Bloomberg: Verizon Wireless to get Apple iPhone in January 2011

“Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone next year, ending AT&T Inc.’s exclusive hold on the smartphone in the U.S., two people familiar with the plans said,” Amy Thomson reports for Bloomberg.

“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.