iPhone News Updated

iPhone on Verizon? 5 Reasons to be Skeptical

Another day, another iPhone rumor–so is this one for real? The current buzz around the blogosphere is that Apple is preparing to offer its iPhone over Verizon’s network, therein ending its thus-far-exclusive arrangement with AT&T. Before you immediately believe the hype, allow me to provide a few reasons to think twice.

iPhone on Verizon: Inside the Rumor

The rumor, published by Indian blog ITExaminer.com and attributed vaguely to “deep throats” within Apple, states that an iPhone-Verizon announcement will be made “soon.” The site also points to past job postings on Apple’s Web site for engineers specializing in EVDO and CDMA technology–two wireless broadband standards currently supported by Verizon’s network and not AT&T’s. (The standards are said to provide a far faster network than AT&T’s EDGE-based platform.)

“While EVDO could cover a wide range of 3G skills, it is more likely that Apple is specifically after the Verizon Wireless standard,” ITExaminer.com infers.

The report goes on to note past rumors that AT&T has been dissatisfied with the reach of its iPhone coverage on AT&T’s network alone, suggesting that “Steve Jobs misjudged [AT&T's] control over the U.S. wireless market” and that Apple may be “hammering out a more open deal” while Jobs is away from the office on medical leave.

Reality Check, Aisle Two…
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Analyst: iPhone 3G users to benefit from wireless price war

The price war that has begun between T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel will ultimately benefit users of Apple’s iPhone 3G if other carriers reduce prices on their data plans, an analyst has said.

Shaw Wu, a Kaufman Bros. analyst, said that Boost Mobile’s $50 per month unlimited voice and data plan and T-Mobile USA’s $50 unlimited voice and $25 per month unlimited data plan will boost sales of smartphones at all the carriers. In addition, he said that the price war will eventually force Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, which is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone, to drop prices on their unlimited data plans. This, in turn, will increase pressure on the other wireless companies to cut their rates. “Overall,” Wu said, “we view lower service plan prices as positive as it should help smartphone adoption maintain its healthy pace, even in this fragile economy.”

Wu is predicting Apple to sell 3 million iPhones in its fiscal second quarter, which ends in March.

[Thanks: http://www.fiercewireless.com]