WSJ: Verizon to announce CDMA iPhone 4 on Tuesday
As speculation surrounding Verizon's iPhone reached a fevered pitch, the Wall Street Journal has confidently announced that the carrier has finally landed Apple's iPhone.
The report said the new deal will "upend the balance of power in the industry, ending Verizon rival AT&T Inc.'s exclusive hold on the device and leaving smaller players like Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA facing two well-capitalized competitors offering the world's most popular smartphone."
Citing "people familiar with the matter," the report said that while "it wasn't immediately clear when Verison would have the devices in its stores," the carrier would be announcing details in its press conference scheduled for next Tuesday in New York.
It also said the device "would be similar to the existing iPhone 4, but run on the carrier's CDMA technology." Verizon made a big splash at CES surrounding its "4G" LTE deployment plans, but that new network won't be available for voice calls until 2012.
Impact on AT&T, other US carriers
The report noted that Apple's exclusive deal with AT&T, which started in 2007, "has fueled much of the carrier's subscriber growth and has given it a solid lead in smartphone customers."
Additionally, it noted that "the arrangement between Apple and AT&T was groundbreaking at a time when carriers tightly controlled the appearance and function of their phones, and put Silicon Valley companies like Apple and Google in the wireless industry's driver's seat."
At the same time, while "Apple feels it has had tremendous success through its exclusive relationship with AT&T," the report stated, "it recognized that it needs to partner with Verizon to grow sales faster in the US." A note filed by analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros in December said the carrier was "still excited" about launching Apple's iPhone early next year "to combat slowing Android momentum in the US."
Verizon has partnered with HTC and Motorola over the last year to promote Android phones in a hedge bet against BlackBerry's inability to deliver a worth competitor to the iPhone. However, the carrier has since seen a drop in Android interest with the arrival of iPhone 4.
Despite its "Droid" branded push in 2010, "Top Verizon executives have continued to meet regularly with their counterparts at Apple, however" the report noted, "and have long expressed interest in carrying the iPhone, which could help add to the carrier's base of 93 million subscribers."
AT&T has braced itself for the loss in iPhone exclusivity that it has seen coming for some time, working to lock existing iPhone 4 buyers into two year contracts and relying upon family and business plans that make it hard for individuals to leave the carrier.
Other US carriers may be hit harder, including T-Mobile and Sprint, neither of which are expected to gain access to iPhone sales, even though the new CDMA iPhone should work on Sprint's network, and the existing iPhone 4 can work on T-Mobile's, albeit limited to the much slower, 2G GSM/EDGE service.
The big event
The report noted that Verizon's iPhone launch event "threatens to overshadow Verizon's keynote address Thursday at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, where the carrier touted its new 4G network and announced a number of Google-powered phones and tablet PCs designed to make use of the network's capabilities."
Verizon has invited Mac journalists to the event but has notably excluded Gizmodo staff from its invitation list, a move that all but confirmed that the event involved Apple.
This week, AppleInsider was first to report that Apple had been quietly restricting employee vacations at the end of January and in early February.
On Friday, another rumor surfaced, suggesting that Apple could have a major product launch scheduled for Feb. 3.
The report said the new deal will "upend the balance of power in the industry, ending Verizon rival AT&T Inc.'s exclusive hold on the device and leaving smaller players like Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA facing two well-capitalized competitors offering the world's most popular smartphone."
Citing "people familiar with the matter," the report said that while "it wasn't immediately clear when Verison would have the devices in its stores," the carrier would be announcing details in its press conference scheduled for next Tuesday in New York.
It also said the device "would be similar to the existing iPhone 4, but run on the carrier's CDMA technology." Verizon made a big splash at CES surrounding its "4G" LTE deployment plans, but that new network won't be available for voice calls until 2012.
Impact on AT&T, other US carriers
The report noted that Apple's exclusive deal with AT&T, which started in 2007, "has fueled much of the carrier's subscriber growth and has given it a solid lead in smartphone customers."
Additionally, it noted that "the arrangement between Apple and AT&T was groundbreaking at a time when carriers tightly controlled the appearance and function of their phones, and put Silicon Valley companies like Apple and Google in the wireless industry's driver's seat."
At the same time, while "Apple feels it has had tremendous success through its exclusive relationship with AT&T," the report stated, "it recognized that it needs to partner with Verizon to grow sales faster in the US." A note filed by analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros in December said the carrier was "still excited" about launching Apple's iPhone early next year "to combat slowing Android momentum in the US."
Verizon has partnered with HTC and Motorola over the last year to promote Android phones in a hedge bet against BlackBerry's inability to deliver a worth competitor to the iPhone. However, the carrier has since seen a drop in Android interest with the arrival of iPhone 4.
