Monday
May032010
May 3 iPhone coming to Verizon in June?
I just heard from a contact that Verizon is prohibiting vacation for employees June 11th through the 20th. So does this mean that the iPhone is coming to Verizon? Its possible but its also possible that the HTC Evo 4G is coming out at the same time. Is the Evo 4G a big enough draw to restrict vacations?
Would you line up to buy the forthcoming iPhone or the Evo 4G?
Reader Comments (10)
Verizon is in the middle from going to CDMA to LTE...unless Apple has a single, all in one CDMA, GSM, 4G chip ready for their 4G iPhone, why would Apple go out of it's way to support such a limited international CDMA market share? It's like the iPad supporting Flash...it aint' gonna happen...Flash is "old" and we need to keep moving forward. Plus, with CDMA, you can't do a lot of the things you can do on GSM+ (like be on a phone call and access the CDMA data network simultaneously)...that would affect the "Apple experience"...something Apple, in my mind, would not appreciate.
I have a Droid, but I would wait in line to buy my wife an iPhone!! She has been "suffering" (quotes emphasized by me) with a dumb phone for far tooooo long.
I agree with Armando. Apple isn't going to make a CDMA phone. They are likely to make an LTE version of the phone, but even as Verizion moves to LTE, it will be a few years before you could have enough LTE coverage for Apple to fell comfortable selling a phone with just that and not 3G CDMA.
I've talked to someone who has personally used an iPhone on the Verizon network.
Answer to your question, no iPhone is not coming to Verizon in June. I do believe one day, but not next month.
My father-in-law sells back up power supplies to big companies such as Verizon, and he has some contacts in Verizon who say that they aren't likely to get the iPhone until their network can handle the increase in customers that would result from it. The Droid has supposedly put stress on the network, and the combination of Droid plus iPhone would make the most reliable network not so reliable. It will happen for sure, and it will be soon, but from what I have heard I doubt it is that soon. My sister manages a Verizon store, and she is always tight lipped about things, but I will try to get some info out of her.
My fiance works for a public relations firm and a lot of their customers are in the field of consumer electronics and the companies that deliver the technology behind them. They've heard repeatedly from sources that Verizon employees are not allowed to take a vacation anytime in August, which would make sense with past Apple releases. They'll most likely announce the new iPhone in June and then either the final AT&T product will be released in July as with the 3G and then the Verizon version will be released in August.
I can't see why Verizon would want to get the iPhone so late in the piece with all the new Androids from the likes of HTC and Motorola coming out which are basically open source with apps that are not so tightly controlled as the Apple app store. My next fone will be an android OS. However carriers are fickled and it it may be a last gasp to stretch something more out of CDMA until LTE gets rolled out later this year but then I suspect it will not be a true LTE / 4G roll out..
And it was just confirmed that Apple and AT&T re-upped for another six months. That means no Verizion iPhone until at least 2011.
Well...this make things interesting...(from appleinsider)
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Rumor suggests voice & data on Verizon iPhone, AT&T talks exclusivity
By Slash Lane
Published: 02:10 PM EST
Soon after an AT&T executive said on Wednesday that his company doesn't feel threatened by the prospect of an Verizon iPhone, a new rumor surfaced that Verizon's iPhone could offer simultaneous voice and data transmission over a precursor to its LTE 4G network.
Boy Genius Report relayed a rumor on Wednesday that a new Verizon iPhone could run on a Voice over Rev. A, or VoRA, network. This connectivity could allow simultaneous voice and data connections, which is not currently available on the carrier's CDMA network.
"According to our source, Verizon has been testing VoRA as a precursor to VoLTE, and as long as the network upgrade and iPhone release are aligned, we should see this happen," the report said. "If it happens."
If Verizon were preparing VoRA for deployment on a new CDMA iPhone, it would erase one reason that could hold Apple back from wanting to deliver the iPhone across the incompatible US networks: a confusing lack of feature parity between the two mobile networks. Apple has advertised the ability of the existing UMTS iPhone to access a data network while on a phone call.
As for the prospect of a Verizon iPhone and its impact on AT&T, Apple's exclusive carrier partner in the U.S., Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T's Mobility and Consumer Markets division said he isn't concerned. The executive spoke Wednesday at the J.P. Morgan technology, media and telecom conference, and The Wall Street Journal liveblogged the event.
According to the Journal, de la Vega downplayed the effect the loss of exclusivity would have on AT&T. He cited his company's family talk and business discount plans, which he said are "sticky," meaning customers are reluctant to leave those plans. He said even if the iPhone is available elsewhere, AT&T believes it can retain those users.
Verizon iPhone rumors cooled earlier this year, when Apple executives defended AT&T, and partnered with the wireless carrier once again for the iPad. But the rumors picked up once again in late March, when The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is working on two new iPhones, including a CDMA-compatible model that could run on the Verizon network. The report alleged that the CDMA iPhones will not go into mass production until September, and when the hardware would go on sale was "unclear."
Though it was recently confirmed that AT&T and Apple originally agreed to a five-year exclusive deal for the iPhone, which would have extended through 2012, contracts can be amended, canceled or breached over time due to a variety of factors. Last year, rumors persisted that AT&T's exclusive iPhone agreement expires this summer.