Report: Verizon to Sell iPhone in 2010
Good news, iPhone lovers: if USA Today is to be believed, Verizon Wireless owners may get their iPhones as soon as June, 2010.
Good news, iPhone lovers: if USA Today is to be believed, Verizon Wireless subscribers may get their iPhones as soon as June, 2010.
According to unnamed sources cited in today's USA Today, Verizon and Apple may introduce a new version of the iPhone next year.
The story is thrown into some doubt because of a potential error in its second paragraph. The USA Today story says that the phone would be for Verizon's CDMA network. But in recent interviews, both Verizon chief executive Ivan Seidenberg and Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook have dismissed the idea of a CDMA iPhone, saying that CDMA technology is on its way out and that such a device wouldn't have wide enough distribution to be useful to Apple.
"CDMA is – doesn't really have a life to it after a point in time," Cook said in Apple's recent conference call.
Rather, most industry observers, including prominent analyst Om Malik have speculated that the iPhone will be one of the initial devices for Verizon's upcoming LTE network. LTE, launching in 2010 in 20 to 30 markets, , is a next-generation wireless technology that Verizon will share with AT&T, T-Mobile, and many international carriers. The iPhone would make a sufficiently big splash to introduce Verizon's next network.
Verizon and Apple may have had discussions about the iPhone before. According to a previous USA Today story, Apple approached Verizon in 2005 but wanted too much money and control over distribution to be acceptable to Verizon Wireless executives. Things have changed since then, though; Apple has eliminated its demand for part of its partners' monthly service fees and allowed much wider distribution of its technology. The iPhone has also become a proven consumer phenomenon.
According to USA Today, AT&T's iPhone exclusivity contract runs through 2010, and the company is trying to extend it into 2011. AT&T has welcomed a lot of new customers from its exclusive Apple relationship – 1.6 million in the last quarter – and AT&T will sure to fight hard to keep that relationship intact.
AT&T's growth "was led by the iPhone," AT&T CFO Rick Lindner said in an investors' conference call on April 22.
We expect Apple to announce the next iPhone on June 9. Apple has kept details of the new product secret, but analysts speculate that new models may include an "iPhone HD" with improved processor speed and video capabilities, or a low-cost "iPhone Mini." One thing is for sure, though - for at least one more year, it will be exclusively for AT&T in the U.S.