Despite its "Droid" branded push in 2010, "Top Verizon executives have continued to meet regularly with their counterparts at Apple, however" the report noted, "and have long expressed interest in carrying the iPhone, which could help add to the carrier's base of 93 million subscribers."
AT&T has braced itself for the loss in iPhone exclusivity that it has seen coming for some time, working to lock existing iPhone 4 buyers into two year contracts and relying upon family and business plans that make it hard for individuals to leave the carrier.
Other US carriers may be hit harder, including T-Mobile and Sprint, neither of which are expected to gain access to iPhone sales, even though the new CDMA iPhone should work on Sprint's network, and the existing iPhone 4 can work on T-Mobile's, albeit limited to the much slower, 2G GSM/EDGE service.
The big event
The report noted that Verizon's iPhone launch event "threatens to overshadow Verizon's keynote address Thursday at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, where the carrier touted its new 4G network and announced a number of Google-powered phones and tablet PCs designed to make use of the network's capabilities."
Verizon has invited Mac journalists to the event but has notably excluded Gizmodo staff from its invitation list, a move that all but confirmed that the event involved Apple.
This week, AppleInsider was first to report that Apple had been quietly restricting employee vacations at the end of January and in early February.
On Friday, another rumor surfaced, suggesting that Apple could have a major product launch scheduled for Feb. 3.
Comments
Echo chamber at work.
Yeah, cause the WSJ is the same as the National Enquirer. Those jokers at the Journal never check their facts.
I wonder if Gizmodo has any credibility left at all out there? Was it worth it guys?
Rumor has it that Verizon will charge a $15/month surcharge for the iPhone 4 versus other phones.
Source?
Rumor has it that Verizon will charge a $15/month surcharge for the iPhone 4 versus other phones.
I predict that Verizon will give iPhone customers nearly anything to get you to switch, including eating the ATT termination fee.
Anyone remember the old ATT commercials from the 80's after the breakup of the phone company? Their tag line was "come back for free." I hope Verizon takes a page from their playbook.
Two guys tinkering in a garage.
Who would have thought that one day the phone company would be in their hands!
I wonder if The Wall Street Journal has any credibility left at all out there? Was it worth it guys? Saying "The iPhone is coming to Verizon next month" for the past twenty months? Was it worth it?
Fixed.
Since it will use the CDMA technology does this mean there could be the possibility of jailbreaking it to work on MetroPCS which also uses CDMA??
Jailbreaking has nothing to do with unlocking. CDMA carriers are notorious for not allowing other CDMA carriers' phones on their networks. Particularly since there's no easy way of doing it.
Excluding Gizmodo from the event certainly seems an extremely strong indication that this is the iPhone launch event.
I wonder if Gizmodo has any credibility left at all out there? Was it worth it guys?
Doesn't seem to have hurt them much in general. As they point out, they still get invited pretty much everywhere, except Apple events.
As great as it will be to have the iPhone on Verizon, there are still a lot of interesting questions worth wondering about. I'm half-tempted to buy a Verizon iPhone 4 outright and not sign a contract and see what happens this summer before upgrading to the 5th generation model.
I really do wonder now what this will mean for T-Mobile and Sprint. I'm with Sprint now and planning on switching to Verizon either way most likely, but it only makes sense to me that if they're going to open the device up, then they'd open it up to Sprint at least as they wouldn't have to tweak the Verizon iPhone. T-Mobile would be a big more difficult given the nature of their 3G, but at least with the next generation, I would imagine that they'd be able to work T-Mobile in on the GSM iPhone fine.
As great as it will be to have the iPhone on Verizon, there are still a lot of interesting questions worth wondering about. I'm half-tempted to buy a Verizon iPhone 4 outright and not sign a contract and see what happens this summer before upgrading to the 5th generation model.
Isn't getting it on TMob now just a matter of a difference in frequency than AT&T?
Where are all of the posters who said that Apple would never stoop to putting the iPhone on an obsolete technology like CDMA? Come on guys, chime in. One last chance....
Also one last chance for you to be wrong. Neither camp knows anything. Don't be a fool.
Isn't getting it on TMob now just a matter of a difference in frequency than AT&T?
3G, yes. Everything else already works.
So let's see how fast it will be jb'd and unlocked to be placed on Sprint, MetroPCS, Cricket and other CDMA carriers. As for me, I am sticking with AT&T. I am happy with their data speeds and overall reliability in Houston.
Ask your current CDMA carrier if they'll take a phone from someone else. Likely not. You can't just pop a SIM.
Isn't getting it on TMob now just a matter of a difference in frequency than AT&T?
Yep. Just add one frequency and bam, t-mobile access beyond edge.