AND as someone who knows a former VZW employee (not retail, in their software development and backend department) CDMA is really not much better. It's subject to cell breathing and all of the exact same issues that 3G has, only there is no "edge" to fall back to. Verizon's veneer of being such a reliable network will fade pretty quickly, exposing all the cracks and creaks underneath. The only difference is that VZW's techs won't listen, and will probably blame the iPhone for issues even more than AT&T reps do.
That said, I
welcome the attempt if the rumor happens to be true. I think what I've been saying about this for a while now will be proven right. Vindication will be sweet.
