Apple Verizon iPhone Coming After CES: Report

From eWeek: Apple will host an event for the Verizon iPhone “very soon,” according to a new report by Bloomberg Businessweek, adding to the steady drum-roll that the smartphone’s break from exclusive U.S. carrier AT&T is imminent.

“Apple’s introduction of an iPhone for use on Verizon’s network will come sometime after the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January,” read the Dec. 29 report, citing “a person familiar with Apple’s plans who is not authorized to discuss them publicly.” The piece also suggests that Apple will unveil the device with an appropriately “splashy” product introduction.

The Bloomberg report adds to the chorus of media and analysts predicting a Verizon iPhone sometime in early 2011. An October report in The Wall Street Journal, quoting people “briefed by Apple,” suggested that the company had slated a late-2010 production start for iPhones capable of running on Verizon’s CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) network. Before that, sources told the blog TechCrunch in August that Apple had ordered millions of Qualcomm CDMA chipsets for the upcoming smartphone.

Both Fortune and The New York Times have also cited unnamed sources in support of the Verizon-iPhone-by-early-2011 storyline. Meanwhile, prominent analysts such as Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster have begun incorporating the device on its new carrier into their predictive models for next year. Over the summer, Barclays Capital analyst James Ratcliffe suggested that a Verizon iPhone would compel between 500,000 and 1 million AT&T customers to switch networks.

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