Verizon iPhone Rumor Refuses to Die
If you want an iPhone, AT&T is the only wireless game in town. And if you think Apple is shooting itself in the foot by limiting the iPhone to a single network, the numbers suggest otherwise. The Cupertino company on Wednesday said there have been more than 600,000 pre-orders for the new iPhone 4, the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day. Be that as it may, why then do rumors persist that Apple's iPhone is coming to Verizon?
There are a couple of potential reasons. One is that the customers really, really want this to happen. Really. AT&T's claim to fame the past couple of years is that it's the exclusive wireless carrier of the iPhone, but otherwise the network has been plagued by bad publicity for everything from shoddy 3G network coverage to security SNAFUs, such as the one that led to hackers posting personal email addresses of some 114,000 iPad owners, some of which belonged to military personnel, celebrities, politicians, and other high profile peeps.
And then there's the other reason - maybe, just maybe, the rumors are true. Or at the very least, perhaps Apple is trying to strike a deal with Verizon, even is nothing is yet set in stone. On one hand, we've heard time and again that the iPhone is destined for Verizon's network, but up to this point, all the talk and speculation has amounted to nothing more than, well, talk and speculation.
Nevertheless, the rumor just refuses to die, and the current word on the Web is that Pegatron Technology has landed a contract to build CDMA versions of the iPhone. As the report goes, Pegatron will start shipping CDMA iPhones as early as the fourth quarter of 2010, and the company is already using its plants in Shanghai, China to build the device.
As much as everyone would like to believe this is true, there's still the whole issue of Apple's exclusivity agreement with AT&T, which doesn't run out until 2012. It's entirely possible that the contract has changed since it was originally signed, but even just a few weeks ago Verizon went on record saying that it won't be offering Apple products in the near-term.
Do you think the iPhone is coming to Verizon before 2012? Would you pick one up if it did?
There are a couple of potential reasons. One is that the customers really, really want this to happen. Really. AT&T's claim to fame the past couple of years is that it's the exclusive wireless carrier of the iPhone, but otherwise the network has been plagued by bad publicity for everything from shoddy 3G network coverage to security SNAFUs, such as the one that led to hackers posting personal email addresses of some 114,000 iPad owners, some of which belonged to military personnel, celebrities, politicians, and other high profile peeps.
And then there's the other reason - maybe, just maybe, the rumors are true. Or at the very least, perhaps Apple is trying to strike a deal with Verizon, even is nothing is yet set in stone. On one hand, we've heard time and again that the iPhone is destined for Verizon's network, but up to this point, all the talk and speculation has amounted to nothing more than, well, talk and speculation.
Nevertheless, the rumor just refuses to die, and the current word on the Web is that Pegatron Technology has landed a contract to build CDMA versions of the iPhone. As the report goes, Pegatron will start shipping CDMA iPhones as early as the fourth quarter of 2010, and the company is already using its plants in Shanghai, China to build the device.
As much as everyone would like to believe this is true, there's still the whole issue of Apple's exclusivity agreement with AT&T, which doesn't run out until 2012. It's entirely possible that the contract has changed since it was originally signed, but even just a few weeks ago Verizon went on record saying that it won't be offering Apple products in the near-term.
Do you think the iPhone is coming to Verizon before 2012? Would you pick one up if it did?
