Verizon getting a CDMA iPhone that runs Windows Mobile, clears acne
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Sep 29th 2008 3:50PM
posted Sep 29th 2008 3:50PM
So why isn't this happening, exactly? First, Apple appears to be having no trouble finding enough customers (carriers, that is) to keep iPhone 3G production at a nice clip. Second, CDMA represents a minute fraction of the world's mobile customer base that GSM / UMTS does -- no matter how big Verizon, Sprint, Telus, Bell, KDDI au, and the remaining CDMA stalwarts may be. Third, CDMA is a dying technology that will be finished off in the early part of the next decade as networks make the migration to LTE and other 4G platforms. Fourth, we have to believe Apple would sooner pour its engineering efforts into advancing the iPhone platform in the same direction as the world's networks than divert considerable resources to busting out a one-off special.
Might this mythical CDMA iPhone yet exist? Yeah, Verizon's a huge carrier, and yes, stranger things have happened -- but until Steve and Ivan get on stage together at Macworld 2009, we're not buying it.
I haz ur I-phone please?
No. Just Get Out.
VZNAVIGATOR might finally bring us turn by turn directions.
Let the ware between the t-r-o-l-s begin.
run while u still can
*war
srry
@erhan
Try again...umm again...
You know what i don't get? Why people abbreviate sorry to srry. what's the point its one letter, unlike lol or wtf, which has a right to be abbreviated. Whoo, been wanting to rant on that for some time now!
I think this would be viable for Apple. It can't be that hard to throw a CDMA chipset into a slightly larger iPhone, call it new, and sell it for a few years until everyone gets onboard with LTE - can it?
Engadget is very negative towards CDMA today. As it stands, CDMA is currently superior to the available GSM technologies. Since Verizon and Sprint have an insane amount of business users (the folks Apple wants to grab up) as well as 3G available in more places than AT&T, it seems like a no-brainer to me that they would want to jump on with Verizon and/or Sprint.
Look at it this way: Do you want to invest $100,000 into creating a CDMA version then sell several million CDMA phones or is it better to save that $100,000 since CDMA will eventually go away anyway?
Hell, no matter which way you look at it, technology will always move to something superior. You could make the argument that something far better than LTE will come along so what's the point?
UMTS/HSPA(WCDMA) is actually superior to CDMA, its just that AT&T does a shit job of implementing it.
yeah... Or apple could invest in that $100,000 in improving their current 3g model (flash, mms, copy and paste, etc.)
One thing people seem to be forgetting is how big the GSM market is. CDMA has a subscriber base of several hundred million people. GSM has billions. Apple's MO has always been to target the masses. If they wanted to please everyone, they would have put more codec support in their iPods, or improve its audio quality.
And having WinMO on the iPhone is very doubtful. Apple refuses to pay to put Flash on their phones. Why on Earth would they pay for another OS when theirs is just as good, if not better??
Pick up any networking book and you will find that CDMA (to GSM which is the point that was being made afaik) is indeed the technically superior technology. Hence why GSM chose a CDMA variant (W-CDMA) as its upgrade path. BTW, W-CDMA is equivalent to CDMA2000 3x and ev-do rev. C (UMB) is superior to LTE but as we have seen in the past there are many reasons that a superior technology can loose.
It is kind of surprising how anti-CDMA Engadget (at least Chris Ziegler) is in this post. CDMA provides significantly higher bandwidth and more efficiency than GSM. This is why CDMA carriers are able to offer a much more rapid roll-out of 3G services than GSM carriers are.
And yeah, current CDMA technology will be phased out in the next decade, in favor of next-generation CDMA. Just like current-generation GSM is going to be phased out for...wait for it....NEXT GENERATION CDMA!
GSM is the dying technology. That's why it's so popular. It is much cheaper to deploy an old technology than a new one. Would you make the decision that shooting quality should be SD since most people don't have HD yet? Of course not, even though SD cameras are much cheaper. The relatively minimal investment in developing a CDMA version of a handset is trivial compared to the more than 200M potential customers worldwide that it opens up.
Saying that GSM has "billions" of customers is a bit misleading. 3G is no where near that level of penetration, the iPhone is going relatively unnoticed outside the US, and the majority of the GSM users are in developing nations and places where an iPhone or other high-end GSM device would NEVER cross a few thousand units.
So really, what's the problem, Mr. Ziegler? Why the axe to grind against a technology that is both technically and empirically better?
