“The device will be available to customers in January, according to the people, who declined to be named because the information isn’t public,” Thomson reports. “The iPhone, which has been the sole domain of rival AT&T in the U.S. since June 2007, will give Verizon a boost in its competition for smartphone customers, UBS AG analyst John Hodulik said in an interview. Verizon customers, who numbered 92.8 million at the end of the first quarter, may buy 3 million iPhones a quarter, he estimates.”
MacDailyNews Take: They’ll buy more than that; if anything to make up for the 6 months of their market being frozen – a freeze that starts right now. 
Jim Goldman has already reported this info on CNBC. And now it’s on MarketWatch and Reuters… It’ll be all over very soon; this news and Google’s Android U.S. growth. Treat this one as more than just a rumor (let’s just say that a little birdie told us so).
Thomson reports, “‘The fact is, Apple is going to dramatically increase the number of devices it sells in the U.S. when exclusivity at AT&T ends,’ said Hodulik, who is based in New York and rates Verizon shares ‘neutral.’ ‘It’s hard to ignore the quality issues that AT&T has faced.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Droid does sit on shelves while Verizon Wireless customers wait for The Real Thing.
Thomson reports, “Verizon Wireless, which is building a high-speed fourth- generation network, plans to unveil a number of devices that will run on the new technology in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam has said.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Adidos, Android phones. The inferior derivative knockoff won’t “win” this time.
How can we confirm this news?
Will it be “4G” or CDMA and Apple will be forced to make two style phones anyway.
And if they have to make two iPhone makes/models, what’s wrong with three or four for T-Mo and Sprint and nTelos?…
Disagree MDN, Android is a capable competitor and I don’t see it going anywhere anytime soon.
“…according to the people”
Oh, THEM again?
You’re wrong, Chaz! Where’s the meatloaf? MOM!
Now the iPhone will be on the saintly, customers-are-always-first, über high tech, all-your-dreams-come-will-come-true network! No more of that ordinary telco ATT.
There are three reasons I hope this is true.
1) Relieve ATT’s network of some congestion
3) Show that Verizon cannot handle the iPhone any better than ATT
3) End all the gall-dern stories like this one….
BTW, did I share this yet?
i am hearing that this rumor is NOT true, just my 2 cents
@chaz,
Android’s biggest “capability” is being available on Verizon, where tens of millions of the most loyal wireless customers can’t get access to an iPhone without leaving their network. It’s easy to see that Android would’ve barely left the ground by now if Verizon hadn’t invested millions of dollars in advertising Android, positioning the platform as their main iPhone competitor.
If the iPhone comes to Verizon, watch how quickly Android’s growth in America comes to a crawl. Assuming there won’t be a T-Mobile/Sprint iPhone, those will be the only two places where the likes of Android and BlackBerry can hide without true competition.
In my opinion, just rumors being floated to freeze iPhone sales.
gonna freeze att sales as well mdn…
I’m sure this Verizon rumor will turn out to be the true one. All the other analyst predictions fell flat, but this one will be on target, you’ll see!
“iPhone Coming to Verizon” is beginning to enter the realm of “End of World Coming — Repent!”
——RM
Android will not go away or “lose”. Why? Because all the cell phone manufacturers have no place else to go. They can’t license iOS or Blackberry OS. Windows 6.x, Symbian and the rest are jokes. Windows Phone 7 (or whatever name they give it next – got to keep those marketing boys employed!) is still vaporware and 4 years behind. So HTC, Motorola, Samsung and all those phone makers have no real option but to support Android. And those other manufacturers love Android for another reason. It’s Free!! Right now, the fight is Google v. Microsoft, and the fight is not pretty. How is Microsoft going to rescue its market share it has been losing to Android? Good luck with that. However, the day is coming that the two dominate systems will be Apple and Android. Will the Mac v. PC war repeat itself? Time will tell. I’m betting on Apple. This time Apple has better leadership.
will you be able to talk and do web browsing at the same time on Verizon?
1. Where are the phones? Who’s making them?
2. If iPhone 4 is any indication, how are Apple’s suppliers going to meet the demand of double the production? Unless this planning have been flying under the radar and passed all the sniffing by al the analysts.
3. Who does this kind of rumor really serve? Verizon, who can put more pressure on Google and its partners, or ATT, who can sit and watch ever more Verizon customers hold out from buying new phones until the iPhone is available?
I suspect that if this true, then the iPhone 4 will debut on the Verizon’s new 4th generation LTE network and not the aging and lacking in sustainability CDMA network. In this way Apple would only need to build an LTE radio iPhone 4 which would be backward compatible with the GSM 3G network of AT&T;. I do hope that would be roadmap for Apple, as this would have sales increase even further and reach a wider customer base, as is the case in the United Kingdom and soon to be the case in Canada.
MDN thank you for the correct take on this. Droid phones will go unsold while folks wait for the iPhone. Instead of just slamming AT&T;.
This leak will really slam the new MS phone supposedly coming out this year also.
I’ll ride out my contract, I guess I am one of a few that thinks AT&T;is now better or worse than most carriers.
BLAH BLAH BLAH
so tired of this rumor
Gawd! Not again!!
Okay, I’ll make sense of this whole situation and answer everyone’s questions. Verizon is going to start offering LTE service in January of next year. This is what will enable the !NEW! !IMPROVED! iPhone 4 to operate on Verizon while providing concurrent voice and data services. It will all be available for all the anxious Verizon users — in three test cities. Outside of this test cities, Verizon will still be CDMA, and the !NEW! !IMPROVED! iPhone 4 won’t work.
There, is everybody happy now?
Why can’t insiders keep their mouths shut? Are they just so giddy they can’t hold it in? Come on where’s the Christmas suprise?
BTW an October announcement would have been better with a Dec 15th pre-order
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AT&T;has a 5 year contract with Apple – June 29 2007 to June 29 2012. Any reports before that are speculation until we hear differently from AT&T;or Apple or both.
I still call bullshit. iCal me.
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@ TowerTone–
Don’t forget:
4. Create some competition in the market, and hopefully, in the process, some better plans will emerge.
I agree with Mac Daddy.