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Rumor: Smaller iPhone on tap for Verizon in Q3 2010?

by Steven Sande Nov 7th 2009 at 12:30AM


If you're tired of dropped calls and dead zones, and pondering the merits of turning in your iPhone for a DROID... hold on there, champ. AppleInsider says it's received a copy of a report by OTR Global, claiming that Apple has signed contracts to produce a UMTS / CDMA hybrid iPhone to be released in the third quarter of 2010.

The hybrid handset, built around a dual-system chip from Qualcomm, would allow the iPhone to run on virtually any GSM/UTMS cellular network worldwide -- and also on the CDMA2000 networks of US carriers like Verizon and Sprint. In particular, Verizon is cited in the report as the target carrier for the new devices.

The report states that Foxconn, the Taiwan-based sole-source provider of iPhone hardware at this time, will not build the new device. Instead, a subsidiary of Asustek known as Pegatron has been selected to kick off manufacturing. It's also rumored that the hybrid device uses a 2.8" screen, making the handset smaller than the current model which uses a 3.5" display.

Photos of the smaller display were first featured on iLounge in June of 2008 (see photo at right), sparking widespread rumors at the time that an "iPhone nano" was on the way. Over a year later, neither the smaller iPhone nor a Verizon model are available. However, if the leaked report is any indication, 2010 could be yet another year of incredible growth for the iPhone economy.

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If you're tired of dropped calls and dead zones, and pondering the merits of turning in your iPhone for a DROID... hold on there, champ....
 

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Jim C

Here's a data point: my friends that work at qualcomm were recently able to purchase iphones. this would have been a CLM* before.
* Career Limiting Move

November 28 2009 at 8:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bob R

Isn't Verizon going to LTE (4g GSM) anyway, in 2010? The only reason for Apple to go CDMA would be to capture WiMax when it's available (Sprint will be the only major USA carrier using WiMax). AT&T & Verizon are both to be LTE starting in 2010...

November 10 2009 at 6:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Pasnbyu

Echoing the above - smaller screen is a bad thing; although making the footprint a bit shorter would be ok. Adding Verizon is good for everyone - even AT&T since nothing focuses priorities like competition! For Apple, it's a no brainer - especially with one chip for all networks - but even if they needed two handsets for 1-2 years, until everyones on 4G, that's the normal product cycle.

November 09 2009 at 10:34 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
johnson412

Other features of the potential Verizon iPhone:

Reduced memory
Slower processor
Inability to sync pictures using iTunes... you have to use a picture message to send the picture to your VZW PIX Place
An additional $.99 charge on every app downloaded
No iTunes music store on the iPhone... just use VCast

I doubt there will be an iPhone specifically for Verizon any time soon, if ever. Sprint is much more likely. Even if it does happen, I wouldn't touch it. Verizon lost this customer long ago by stripping features and forcing me into their proprietary junk, then expecting me to feel grateful that I had the opportunity to use their network.

Sometimes coverage isn't everything. Now if Sprint got the iPhone...

November 07 2009 at 1:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to johnson412's comment
Dan Woods

CDMA is a dead technology. I still doubt Apple is making a CDMA-compatible iphone.
That said, it would be interesting. Sprint may jump on it in an instant, the CDMA networks in the third world would snap it up too. Verizon would not immediately. They would be the only network on Earth not able to offer the iPhone due to their restrictive device usage rules.
Even the Chinese consumers are able to sync their own Music and buy their own apps, (they just can't use WiFi). Verizon Customers are oppressed more than the Chinese!

November 07 2009 at 3:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Hickeroar

If they kept the same resolution the same on the smaller screen, i have no problem with this at all. Smaller screen = smaller phone = what I want.

Honestly, if I could get an iPhone on verizon, I'd switch asap. Their 3g network is so much better than AT&T's, and I'm sure they'd actually deliver the tethering out the gate instead of this pointless delay that AT&T is pushing. We're one of the only carriers out there at this point who can't do tethering....and we were the first ones to actually get the iPhone.

November 07 2009 at 12:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Hickeroar's comment
jbelkin

The smaller screen makes it a fake as an iPhone. There is NO WAY Apple is going to release a smaller screen version unless it's it's a itouch. PERIOD.

November 07 2009 at 12:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Phil

A viscious rumor started by AT&T to keep it's grasp on existing iPhone dollars.

November 07 2009 at 10:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mark

If the iPhone screen goes smaller I'm leaving for Android. The screen is small enough as it is.

November 07 2009 at 9:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Anthony

Those are plastic screen covers to FAKE iPhones. - http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26015


They are too gross to be real anyway/it's not the "apple-look."

November 07 2009 at 8:23 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Penny Aguilar

Wow! A rumor that started more that 1yr ago and still unconfirmed. This is so exciting. Meh.

November 07 2009 at 5:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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