HTC can churn out CDMA and GSM versions of the exact same phone, why not Apple?
Why would it have to be any larger? The Treo I used to own had a swappable radio board for CDMA / GSM inside... both were the same size.
Seems like a better plan for Apple would be to perfect the LTE 4G iPhone since Verizon should be ready for it in 2 years... by 2010. An LTE iPhone would work with almost all carriers since almost all will be using LTE in the future. Judging by the 3G problems Apple is having on many networks they better get started on LTE 4G now to get the bugs worked out in time.
@Brad:
I think you're confusing two different technologies even though they share the same acronym.
In 2G, there were many players but the top two were GSM and CDMA.
CDMA went on to evolve to CDMA2000 & EV-DO.
GSM/GPRS/EDGE evolved to WCDMA, HSDPA & HSUPA.
If you followed news last year, people talked about 3 emerging techs: UMB (from CDMA2000), LTE (from WCDMA), and WiMAX. But, over the past year, UMB news has dropped off almost entirely. What happened?
Qualcomm is what happened. They're the guys that helped significantly to make CDMA and had a huge influence in 3G tech. But, they got greedy and started charging vendors an arm and a leg to license their tech. They also started suing everyone for patent infringement (u can find a few "Qualcomm vs. Nokia" posts on Engadget.) In short, they made themselves a lot of enemies, and CDMA is taking the hit. CDMA is the dying tech, and will die long before GSM does. Even CDMA's biggest customer, Verizon, saw the writing on the wall and jumped shipped to LTE.
To answer the subscriber base issue, I'll link two sites that follow CDMA's (including EV-DO) and GSM's (including W-CDMA, HSPA) subscriber base.
For CDMA, CDMA2000, EV-DO:
http://www.cdg.org/
On their front page, they say that they have 450,000,000 CDMA2000 subscribers and an additional 100,000,000 EV-DO subscribers.
For GSM, EDGE, W-CDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA:
http://www.3gamericas.org/English/index.cfm
Their front page simply says 3,000,000,000 GSM (and its successors) subscribers and growing.
When you look at these numbers and Qualcomm's behavior over the past few years, it's not hard to see why Apple chose GSM for its iPhone and why it likely won't put in a CDMA chipset.
But hey, I hope I'm wrong. I've been waiting for Korea's KTF or SKT (WCDMA carriers) to pick up the iPhone. If Apple makes a CDMA version, then LGT (EV-DO carrier) can make a bid, and maybe I'll be able to get an iPhone in Korea.
/crosses fingers
Exactly... People need to remember that even though many of the largest CDMA2000 carriers are throwing their hats in with LTE for the next-gen 4G network, there is still going to be a SIGNIFICANT TRANSITION PERIOD where CDMA will continue to be used while the rollout of LTE happens, and most likely carriers like Verizon will create dual-mode phones that run CDMA (EV-DO) *and* LTE during this period of time.
Also, "CDMA" aka CDMA2000/EV-DO is *NOT* just a North American standard. Here are some statistics from:
http://www.cdg.org/technology/cdma_technology/cdma_stats.asp
Total Worldwide CDMA subscribers: 463 Million
Total Worldwide CDMA networks: 541
Countries: 102
I agree. Can't they just stick a new chip in? Make some kind of wacky 4-Antenna Quad-Band WorldPhone, SuperAmalgam that can go everywhere?
-They've already got the phone done, what's a board-switch/chip-swap?
Sub-par hardware with a sub-par OS....interesting....
I'll have some of whatever he's smoking...
They're not going to offer another kind of cellular network for the iPhone anyway, we're talking about the company that is reluctant to add another button to their keypads for crying out loud!
NOW = Verizon w/ No IPhone
PC: Hi, I'm Windows Mobile
MAC: and I'm and I'm Mini OSX.
FUTURE = Verizon w/ IPhone
PC: Hi I'm a Windows HackinIPhoneTosh
MAC: And I'm with my fugly half brother who has AIDS.
You win the "WTF are you babbling on about?" award of the day.
Only his frog could have made a post that garbled.
AMAZING.
this must be the Meizu M8!!
Not going to happen....
