WSJ: Apple prepping CDMA iPhone
Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that Apple is preparing to mass produce CDMA iPhones, which would allow Verizon to sell the smartphone by early 2011.
Verizon Wireless is in San Francisco for CTIA Fall 2010 to discuss its LTE strategy, but a new report has surfaced to reignite rumors of a Verizon-bound iPhone.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is beginning preparations to mass produce a CDMA--the wireless technology used by Verizon, as well as Sprint--iPhone by the end of the year, which would allow Big Red to start offering the smartphone in early 2011.
Sources say that the CDMA iPhone would feature a similar design to the iPhone 4, but also said Apple is developing a fifth-generation iPhone with a different design.
Though we've heard these rumors many times before, it seems Verizon is being a little more vocal about the possibility of an iPhone-Verizon deal.
During his keynote address at CTIA, Verizon President and COO Lowell McAdam said, "These rumors roll out every few weeks whether there is a basis for it or not. We expect that at some point in time our business interests [with Apple] will align, and LTE is another great reason for a device like the iPhone or a tablet [on Verizon]. But we don't have anything to say about the timing of it right now."
McAdam added that Verizon will announce new products for LTE at CES 2011 and that they will be available in the first half of the year. Whether that will include the iPhone will, I'm sure, be a topic of hot debate.