Update on CDMA iPhone: Now on VZW in January?!
In a previous story this month we talked about a company manufacturing CDMA iPhones. Well the latest is a story out of Bloomberg stating the iPhone will be on VZW in January 2011.
"Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone next year, ending AT&T Inc.’s exclusive hold on the smartphone in the U.S., two people familiar with the plans said.
The device will be available to customers in January, according to the people, who declined to be named because the information isn’t public."
Remember, converting an iPhone from GSM to CDMA is not easy, so that's probably what is taking so long. Also, if you recall, ATT let you upgrade to the iPhone 4 six months early, so they are really trying to lock people into contracts, perhaps on the heels of a VZW release?
It has been widely rumored that ATT and Apple renegotiated their contract to allow ATT to get all of the iPhone 4 contracts they could, then a few months later VZW would release a version. Our very own Courtney1985, who works for Verizon, has also confirmed this.
I personally know a lot of people who love the iPhone but hate ATT. Even on these forums, it seems over half the iComplaints are because of ATT and not iPhone related at all.
Apple also may need to address the signal problems we've all heard about so hopefully the VZW version will be free of it.
If the iPhone 4 comes to VZW, will you be getting one? You could actually receive calls and not have them drop every other minute! VZW stands to make a lot of money on this, as we know the iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million units in 3 days, even with all the ordering problems people faced.
Thoughts?
© 2010, orangekid. All rights reserved.
Wait till you get 20-30 million iPhone users on Verizon and watch the network get overloaded and get dropped calls just as ATT experienced.
Verizon is the only company that wouldn’t notice a flood of new customers. They are solid. Expensive, but solid.
-Roger
No, I want be getting the iPhone.
Nope, long live Sprint
@NIKKG,
It is not the number of customers using the network that causes dropped calls, but the coverage and the technology used. The big drawback of GSM is that you are only connected to one cellular site at a time. In CDMA you can be connected to up to three, if by some chance you are dropped on one site, you will be picked up by one of the other two, thus reducing dropped calls. If anything, the number of customers using the network simultaniously on the same site as you may cause you to be declined access to the network, that goes for any cellular provider.
@tk4223 –
I did not know that. Will LTE let you connect to multiple cell sites also like CDMA or just one like GSM?
I will be honest though, when I had Sprint with both a TP and TP2, I always had missed calls, no service, and also dropped calls. In fact thats why I quit Sprint and went to ATT. So far I’ve had much better coverage and faster 3G with ATT. My sister also has a Blackberry Tour with Sprint and when she comes over she always complains of no service and her battery dies quickly because the phone is trying to constantly establish a connection. Maybe Sprint just sucks in my area.
I sometimes think a lot of these iPhone-to-VZW rumors are false leaks seeded by Apple to try to hinder the growth of other platforms. I’ve already seen several firsthand cases of VZW customers holding off on an upgrade this year after other flavors of these rumors got mainstream traction. Then a couple weeks later moving ahead after those rumors were shot down.
I will say this though. Microsoft better put a TON of its own marketing money behind WP7 (much like VZW did with ‘Droid’) to help it get traction quickly. Because if they don’t have decent marketshare by the time the iPhone DOES come to VZW/Sprint they could be toast. And I still think HP-Palm/WebOS is a dead-man-walking, at least in the mobile space.
Personally, I would love it if iPhone came to VZW. Because of the company I work for, I get 20% off of my service with VZW including the cost of phones. Now, I would be surprised if iPhone wasn’t excluded from that but the point is that my wife won’t let me leave VZW to go get an iPhone with ATT because we don’t have a service discount there. The other part of why my wife won’t let it happen is because her entire family as well as almost my entire family is on VZW which means free mobile to mobile. That’s two strikes against the move to ATT. If iPhone comes to VZW, I can eliminate at least one strike which means I’m gettin one.
…I’m so whipped!
This picture is false. He is CLEARLY holding the iPhone the wrong way.
Can you hear me n……?
LOL….Iphone bashers….(silly kidz) Bottom line is when it releases on cdma, almost every person in the US will have it, just like an ipod. So you will basically be at disadvantage to own any other phone. Plus I must admit the OS kills every other mobile OS as far as speed and reliability.
@easyc –
I think he’s using the iShave app
If it comes to Sprint, my wife will most likely get one. However, we are not willing to switch to Verizon and pay their prices for a phone. For me on the other hand, I personally prefer the Android OS (used an iPhone 3G for 6t months) as I believe many do which is why even with the existence of a CDMA iPhone Android will still compete with IOS in mobile market share.
Would a CDMA iPhone be VZW exclusive or is Apple going to branch out to all carriers (GSM –> AT&T & T-Mobile, CDMA –> Sprint, VZW, etc)?
Nah, thats okay… Ill keep my EVO… If the Dual core 1.5 GHZ or single core 1.5 GHZ phones from HTC that come out 4th quarter dont blow everthing else out of the water Ill be sorely disappointed. I have an iPod touch and thats goofy enough as far as it working… Nice apparatus though (when it works). The iPhone is nice but, all of the other things turn me off… Its very restricting and you have to hack it to get what you want… Not to mention the firmware updates that you have to pay for along with the new APPS that you cant use lest you have the new firmware… Nonetheless the iPhone drones will flock on over to VZW regardless to what is available. There is no way that I will get a plan for the iPhone they are overpriced because people are dumb enough to pay.