[quote]Third, CDMA is a dying technology that will be finished off in the early part of the next decade as networks make the migration to LTE and other 4G platforms[/quote]
What this comment fails to realize is that many low-end carriers which are fast gaining popularity such as Cricket, Pocket Communications, MobiPCS, etc are all growing rapidly with ultra-low-price offerings built on CDMA technology. While many people here at engadget can't see the need for phone and text only offerings, I guarantee this comment is ignorant of the fact that the vast majority of the country that lives paycheck-to-paycheck doesn't give a cockroach's fart about the latest and greatest download tv shows to your phone while videoconferencing and streaming music. They'd rather have unlimited calling and text messages for less than $30 a month. CDMA isn't going anywhere just yet.
That being said, I don't think apple will bother because GSM is ultimately much more widespread.
-aedile-
The funny thing is that I use CDMA (Sprint EVDO) because it *is* the fastest and I can stream music and watch TV over it. It's also cheap as hell. WiMax just rolled out in my city today and I would imagine they are planning to transition to something more like that in a few years but for the time being $15/mo EVDO at DSL speeds is fine by me. I'm more interested in an Android or WM7 phone though. The only thing worse than having to install ActiveSync to manage my phone would be having to install iTunes to manage my phone *shudders*.
I agree. I have little doubt that the vast majority of phones currently in service are more than a few years old and the users of said phones are perfectly happy with them and not planning to upgrade. This is probably compounded by the fact that the economy is in the shitter and a lot of people don't have money for the latest phone and premium services.
Well said, Aedile.
And (+1) for "cricket's fart" ! That one actually made me laugh :D
Unfortunately, with the ubiquity of GSM in the rest of the world, it's CDMA adoption still an uphill battle.
CDMA is technically superior, and is gaining more adoption in Asia and the Americas, which is good news...
But we all know that ubiquity isn't always an indicator of how good a technology is, look at how most people won't even consider MP3 players that aren't iPods.
CDMA isn't dead, but it does have a limited shelf life, and it -needs- to be treated that way. US carriers are in a sorry state of anti-competition, and sticking with existing technology just because "it's good enough for most users" will only hurt our ability to change that condition. The same thing is happening with Comcast's artificial bandwidth cap and anti-competitive markets (250gb/mo and no FTTH is "good enough for most users"): consumers end up with fewer options that are set at arbitrarily high prices. To put it differently, most sub-$30 mobile plans include unlimited nationwide and a set number of text messages. Drop it to sub-$20, add in unlimited international calling (thanks to VoIP) and unlimited texts and a lot of people would definitely be interested.
There are many factors, as you've pointed out, which help keep CDMA relevent today. And by itself, there's nothing wrong with a CDMA network or EVDO coverage for today's consumer. But CDMA and EVDO are -not- competitors to 4G/LTE, which the industry desperately needs to help break the anti-competitive spell that plagues US carriers. In other words, there's nothing wrong with more bandwidth if it costs the same, or makes existing plans cheaper -- but if the industry doesn't push for it, consumers lose out in the end.
Again you are looking at a US Market, when VW sold of Verizon Wireless Latin America, the buyer (Tele Mexico) decided to convert it all to GSM, and while the conversion is not yet complete in most of the 12 countries it's well under way.
Postscript:
The same critique applies to GSM as well; the difference is of course that there are more GSM subscribers, and thus GSM can reach more consumers as it evolves to 4G/LTE. But more consumers also makes it harder for GSM to evolve, which is why we need CDMA to step up to the plate.
Case in point? Japan's underdog au/KDDI (CDMA) is launching WiMAX publicly -next year-, which is forcing juggernaut NTT DoCoMo (UMTS) to push for its 4G technologies. Meanwhile consumers are steadily reaping the benefits.
au/KDDI is not an underdog in Japan...not by a long shot. They are the Verizon to America's AT&T. NTT/DoCoMo has about 50,000,000 subscribers, au/KDDI about 30,000,000, and SoftBank about 18,000,000.
I was about to leap for joy when I read the title about Verizon getting the iPhone, than I continued reading seeing that they wanted to put crap WinMo on it, total fail!
No...YOU totally fail.
You do realize the WinMo thing was a joke, right?
Or did you also think the phone cleared you acne as well?
-Taylor
Want it to happen but it won't. Next rumor...
I remember seeing an April Fool's joke on Fudzilla about a WM-based iPhone... I died a little on the inside back then. Imagine how this actual rumor makes me feel.
Please, Verizon, don't ruin a great platform like the iPhone with an awful OS like WinMob. That's like Apple trying to sell Windows-only Macs.
I don't think its going to clear acne either...
