iPhone coming to Verizon Wireless

Hot off the press from the Wall Street Journal

Apple Inc. plans to begin mass producing a new iPhone by the end of 2010 that would allow Verizon Wireless to sell the smartphone early next year, said people 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.

An Apple CDMA iPhone would spell the end of the exclusive U.S. arrangement with Apple that AT&T has had since 2007, when the original iPhone debuted.

Separately, Apple is also developing a new iPhone model, said people briefed on the matter. One person familiar with the new iPhone plan said the fifth-generation iPhone will be a different form factor from those that are currently available. It was unclear how soon that version will be available to Verizon.

Spokeswomen for Apple and Qualcomm declined to comment; a spokesman for Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, declined to comment.

I've been waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon for a long time, but I'll probably wait a year or so to get one. The first run of anything electronic always seems to have a few bugs.

I trade in my Iphone for the Droid X even after reading this article. My contract with AT&T expired yesterday and I went out and got the X. I couldn't be happier.

Apple has lost a lot of customers by making the exclusive deal with a sub par network.

I would have done anything to get an iphone over the past few years. But I think it is too little too late. Android is on another level. And yes I own almost every other apple product and love them.

maybe this means we will be able to get androids on ATT soon..

Originally Posted by bradmo42

maybe this means we will be able to get androids on ATT soon..

you can today

yep, they lost me by waiting too long. Got a Droid and love it, won't be making a switch

Originally Posted by magic

you can today

yea i realized that literally 10 minutes after posting that haha

doubt it happens....thats me being pissed. I switched about a month ago cause i was sick of waiting....if verizon get the iphone im going to be kicking my self like you have no idea.

I used to be jealous of every person I saw with an Iphone.... now when I see someone using one I think to myself..my Droid can do that..

Originally Posted by wakesetter_WW

I used to be jealous of every person I saw with an Iphone.... now when I see someone using one I think to myself..my Droid can do that..

+1 and more

+2 My Droid X can do more...

+3 I was on the fence about waiting for an iPhone making my first smart phone purchase about a month ago. After researching, I went Droid and never looking back. Still use the iPod for car/boat/etc. But an HTC Droid is my phone.

I don't care.

Just got the Droid 2 Global. Never had an iPhone but came from a blackberry, the Droid is sick. Very happy with it.

Heres a question I have for Droid users. How does Droid manage music? For example, Apple has iTunes and the app/music store which is tightly integrated so making music purchases very fast and easy.

Does Droid have something similar?

i just downloaded tunesync which basically sync's the itunes with your droid. it was a 4.99 app.

Here's where I went with the music question. I use the iPod a lot, mostly hooked up to the car stereo and boat when I'm in it. With the headphones when I'm running or working around the house. So, I was initially interested in integrating the iPod & iPhone/smartphone. However, after discussing with a few friends also into music, I decided to keep the phone & music (iPod) separate for two reasons. First battery life on most smart phones is not super long. I didn't want to run the phone down by just listening to music and be caught always worrying about when/where I can charge. Second, with music playing (car/boat) I didn't want to have to interrupt or juggle music just to answer the phone. So in the end, it made the most sense to have music on the iPod and phone/internet/e-mail on the smartphone.

After deciding this, and wanting to stay with Verizon and no longer wait, Droid was the easy choice. It has virtually everything that was initially interested in the iPhone for.

The decision hasn't hurt Apple a bit. Their margins are so ridiculously high and their app store so successful that they are laughing all the way to the bank. The Verizon iPhone will be a hit. I'll be switching immediately because the idea of actually being able to make a phone call in my neighborhood is rather appealing.

There are some great droid-based phones out there, and some great Winmo7 phones out there too, but the winmo phones are a little too green and the droid phones unfortunately suffer from just a tad too much freedom (sadly this strength is also a weakness when it comes to business use - stupid motorola pushed out an update via verizon to their droid models and broke Exchange synching for TWO MONTHS before they finally got around to pushing a fix)...

The Verizon service wont improve the experience a bit unless Apple makes the iPhone a better phone. It has worse reception and drops more calls than anything I have used in 10 years. Prior to getting an iPhone, I had not one complaint about AT&T. They far out performed the Verizon service which I had to cancel for poor performance.

Interesting - my phone works GREAT in:

D.C.
New York
Orange County
San Diego
Austin
peninsula/south bay

It is poor in:
much of LA County
San Francisco
east bay, north berkeley in particular

So it seems (at least in my case, with the iphone4 in particular) that the issues are service-based.

I know Berkeley fights att hard on new towers, so not so surprising here, but I had Verizon for 4 years in the same area and never dropped a call.

I also miss being able to work from the lake up in Tilden - verizon works up there but att doesn't!

Yup. I realize my experience is different than most. At my home in the east bay, Verizon doesn't work.

I'm still using a 3GS, so I can;t speak for the 4 personally. My coworkers feel that the upgrade to the 4 didn't help them, but it all depends on where you are it seems.

I was concerned about the 4 but my employee still had an old 3G so I upgraded and gave him my 3GS. The 4 definitely works better at my house - I can consistently make calls now whereas the 3GS could take 3-4 tries sometimes to go through. The neighborhood in general is still pretty poor though...

Is there a reason most people use itunes over a subscription based music service like rhapsody? I don't see how itunes is even remotely affordable if you are actually buying the music. 10 songs on itunes costs as much as unlimited music on Rhapsody. I haven't actually tried it but one of my friends who uses rhapsody says that even if you have to buy a song it is cheaper then itunes.

The music issue is what has been holding me back from switching away from iPhone to some sort of Android phone. Also, the lack of Android selection from AT&T makes it tough too. On top of it all, I can see myself getting a digital tablet in the future and I'm guessing it would be Android based since the stupid iPad doesn't support Flash and I'm assuming it never will. If the Tunesync mentioned above will allow me to use ALL my iPhone music on an Android phone, that might push me over the top.

i just put all my itunes music (purchased from itunes) on my droid today. It syncs via wireless with your computer so you don't even have to plug it in.

Does that include the old 99-cent copy-protected songs that you have to burn to CD and then rip off in order to turn them into mp3 files?

hmmm, i am not sure honestly. i only synced a few playlists with newer stuff.... i'm trying to sync the entire library now.

Wow I must just be lucky. My i phone 4 has been great since I got it in August. All my music is on it, have had not a single dropped call, great reception, zero backround noise for incoming callers, super fast internet and phenominal battery life. Couldn't be happier.

I think that music on the Droid works beautifully. I have completely ditched my iPod in favor of my phone. There are various music services that you can use and they all work well. If you want to add a song on the fly it can be downloaded inside of 30 seconds.

David, you may not be able to pull over all of the older protected music without jumping through some hoops first. If I remember correctly I couldn't get my Collie Buds to pull over.

Ian, what program are you using? I have been using iSyncr to transfer my music from iTunes. Its real easy and you can select to transfer your whole library or just certain playlists. It also has an add-on for wireless transfer that you can even program to sync daily. They have editions for Mac

I use TuneSync, it was 4.99 and included the wireless and you can choose playlists, etc to transfer. Just keep your phone by your computer and it automatically syncs.

Just got the iPhone 4. Wow. 100x better then the 3GS. I'm starting to think the 3GS was a flawed piece of apple poop. Here's the trick. Sold my great condition 3GS on eBay for $298. New iPhone 4 was $200. It pays to upgrade.

I always here horror stories about ATT and iphone, but I have never dropped a call or had a bad experience with ATT network or customer service. I love my iphone 4 it does everything I want and need and I never drop calls.