If the iphone comes to VZW I might leave and go to sprint just so I dont have to share a network with ifags.
If it comes to Verizon… Will it change the price of beer?
no???
Then what the heck do I care. LOL. (to bite off Norm from Cheers’ quote)
But if it comes to Sprint. I will be forced to get one for my wife. Just so she can play scrabble with her brothers, sisters, dad, and sister in law.
If this is true, you know the heads of AT&T already know about it, and if its true then somewhere those same people are already looking for jobs within Verizon……..cause AT&T would be going the way of the dodo.
This would be worst case scenario for AT&T.
Best case scenario for Apple. (Imagine all those people who already have an AT&T iPhone who would gladly buy another Verizon iPhone just to get away from AT&T)
no veruzon isnt the only company gettin the iphone. us cellular has jumped on with verizon to bring it to us cellular to. might be a few months after verizons release but us cellular will get it.
@BBHOLIDAY –
seriously? why would it be a disadvantage to use anything else?
@Breakmyfootoff
Your homophobia is showing again. Dont you spend a lot of time with a bunch of guys in close quarters? Kinda like prison huh hose boy which do you like better syrup or jelly?
If the iphone makes to VZW the next stop is sprint and T-mobile so you might be back on the Soup can and string pal.
Look at the moves AT&T’s already making by carring Android phones now. The back flip by Motorola which is junk and now thw Aria by HTC with sense and Android. They also let droves of people upgrade when they wouldnt otherwise. I think this is an early indicator that the iphone will be leaving AT&T. Will there be mass exodus? No. For all the same reasons that have been mentioned. Either all your family and friends are on AT&T, The other networks arent good in your area, or The price is better so on. I’m sure some will leave but AT&T wont go under due to this. I personally looked into Sprint and the EVO but my bill was gonna go up by no less than $9 depending on the package. So I opted to stay with AT&T and the iphone 4 plus i live in a 3G saturated area so my connection is good thru 4 cities that I travel thru.
@elihmph
Ive never paid for a firmware update on the iphone. They’ve charged for FW updated on the ipod but thats even free this year. I jailbreak every iphone I carry and its great!
YES – put the wife and I down for 1 each.
I’ll also be pushing it for the company I work for which would be another 200-300
@ breakmyfootoff → “If the iphone comes to VZW I might leave and go to sprint just so I dont have to share a network with ifags.” classic!!!
i don’t care if the someone gave me a free iPhoney & Sprint gave me an offer i couldn’t refuse, i still wouldn’t buy one!!!
@Nemeses – I applaud you man…I was going to reply the exact same way to both of those…
AT&T isn’t going to see a huge influx of people changing carriers…
Also I worked for AT&T as a Retentions Agent as well as a Sales Agent..selling cell phones….when I was hired I was told that AT&T had a contract till 2009 for the iPhone, then it was extended a year…so in other words the exclusive rights are up…
I am a huge fan of WinMo/WP7, but after looking at all the sick iPhone apps and theres tons…I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t get the VZW version…I know I will
Wow, someone bent over to their respective enemy. According to my source either apple approached verizon or vice versa to get this phone on Verizon and Verizon shut apple out multiple times because of their practice to exclusively support their own devices instead of allowing Verizon to do so. Happy with my droid. I do agree that Verizon is very expensive compared to everyone else, but does have the best network in the US. Hope it doesn’t screw with the service I get when everyone drops ship for the iphone.
i only notice only women and little girls use iphone. real men dont use iphone unless your gay
ATT would be in a better position to release some better Android handsets (like the Samsung Captivate) without worrying about Apple exclusivity concerns. Let verizon users worry about Apple’s attenna problems. Once VZW iphone users see the reception issues isn’t carrier dependant the only party they can complain to is Steve Jobs and Apple!
I’ll be getting one. I’m one of those who is holding off till it comes. I treid VZW touch pro 2 earlier this year, and was roally disappointed. That phone had great ratings…and was fun in its applications…but terrible in PDA performance relative to my HP 4150 (which is 6 years old). I’m so tired of trying new windows mobile phones, where the PDA functionality is really slow and clunky….I finally decided that I going to convert over to iphone. There are some apps that help it sync perfectly with outlook with mail, contacts, tasks, and notes. And that phone doesn’t have the performance clunkiness that every PDA phone I’ve tried for several years.
So Apple…please send the iphone quickly!
@smokiibear
No kidding! I’ve got an iPaq 4150 too, LOL! I use Diamond now, and Wouldn’t go for anything but WM6.1. Never liked apple (too restrictive, and hate the UI), WM6.5 is pushing it, and Windows Mobile 7 will break the “camel’s back”. Interesting perspective of your’s there, but I’ll stay away from as much “toilet paper scrolling” in WM as possible (outside of Opera Mobile 10 – why did they do that one thing that spoiled a perfect browser? Why?!?!).
- 2 Bunny
@smokiibear – I couldnt agree with you more…
Had a touch pro and TP2. Slow clunky much more difficult then it had to be…flashed several roms made chanes to my UI but the OS was too slow and clunky. I got got my IPHONE 4 and I LOVE IT. Sorry but it just works. I want to send a message, I can send one, I want to e-mail, instant…done I don’t WASTE time waiting for a screen to change it just works. I can stream video from my PC with an app so easy to setup. Why make it harder? Its a phone but also a great device for completing tasks and entertainment.