Wow. Way to read the article.
Has 9to5 every been right? This is just a pile of argument starting bulls***t.
iPhone on sprint, huh.
Meh, pass.
I don't want that piece of crap.
I want the Touch HD.
Blow me Apple.
Double blow me, VZW.
What does this have to do with Windows Mobile, or is that to prove how stupid this rumor is.
It's just an opportunity for a smart ass headline.
What's better than hating on Verizon and WinMo in one shot? He achieved some sort of gadget blogger headline Zen with this one.
Welcome to Engadget!
The place where Windows is bashed at every possible opportunity.
And do not miss out on our special offer about how we love Apple!
Welcome to Engadget!
The place where some troll yells "iPhone!" or "Vista is teh suxx0r" and 25 people who've been waiting all day for it trot out their usual dog and pony show ala "And do not miss out on our special offer about how we love Apple!"
Maybe having your stock at a 52 week low and down 18% in one day will make you decide to do crazy things like this.
http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:AAPL
I just looked at the graph and it showed Apple dropping ~$29 USD today =O
Wow, Rob... stocks are down? Who knew?
What stock DIDN'T reach its 52-Week low today? Seriously.
Hang on.. doesn't AT&T have an exclusivity contract with Apple for five years or so?
I was looking at Apples stock and it reminded me of that fanboy who had no knowledge of the stock market but was telling us to buy Apple cause it was going to up!
I agree. I don't want the iPhone. I want the Samsung Omnia (i900). If I can't get it on Verizon or Sprint, I'll settle for AT&T, but given that it's specs make the iPhone look like a toy, I don't know that it will happen on AT&T.
Where does that article say anything about Window's Mobile. I've read through it twice and saw nary a mention of it. I could be wrong, but could someone direct me to where that is brought up. thanks.
But if this is true, then that would be pretty awesome. I'm still tethered to my parent's family plan (college student + free phone service = fine with me) and they are pretty dead set on staying on Verizon. IF this is legit then I will be in heaven, especially since I'm going to eligible for an new phone soon because we're almost at the end of our contract.
windows mobile was a joke, as was the acne clearing. Apple would never in a billion years put WinMo on any of their devices, its utter garbage. They are talking about an iPhone or iPhone-like device CDMA compatible that would get comfy with Verizon's network. I will switch on launch day
Ok that's what I thought, But I saw someone else comment something about it being in the article. And I was a bit confused. Thanks for clearing that up, because the article doesn't say anything about WinMo. I will also switch on launch day, I suppose that means no Guitar Hero World Tour. Oh well an iphone is better.
If the iphone came out on verizon I would buy it. But apple wouldn't let them lock it down so it might not happen
The iPhone is pretty locked down... You still have to jailbreak it to really be able to install what you want on it. I'd imagine it's plenty locked down enough for verizon.
-Taylor
AT&T has 73 million subscribers in the US, and they sold 7.4 million iPhones.
Verizon Wireless has 69 million subscribers in the US, and would probably sell a similar number of iPhones on Verizon.
Apple and AT&T aren't sharing monthly fees anymore... why would this be a bad thing? I'm sure Verizon could boost sales of iPhones. Apple can do whatever they want... but if they want to sell more phones, they need to sell them on more carriers.
Verizon will also be gobbling up Alltel before the year's out.
Why wouldn't Apple want to be on board with the nations largest carrier?
There is a little matter of a 5 year agreement with ATT that Apple would have to pay to buy out......
Again 80 Million is nothing to 2 Billion (back in 2006, imagine today) you do the math...
The five year exclusive has never been confirmed. We have no reason to believe, other than rumors, that the exclusivity exists, or if it does exist, that it's five years. In fact, Engadget ran this story on August 1st:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/01/atandt-iphone-exclusivity-extended-to-2010/
AT&T iPhone exclusivity extended to 2010?
by Nilay Patel, posted Aug 1st 2008 at 6:08PM
Apple's deal with AT&T obviously got re-done in order to get the iPhone 3G on the street for a subsidized $199, but it looks like Steve gave in on a little more than revenue-sharing when he re-upped with Ma Bell: USA Today says that AT&T's US exclusive on the iPhone has been extended for an additional year, until 2010. The extension isn't officially announced, but it's being cited in the context of a long interview with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who's quoted as saying things like "The iPhone has repositioned AT&T as the premier wireless brand in the world." So yeah, dude's a fan -- and with iPhone customers spending almost double on rate plans than the average AT&T customer, it's not hard to see why. Looks like our dream of glorious data plan price wars will have to wait until Android makes a splash later this year.
