The rumor mills are at it yet again. A new report from Bloomberg claims that Verizon Wireless will start selling Apple's iPhone from early next year.
According to Bloomberg's sources, Apple's exclusive partnership with AT&T will end with the launch of iPhones on Verizon in January 2011.
Speculations over AT&T losing its exclusive carrier status to Verizon have been doing the rounds for a long time. Earlier this year, there were speculations that a CDMA iPhone could be launching on Verizon in June this year. Also, more recently, DigiTimes senior analyst, Ming Chi Kuo noted from his sources that the Verizon iPhone was likely to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2010. The spate of speculations in the past has made us skeptical about the latest rumor to an extent.
However, there are a few reasons why the rumor may turn out to be true this time around
AT&T iPhone Upgrade Eligibility Status: AT&T surprised its subscribers ahead of the iPhone 4 launch by advancing the upgrade eligibility status for several users by six months. This, along with the recently revised early termination fee, could be an indication that Ma Bell is bracing itself up for competition from Verizon. By advancing the upgrade eligibility of its subscribers, AT&T may have ensured that these customers do not migrate to Verizon when the carrier launches an iPhone six months from now.
Scope For Offering Upgrades: Verizon's LTE network is expected to be launched in select markets by the end of this year. However, this next-generation service is likely to roll-out nationwide only by the end of 2011. As Kevin Tofel from GigaOm writes, a January launch of a CDMA iPhone will give Apple an opportunity to offer an upgraded iPhone with LTE capability in the latter part of 2011. He points out that Apple has successfully followed this upgrade strategy in the past well.
Competition from Android: It has often been argued that CDMA is a dying technology and that Apple may not partner with Verizon until LTE is rolled out. However, this decision may prove costly in the light of the growth of the Android platform, especially since AT&T is considered as a major weakness of the iPhone. So Apple needs to partner with Verizon to counter the threat from Android. While this argument may not support the latest speculation over the January 2011 launch, it is apparent that Apple should launch a Verizon iPhone sooner rather than later. Apple announced that it sold over 1.7 million iPhone 4s within just three days after it was launched. We can't even imagine what the numbers would have been if iPhone 4 was available on Verizon.
What do you think? Will you be jumping ship when Verizon starts selling iPhones?
1st. 4g's comin soon. Lol
Yadda yadda yadda I'll believe it when I see it.
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Unlikely the iPhone will launch in January 2011 with another carrier, an announcement will be made then but not the device itself, besides it doesn't fit their typical rollout window, so I say June/July 2011. Personally I'm sticking with AT&T
Verizon customer service blows donkeys so staying with AT&T
oringally iphone was supposed to go with verizon but verizon wanted too much control over the iphone. I'll stick with att. verizon has a habit of taking out features of many phones so they can charge you to add those features
when Dev team is planning to release jb f0r 3gs running ios 4 (new bootrom) ????
102 hours, 47 minutes, and 26 seconds…. Oh wait, no one knows. They'll get to it when they can. I'm sure this is the most hectic part of the year from them. Just keep following their blog.
BTW, this really doesn't have anything to do with the article.
They were just talking about this on CNN…. perhaps confirmed?!
who cares and give me jailbreak for new bootrom on 3gs and iphone!
personally I can careless who has what phone or if verizon is better or not, I have an iPhone and that's what matters.
I like AT&T because i get good coverage where I live and when customers go to Verizon, maybe AT&T will get have a better network since less iphone users mean less strain in the network.
I agree
You know, maybe this person was concerned about when the JB would be available as part of their decision to stay with AT&T or go with Verizon. Who knows. I don't, and neither do you. You were probably the one who took names when the teacher left the room.
I'd like a iPhone on a carrier that offers unlimited data though. Isn't AT&T the only phone company without a unlimited option
AT&T does offer unlimited data but now the plan was removed. If you were an iphone user before June, you had the option of keeping your unlimited data or switch to the new plans. If you were a new user, u have to use one of the new plans.
Bell/telus got the iPhone 3GS in November 2009.
They upgraded to a new system/network that supports SIM cards
Verizon doesn't care about their customers. I wanted to buy the Storm when it first came out two months before my contract was up. It didn't matter that I had been a customer for over 10 yrs, they wanted full price. I figured if I was going to spend the money I would go to AT&T and buy an iPhone. Very glad I did. I don't plan on going back to Verizon.
Well so i was right!!! That is the reason why AT&T allowed people, who was eligible in 2010, to upgrade early. They knew they would lose customers to Verizon if customers knew it was gonna be coming to Verizon.
This rumor has been around since the first iPhone. First off, Apple's contract with AT&T is up in April, so January makes no sense. They can announce it but until the obligation is filled Verizon will have to wait until after April. I also agree with the fact that Verizon wanted more control over the phone which wasn't gonna happen, hopefully Verizon will keep the phone the same, I just wait and see. If Verizon does sell the iPhone, I will do the same thing I'm doing with AT&T, just buy the phone, no contract, that way I can just go right back if things get sour.
I certainly hope so… But I'm not gonna be holding my breath on this one.
Hi everyone ,
if Verizon starting to sell iphones will their iphones be jailbreak?