Headline Feeds
The legend of the Verizon iPhone lives on. Rumors that Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) will launch its smartphone on the carrier's network are making the rounds yet again.
This time, the story goes that a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 will be available from Verizon as early as this fall.
For some time, Apple has felt pressure from several sides -- investors, current iPhone users and Verizon customers -- to add Verizon as a second carrier in the United States. What are the chances that this will happen any time soon?
The Never-Ending Story
Reports that Apple plans to bring a CDMA version of the iPhone to Verizon have been making the rounds for months, if not years. The latest is fueled by a report in Digitimes.
It claims Pegatron, which manufactures computers and other high-tech products, has landed an order from Apple to make CDMA iPhones.
Pegatron is making the CDMA iPhone 4 in its plants in Shanghai, according to Digitimes, and the device will be shipped to Apple in the fourth quarter.
Sweet Dreams, Baby
"I'm not buying this story," Ramon Llamas, a senior research analyst at IDC, told MacNewsWorld. "It flies in the face of Apple's modus operandum, which is to introduce phones once a year, and that time has already passed."
It's uncharacteristic for Apple to release a phone that's so hotly anticipated as a Verizon iPhone outside of its normal cycle, Llamas explained.
"Look at how much noise Steve Jobs made about video calling on the iPhone 4," Llamas pointed out. "Compared to that, the impact of a CDMA iPhone on the Verizon network is huge."
If Verizon were to indeed get a CDMA version of the iPhone 4, it would have already announced the fact, Chris Hazelton, a research director at The 451 Group, remarked.
"If there's going to be a Verizon iPhone as soon as this fall and [Verizon] didn't say anything about it, you might have quite a few people upset," Hazelton told MacNewsWorld. "They may not have wanted to be locked into AT&T (NYSE: T) for the iPhone 4 and might have wanted to know they had another option."
If Wishes Were Horses
Many iPhone users are upset with AT&T because they say the carrier provides poor service quality.
"A lot of AT&T users have been clamoring for the iPhone to be available on Verizon because they're unhappy with AT&T's service," Hazelton said.
AT&T could lose 40 percent of its iPhone customers, which works out to about 6 million users, when Verizon begins carrying the device, according to the calculations of Davenport & Company analyst Drake Johnstone
Customers and investors have been urging Apple to add Verizon as a second carrier in the U.S. for some time, but Apple's only response has been that it is happy with AT&T. For its part, Verizon has so far apparently been unwilling to accept the iPhone on Apple's terms.
Things may be in the process of changing, however -- Michael Maiorana, a Verizon Wireless regional president, has told eWeek that it's only a matter of time before Apple announces a CDMA iPhone for his company's network.
When that time will actually come is anyone's guess, it seems.
"It's been reported that AT&T has exclusivity with Apple up to 2012, so I don't see Verizon getting the iPhone now," IDC's Llamas said.
Verizon might get the iPhone in 2011, the 451 Group's Hazelton said.
Other Carriers
Other rumors of a second U.S. iPhone carrier have sometimes mentioned T-Mobile as a possible suitor. There's very little talk, however, of joining the iPhone with the remaining large U.S. carrier -- Sprint (NYSE: S).
That's because Sprint has a poor reputation, IDC's Llamas said.
"Sprint has a lot of work to do to regain the allure and trust it once had," Llamas pointed out. "It's still bleeding customers and is still in the process of rebranding itself."
Further, Sprint is making a strong play with Android phones, and that might rule it out as a possible carrier for the iPhone.
"Sprint is hitching its wagon to the HTC Evo," Llamas said.
The Evo, a 4G device, was launched June 4.