I wish Verizon had an iPhone so I wouldn't have to switch carriers... Verizon has the best coverage of the USA... and they won that bandwidth bid awhile back... I think it would be smart for Apple to have something that works for Verizon... but who knows... I understand all the points as to why it wont work...so my guess is I'll have to switch to AT&T eventually. :(
Are you kidding...since when is apple going to let anything other than their platform on their device...I cannot see any circumstance that would put Windows Mobile on an iPhone.
Uh, welcome to Intel Macs.
verizon releases iPhone that runs Android, closes black holes, and saves the stock market!
Someone took a few too many crazypills last night... the OS is what makes the iPhone an iPhone. The low-cost no-frills take until your tongue falls out are using CDMA I would assume based on range and spectral efficiency, but there's no way that Verizon would let an iPhone worth buying on it's network. Sprint is involved in Android, South Korea is moving towards HSPA (they have better phones anyway) and Japan is a different story because of the reversal of TX/RX...
You're right. There's no way Verizon would allow a phone on their network that would get people to shell out for a data plan.
If there's one thing I know about Verizon, it's that they hate money.
i dont think the guy who wrote this article knows the difference between CDMA and LTE and WIMAX and 4G, and a website like engadget should allow poeple with technical background to write technical articles instead of someone shooting left and right
anyway just to let know The main advantages with LTE are high throughput, low latency, plug and play from day one, FDD and TDD in the same platform, superior end-user experience and simple architecture resulting in low Operating Expenditures (OPEX). LTE will also support seamless connection to existing networks, such as GSM, CDMA and HSPA.
This is going to be so cool. Finally I will be able to install any app I want on my iPhone and have built in tethering support.
Here's another rumor: engadget is making its own Engadgephone! The rumor started at approximately at 3:48 OPM Central time when El taco mentioned an "engadgephone" in one of his posts. Supposedly, it will run onb a new kind of energy called "Apple fanboyism" and can run for one day on only one engadget post on Apple. In one week, you get a whole year's worth of power!
"Are you kidding...since when is apple going to let anything other than their platform on their device...I cannot see any circumstance that would put Windows Mobile on an iPhone."
Its called sarcasm?
I literally laughed out loud when I read the headline. Good one.
Technically GSM is dying technology too. LTE is NOT based on GSM or CDMA, it is completely new technology that ANY network can be upgraded to it, ATT and Verizon will both have LTE sometime in the future.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GPP_Long_Term_Evolution#Carrier_adoption
As far as I am concerned both CDMA and GSM are dead technologies. GSM technology is old which still uses time division access keys to transmit data. WCDMA which 3G networks are uses code division multiple access to transmit data. The advantage of LTE is that it will have ability to use both code and time to operate and that is exactly why any network can migrate onto it.
I personally think that both Verizon and Apple can both benefit from this but I highly doubt that this will happened since I remember hearing about how Apple signed off on the exclusivity contract with ATT until 2010 right after iPhone 3G release. I believe it was because ATT is paying Apple $300 is subsidies for each handset that they sell.
I would love if Apple released it for Verizon, at least then ATT would would have some competition and would be less gready and drop data plans just a bit. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Well, LTE is a part of the 3GPP family of technologies which incorporates GSM, UMTS, HSPA(+), and LTE. LTE is release 8 of the 3GPP family of technologies, which is an improvement to UMTS/HSPA, which uses the GSM Map Core network. So, in a way, it kinda is based off of GSM.
"UMTS combines the W-CDMA, TD-CDMA, or TD-SCDMA air interfaces, GSM's Mobile Application Part (MAP) core, and the GSM family of speech codecs. In the most popular cellular mobile telephone variant of UMTS, W-CDMA is currently used. Note that other wireless standards use W-CDMA as their air interface, including FOMA."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System
LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the next major step in mobile radio communications, and will be introduced in 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 8.
The aim of this 3GPP project is to improve the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile phone standard and provide an enhanced user experience and simplified technology for next generation mobile broadband. Researchers and development engineers worldwide – representing more than 60 operators, vendors and research institutes – are participating in the joint LTE radio access standardization effort.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GPP_Long_Term_Evolution
Wow, How many more fucking idiots are there on the interwebs that don't get sarcasm. Bunch of tools.
