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10 million CDMA iPhone on order?

By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 11:39 AM

Here we go again. DigiTimes is reporting that Apple has already pegged a manufacturer to make up to 10 million iPhones using CDMA technology. Are you salivating yet, Verizon users?

Pegatron Technology has received orders for an iPhone based on CDMA from Apple with annual shipments expected to reach 10 million units. The orders should start contributing to the Taiwan-based company’s revenues in August or September, according to sources from component makers.

The iPhone-to-Verizon rumors have been around just about as long as Apple’s handset has existed but there seems to be momentum with this one. There’s also been a report that an advertising company has been hard at work crafting an ad campaign for a Verizon iPhone that will hit later this year (here’s a free pitch: “You can use our iPhone to actually make calls”). We know Big Red wants the device and surveys suggest there is a huge demand for this handset on Verizon’s network. It seems like an easy match, right?

It’s time to put on my “Negative Nancy” hat and pour some cold water on this one. First of all, DigiTimes has broken a lot of hot scoops because of its proximity to manufacturers but it is also routinely used to spread rumors. Additionally, there is nothing that says this CDMA version is going to come to Verizon. The Chinese market uses a specific version of this technology (TD-CDMA) and that could be what the order is for. During its last amazing quarterly earnings, Apple said it was seeing explosive growth in the Asian markets so it makes a ton of sense to court the would-be-smartphone users in China with a new version of its touchscreen handset.

Throw in all the AT&T exclusivity news we’ve heard and I’ll stick with my prediction that we won’t see an iPhone on Big Red until at least 2011. As much as it pains me to say it, I’ve been wrong before. I never thought Google would jump into the hardware game with its own Android device but they sure did. Maybe the search giant should have listened to me …

[Via DigiTimes]

About The Author

Marin Perez

Marin Perez has torture tested cell phones and smartphones for industry leaders like CNET and InformationWeek. He remembers when 4G was just a screen on PowerPoint presentations and is fascinated with the amount of innovation out there. Marin has spent a lot of time with BlackBerry and Android but he finally broke down a bought an iPhone to see what all the hype's about. He also has too many tablets.

  • Tim

    The so-called CDMA order was for the China Unicom version of the new iPhone…and it's TD-CDMA – meaning non US flavored. Get over it. Apple has been the company to kill the floppy, Flash, and even the optical drive in some of its devices due to all of them being "old Technology". What makes you think they will adopt a dying telecom technology (US CDMA) when everyone is going to LTE.

    And another thing, Apple has never been about market share. They are about profit…plain and simple. They are about a premium product at a premium price. That's why their laptops/desktops are never discounted and much higher in price than PCs. If they wanted market share, they would lower their laptops, desktops, and iPods to competitor prices and they would instantly have a majority market share position. But then their products would not be distinguished as a premium brand anymore. It's kind of like designer clothing – for all the non business folks in the house wishing for a Verizon iPhone. You'll get one…but that will be in 2011-2012 depending on Verizon widespread rollout of LTE.

  • marinperez

    Agreed friend but I have to quibble a bit with the market share thing. They've never been about market share because they've never had the possibility to be a dominant force in an industry. Do you really think Steve Jobs doesn't want as much market share as possible (while retaining that high profit margin, of course)?

  • mukesh dhiman

    i want to know whether the apple cdma iphone is trully under process and will it l come in indian cdma market too…..if yes what will be the time of its opening….ciz i m a reliance cdma user in india and i m dying to use apple iphone in cdma net work….