Wall Street Journal
Yukari Iwatani Kane and Ting-I Tsai are reporting that the long-awaited Verizon iPhone will hit store shelves in early 2011, according to sources briefed by Apple:
“The new iPhone would be similar in design to the iPhone 4 currently sold by AT&T Inc. but would be based on an alternative wireless technology called CDMA used by Verizon, these people said. The phone, for which Qualcomm Inc. is providing a key chip, is expected to be released in the first quarter of next year, according to the same people.”
If true, the Verizon partnership would end Apple’s exclusive relationship with AT&T that began in 2007 with the launch of the original iPhone. Analysts have said that Apple would need to offer the iPhone on carriers other than AT&T in order to compete with the rapid growth of Google’s Android mobile operating system.