I wish all this GSM/CDMA stuff would go away, why not just have one system, instead of spreading manufacturers efforts?
If they do bring it to Verizon i know dozens of people that will buy it. I myself will be in line the day it releases for Verizon if it ever does, As well as my dad and many of my friends. PLZZZ BRING IT TO VERIZON!!! lmao
For gods sake you fucking morons.
This is not true. There is no Windows Mobile CDMA iPhone.
It's Engadget taking a joke too far. AGAIN.
baby jesus cries at your lack of humor
I would love for it to come to Verizon. After loving Verizon's service, but hating their phones I've been waiting for a really good phone to release that could take on Apple's. I've been waiting too long for Verizon to get some sense knocked into them, the LG Dare is close, but no cigar. I was willing to jump carriers for the G1, but since the whole thing has left me unimpressed I may just stick with a normal crappy flip phone for another year or so until someone gets their act together.
CDMA makes more sense in America than GSM does. We are a large spread out country, so unless you are live in a big city, GSM implementation would take a shit load more towers. I can't imagine why this would be such a crazy idea. Wouldn't having a CDMA phone tap the largest market in America? i'm pretty sure Verizon is the largest carrier.
Nope... AT&T is the largest in the US with 73 million.
But Verizon ain't far behind with 69 million.
Combined, they have 142 million... but the iPhone can only have half that. Come on Apple, let Verizon have it too!
When Verizon acquires Alltel, they will be the biggest. I guess we'll see. Meanwhile, other phone manufacturers sell phones on all networks.
Another IPHONE stories, just give it up, stick with blackberry, HTC or something new.
HD Touch is better
damm it i am sure sprint is not gettin it for sure not after all the shit they talk about with the instinct being better
Did they fire up the LHC early? Apparently they created a blackhole which took us to an alternate universe where the impossible is possible. What's next? Sprint going to start supporting GSM phones? AMD going to make a faster processor than intel? Madness I tells you! MAADDNESSS
Madness? This is Engadget!
Well, since I get no coverage by a GSM network at my house, the CDMA's are the only thing I can get. Sigh...
A CDMAiPhone would be neat...except the whole Windows Mobile thing. Viruses shouldn't be willingly installed on anything.
I can't believe CDMA still exists in the states, most other countries switched their CDMA networks off in the last 1 to 2 years in favour of 3G.
Even if these rumours are true, that picture is definitely fake - HTC wouldn't just let Apple use their product (HTC Home)
this comment was random, I know, but I just felt like pointing that out
Doesn't apple have a carrier exclusivity deal with ATT and others? i think this brings up another nail in this one's coffin
CDMA iPhone is Ok. But Windows Mobile iPhone is IMPOSSIBLE !!!
Whats the use of the iPhone if it wont run the cool Mac Mobile OS with its amazing interface. You could get a HTC Touch HD if you wanted WinMo.
As a very satisfied Verizon customer of 10 years+, I would love this to happen, but it won't. The reason Apple chose ATT, even though it is not the best network, is because they don't have any kind of music-buying service (can you say Vcast?) to compete with iTunes. Apparently, Vcast is making some good money, so I don't see it going away anytime soon. Verizon won't bend over backwards to accomodate Apple, so as much as this would be a dream come true for many, it ain't gonna happen. Too bad.
Me thinks Engadget is just bitter because it got scooped by *every* other tech blog on this, so they have to say "Um... nuh uh! This isn't a real rumor!"
Never mind that it makes complete sense for Apple to want to hook as many customers as possible to an iPhone before too many other smart phones and (more importantly) app stores come on the market. Apple will make most of its money on the iPhone through the App Store and increased music sales through iTunes, not on the hardware. So it would be a sound business decision to lose a little on engineering to create a CDMA iPhone if that gives Apple access to Verizon and Sprint customers. If they don't, they may never get those customers, even when everyone converts to LTE (as you claim). Yes, the worldwide GSM customer base is larger, but no company (especially an American company in the current economy) is stupid enough to completely discount tens of millions of customers when each customer represents not just a single sale, but an ongoing revenue stream.
Since when is CDMA a "dyeing Technology"?????
LOL! Yeah number 1 cell phone carrier and its a dyeing Technology?
Ok! Who ever wrote this is an abvous AT&T promoter.
One word sums this up....BULLSHIT!
Its bootcamp for iphone! lol