Verizon CFO: Future iPhone to be 'global'
Verizon CFO says he believes a future iPhone from Apple will be able to tap into both CDMA and GSM networks, giving customers a way to use their phones in more places.
During Verizon's first fiscal quarter earnings call earlier this morning, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo alluded to Apple working on a version of the iPhone that would be more competitive with devices that are able to work on both CDMA and GSM networks.
The statement came during the question and answers section with analysts, and was picked up by Barrons. Responding to a question about a solution for the 0.2 percent decline in the growth of average revenue per user from the previous quarter, Shammo said:
The fluctuation, I believe, will come when a new device from Apple is launched, whenever that may be, and that we will be, for the first time, on equal footing with our competitors on a new phone hitting the market, which will also be a global device.
The need for devices that can run on both types of networks is of special importance to companies like Verizon and Sprint, who want to sell consumers a handset that can be used when travelling in areas where phones may not be compatible. Both carriers already have a number of handsets with the feature, though they don't make up the majority of available smartphones.
Tear-downs of the Verizon flavor of the iPhone 4 from iFixit earlier this year discovered the device was packing a Qualcomm MDM6600, which is capable of such a dual-network mode, however it's missing hardware components that would let users swap in a SIM card. Rumors cropped up in October, well ahead of Apple announcing a CDMA-capable iPhone, that the company was working on a dual-mode solution in the next version of the iPhone. That device is now said to be arriving in September.