Yes, here we go yet again. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has posted another piece giving his thoughts on the seemingly impending release of a CDMA-based iPhone. As the rumor goes, a CDMA iPhone is at the “engineering verification test” stage of development. That means it’s just a hair away from being put into production. Gruber […]
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More Regarding a January Launch of a CDMA iPhone

Aug 13th 2010 by

Yes, here we go yet again. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has posted another piece giving his thoughts on the seemingly impending release of a CDMA-based iPhone. As the rumor goes, a CDMA iPhone is at the “engineering verification test” stage of development. That means it’s just a hair away from being put into production.

Gruber is answering the questions floating around why Apple is releasing on CDMA and not waiting for Verizon to roll out their more advanced LTE network.

Verizon is on the cusp of rolling out a next-generation 4G LTE network. Wouldn’t it make sense for Apple to wait for LTE and skip CDMA altogether? That depends on the timing, I think. If Apple is willing to wait another year, or, if it simply takes another year to come to terms with Verizon, then sure, maybe the first Verizon iPhone will go straight to LTE. But if they want to start selling an iPhone on Verizon soon — meaning January — then CDMA is the only practical solution.

The whole point of expanding to Verizon is to gain market share in the U.S. It’s about high-volume iPhone sales, coast to coast. A big part of the reason there’s so much demand for a Verizon iPhone is that so many people aren’t satisfied with AT&T’s coverage and quality. Even if their LTE rollout goes exactly as planned — a big “if” — LTE is going to be a niche technology in January, available in a few dozen cities. There may well be tens of million of Verizon customers in those cities, but Apple would want a Verizon iPhone to be aimed squarely at all Verizon customers. The message: “Everyone waiting for a Verizon iPhone: here it is.”

In other words, the whole timing of this release comes down to when Apple thinks they can collect more market share. Sooner seems to be better, otherwise they would introduce a CDMA-based iPhone at next year’s WWDC. CDMA will cover all people now, LTE will only cover a few people when it’s first introduced.

I used to be cold to the idea of a CDMA (read: Verizon) iPhone ever making it to market. However, things are changing in the market, Android is stronger than ever, and there are signs that the device is approaching production.

We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

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