WSJ: Apple Prepping CDMA iPhone for Verizon for Summer, 2010

Apple is working on a CDMA version of its iPhone smartphone for Verizon to carry, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper said that Apple is intending for it to be released this Summer, along with a new version of the GSM-based model for AT&T and the other GSM-based networks that carry the device around the world.

CDMA is a “3G” wireless protocol competing with GSM, the protocol used by AT&T. Verizon’s CDMA network is slower than AT&T’s GSM network, and it doesn’t allow for simultaneous data and voice connections, nor does Verizon support one of the iPhone’s key phone features, visual voicemail.

There have long been rumors of a CDMA version of the device, but all of those rumors have so far come up short when it came time for Apple to introduce upgrades for the iPhone. The company has had an exclusive deal with AT&T in the U.S., and it’s possible that Apple has simply been waiting for that deal to expire before launching a deal with Verizon.

Be that as it may, Hon Hai Precision is the reported producer of this iPhone — Hon Hai is a Taiwanese company that has produced many of Apple’s devices in the past, including some of Apple’s iPhones.

While none of the other named parties commented for the story, an unnamed AT&T spokesperson told the newspaper, “There has been lots of incorrect speculation on CDMA iPhones for a long time. We haven’t seen one yet and only Apple knows when that might occur.”