Strange. The heading of the article suggests a story that is actually covered by just one sentence in the article. And: "Over the weekend, the TechCrunch blog cited unnamed sources in the supply chain, indicating that Apple had ordered 'millions' of CDMA chips from Qualcomm to be delivered in December, which would suggest a January launch of a CDMA phone." Correction: "... millions of cdma2000 chips from Qualcomm ..." Apple has been oredering WCDMA chips ever since the 3G iPhone was (at long last) introduced. Bert ------------------------------------------ http://www.rethink-wireless.com/2010/08/09/att-denies-loss-iphone-exclusive-hit-earnings.htm AT&T denies loss of iPhone exclusive would hit earnings Verizon could finally get Apple deal in January, AT&T allies with SEMC By CAROLINE GABRIEL Published: 9 August, 2010 Speculation is mounting once more that Verizon Wireless will soon get its own iPhone, and AT&T seems to be taking this seriously enough to insist, in a filing with the SEC, that it does not expect a "material negative impact" should its US exclusive end. Over the weekend, the TechCrunch blog cited unnamed sources in the supply chain, indicating that Apple had ordered "millions" of CDMA chips from Qualcomm to be delivered in December, which would suggest a January launch of a CDMA phone. These stories are very similar to some that surfaced earlier in the year, when pundits were betting on a CDMA product at the same time as the iPhone 4. And as on that occasion, it is worth remembering that CDMA iPhones could be destined for other operators than Verizon, such as China Telecom, Korea Telecom or KDDI in Japan. Of course, the story Apple watchers really want is to see the first Verizon iPhone also supporting its LTE network, which will go live in some markets by the end of the year. However, Apple has not tended to go near the cutting edge in connectivity terms - the first iPhone did not even support 3G - and Qualcomm itself has been very conservative about when chipsets will be ready for commercial quality LTE handsets. Its chips are likely to turn up in dongles and data cards during 2011 rather than smartphones. Whatever the launch turns out to be, it seems likely Verizon will finally get an Apple deal early next year, though the growing success of its Android Droid range indicates it does not need one as much as it used to. In several key smartphone metrics such as postpaid and data ARPU growth, it has been outpacing AT&T. That cellco is gearing up for the loss of its exclusive though. Its regulatory filing - the first in which it has directly addressed the issue of the Apple deal - said it did not expect the end of the exclusive to hurt its wireless earnings. "We do not expect any such terminations to have a material negative impact on our wireless segment income, consolidated operating margin or our cash from operations," the document said. It pointed out that 80% of the company's subscribers are on family-talk plans or business discount plans, which would both reduce churn. The carrier has been steadily building up its smartphone range to compensate for any loss of sole rights to the Apple handset. It will support Brew, Symbian, webOS and Windows and recently launched the RIM BlackBerry Torch as an exclusive. It has also launched several Android models including the Motorola Backflip and Samsung Captivate, and now it will add the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. This is a breakthrough for the Japanese-Swedish supplier, which has made little progress in infiltrating the US carriers, though it is not clear how much promotion it will get from AT&T, which has made the Torch its summer flagship launch. The X10 will ship in the US on August 15, priced at $149.99 with two-year contract and AT&T is also likely to add the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, which runs Symbian/Series 60. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.