I’ve been holding back the past few days because many of you readers don’t like Verizon news. When Bloomberg broke wind and everyone went crazy with the news, I decided not to report it. But you’re going to have grin and bear it again, because it’s getting incredibly loud out there.
Yes, Bloomberg reported a Verizon iPhone coming in January. Lots of headlines were passed around, and even those close with Verizon were questioning whether it’s really happening. But at this point I want to make something clear, and recent rumors have reaffirmed my position: Apple is already sitting on a CDMA iPhone. They have been sometime now. All Verizon has to do is pull the trigger.
Hardware isn’t the issue. Quoting John Gruber,
It’s true that a Verizon iPhone would require new hardware. But that’s not a holdup. I’m nearly certain that a Verizon-compatible iPhone is pretty much like the Intel-compatible version of Mac OS X — something that Apple has kept going all along, ready to put into production when, if ever, its time comes.
Jim Dalrymple confirms this.
“Apple already has a Verizon compatible iPhone,” Dalrymple said. “It’s not that they have to rush around Apple HQ and start building the thing for a January launch with Verizon.”
Gruber writes,
“I wouldn’t have been shocked if they’d gone to Verizon a year ago, and wouldn’t be shocked if it doesn’t happen for another two or three years. But whenever the time comes, hardware won’t hold it up.”
Keep in mind that any carrier who bears the iPhone has to pay substantial costs for the right to do so. Verizon is playing ball with their Summer of Droid, but that doesn’t mean their stint with Motorola will last forever. AT&T’s exclusivity has technically already been breached, and Apple wants their phone in more places than one.
Verizon itself is all about control. With the iPhone, they wouldn’t have the ability to scribe their branding all over a phone (like a Droid X), nor could they ‘Rule the Air’ with OTA updates. Yet iOS 4 gives Apple and carriers the ability to peek into your phone, and that might be the extra umph Apple needs to get Verizon to finally sign the deal. I’m not sure how much Motorola is forking over to Verizon to prevent Apple’s precedence on the Big Red, but with the sheer amount of customers who want an iPhone, it’s going to eventually happen.
