Just for the record: Verizon will ship an CDMA iPhone in early February: http://www.engadget.com/apple/verizon-iphone
It doesn't support LTE (Apple rejected this based on design decisions - early LTE chipsets will probably drain your battery quite a bit). It's just an iPhone with CDMA and a slightly changed antenna design. And it has a mobile hotspot built-in, like Android has had for a while (let's see if Apple got better battery life for this feature), but it's an iOS feature. Verizon needed this because iOS at AT&T has twice the users as Android at Verizon (http://www.asymco.com/2011/01/11/for-every-att-android- user-there-are-15-iphone-users-what-will-be-the-ratio-at-verizon/). Also, in Q3/10, Verizon activated only 3.3 mio. smartphones (Android, Blackberry and Palm) whereas AT&T activated 5.7 mio iPhones alone (http://www.asymco.com/2010/12/13/verizon-strikes-out/). Apple needed this because of growing Android marketshare, but at least device-wise, they didn't concede to Verizon: no crapware, no Verizon logos, probably no separate firmware (it's rumored this was a sticky point in the negotiations). Interestingly, this is a non-exclusive deal, leaving the door open for Sprint and T-Mobile to get the iPhone, tool. The jury is still out how this will affect market shares, but I expect the Android growth to slow a bit in the U.S. and the iPhone to pick up some points - Verizon as the biggest Android proponent will probably push this quite a bit. Everybody else (Blackberry, Windows, Palm) will continue to slide, for the next few months at least. Knowing how much Steve Jobs hates these "product forks", I wouldn't be surprised if the iPhone 5 will ship with a universal GSM+CDMA radio chipset (rumors have it that Qualcomm works with Apple on this). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
