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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > iPhone, iPad & iPod > iPhone CDMA?

iPhone CDMA?
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UNTeMac
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Sep 11, 2007, 03:32 AM
 
How long do you think it'll be until we see a CDMA capable iPhone? I've heard the AT&T contract is five years which is an eternity technology-wise.
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butterfly0fdoom
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Sep 11, 2007, 03:47 AM
 
Never. Why would they make a CDMA version? GSM/WCDMA is the prevailing international cellular standard. Why make a special CDMA version for the few countries that offer it? Too much cost to spend. Unless there is enough demand in South Korea. That could spur them to make a CDMA-1000/EV-DO version. .... for South Korean use.
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Cold Warrior
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Sep 11, 2007, 10:27 AM
 
Eventually the iPhone will be a device for the "masses," much like the shuffle or nano. This may be 6 years down the road, and would be CDMA with a couple major US carriers -- if they get their acts together to work with Apple. But otherwise, no CDMA. GSM is a good technology, cheap, world-wide, and growing.
     
CharlesS
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Sep 11, 2007, 12:02 PM
 
Originally Posted by butterfly0fdoom View Post
Never. Why would they make a CDMA version? GSM/WCDMA is the prevailing international cellular standard. Why make a special CDMA version for the few countries that offer it? Too much cost to spend. Unless there is enough demand in South Korea. That could spur them to make a CDMA-1000/EV-DO version. .... for South Korean use.
... and for American use. Remember that Apple is an American company and they're going to support their home market first (as everyone who has waited for Apple services such as iTunes to show up in other countries knows). The other American cell phone maker is Motorola (they're based in Schaumburg, IL), and they release their phones for GSM/WCDMA and CDMA close enough to simultaneously.

For those who say that Apple is too snooty to make a CDMA phone, remember that the first carrier they tried to deal with was Verizon, not AT&T. It was Verizon that turned them down - and if they hadn't, they'd have the contract and it would be GSM that you wouldn't see on the iPhone for 5 years.

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Simon
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Sep 11, 2007, 12:24 PM
 
Umm, no. No GSM on the iPhone would have meant US only. If anything, going with Verizon would have meant making a hybrid iPhone. Now there's no need to do it since GSM works everywhere. Good choice.
     
butterfly0fdoom
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Sep 11, 2007, 01:44 PM
 
Originally Posted by CharlesS View Post
... and for American use. Remember that Apple is an American company and they're going to support their home market first (as everyone who has waited for Apple services such as iTunes to show up in other countries knows). The other American cell phone maker is Motorola (they're based in Schaumburg, IL), and they release their phones for GSM/WCDMA and CDMA close enough to simultaneously.
Well, in every market that offers CDMA, GSM or UTMS/HSDPA is offered (I just looked it up). Yes, Motorola makes both versions. But that's Motorola, a major entity in the cellphone industry. Whereas Apple is a niche player, trying to cater to people that want "lifestyle" smartphones (as opposed to other smartphones that tend to be more enterprise-oriented).
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CharlesS
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Sep 11, 2007, 02:28 PM
 
Well, you can go rationalize all you want, but the fact is that Apple approached Verizon first. If they had accepted, they would have been the exclusive provider. Yes, the phone would have then worked only in North America (and possibly South Korea and Japan), but you're assuming Apple cares about the rest of the world. From what I read on here, people are always complaining about Apple taking forever or failing outright to provide their other various services to non-US customers.

Anyway, is the iPhone even going to sell very well in Europe and Asia? It doesn't have 3G, which I understand is very important in those markets (particularly in Asia which tends to use CDMA and UMTS, but not GSM). The only reason people are accepting that in the US is because our UMTS rollout is pathetic right now.

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TETENAL
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Sep 11, 2007, 04:01 PM
 
Originally Posted by CharlesS View Post
Anyway, is the iPhone even going to sell very well in Europe and Asia?
In Germany the iPod maketshare is 21%. In France it's 11%. Compared to 70-something % in USA. And while Steve Jobs claimed that the iTunes Store is the market leader in all countries, Telekom's musicload.de claimed to be market leader at some time before as well. So it's probably more like a neck-and-neck race here. The Mac market share is miniscule here as well.
So considering all of that, I would say, no, the iPhone will not sell very well in Germany. It might sell quite well, but by far not as much as in America.
     
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Sep 12, 2007, 03:25 AM
 
Apple has some issues in Europe and Asia, but it really depends on which country you're looking at. Germany has a low Mac percentage, OTOH Switzerland right next door has as much as the US (in percentage of course). iPod sales in Europe are definitely lagging compared to the US (which also seems to be true of iPod advertising though). But I wouldn't go so far as to say Apple doesn't care. It just seems to take more time for them to figure it out. Didn't they recently fire the boss of their Japan division due to lackluster sales?
     
butterfly0fdoom
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Sep 12, 2007, 01:06 PM
 
I'm only familiar with Taiwan, but there, iPod knock-offs are pretty damn common (there's no iTMS in Taiwan, though). However, in Taiwan, all phones are sold unlocked (but they still have contracts, IIRC). I was there when the iPhone was released here, and the media CONSTANTLY reported on the iPhone, so there is a possibility that there's a pent-up demand (Engadget said someone bought one from the US and took it back with them to Taiwan) for a device that would change the way their cellphone buying system works for the not-so-much-better.
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AHDuke99
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Sep 12, 2007, 03:37 PM
 
most europeans use their phones as their mp3 players i've noticed when i traveled over there. almost everyone was talking around with their sony ericssons or nokias with those headphones hooked up to them. i rarely saw an ipod like i see them here. maybe the iphone will chance that, put most of them have a phone that plays music now and may not be that impressed with the iphones combo like we are here in AMERICA.
     
amazing
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Sep 12, 2007, 05:19 PM
 
Difficult to predict the future, but Japan is a huge CDMA cellphone market and I can really see Apple developing a model for that market. Whereupon that CDMA model would be modded and turn up for sale in other markets.

Likewise with European market-share: stealth penetration of the iPod and iTunes into Europe through the iPhone. One device to rule them all!?
     
UNTeMac  (op)
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Sep 12, 2007, 07:39 PM
 
As a pretty happy Sprint (CDMA) user, all this talk makes me want to switch when my contract is up. I just wonder why Apple wouldn't want to take advantage of the faster data transfers offered by other protocols...
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Cold Warrior
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Sep 12, 2007, 08:33 PM
 
I have sprint and can't stand their service. Call quality and signal strength are atrocious almost everywhere -- and I've been to a dozen states throughout the east coast, south, and southwest, from rural to very urban areas.

I'm dumping sprint the first chance I get.
     
amazing
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Sep 13, 2007, 01:47 PM
 
I dumped Sprint a long time ago because of the extremely poor coverage on a road trip from Denver to LA. OTOH wireless customer service is uniformly poor (or at least extremely variable from poor to so-so) which means you can't use that to hate ATT...

Can't wait to see what Apple's gonna do at the 9/18 press conference in England. More flash memory? faster 3G?
     
goMac
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Sep 13, 2007, 01:52 PM
 
I have Verizon, and strangely enough, I get horrible reception where I live (North Seattle). Everywhere else I go reception is fine, but not where I live, which is where it matters most. If it wasn't for in network calling, I would have already switched.
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kdarling
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Sep 13, 2007, 02:59 PM
 
Originally Posted by CharlesS View Post
Well, you can go rationalize all you want, but the fact is that Apple approached Verizon first. If they had accepted, they would have been the exclusive provider.
I used to think the same thing. However, I later found a couple of early history notes.

What confused everyone was that Verizon said they turned Apple down. So we all assumed that meant they were first.

But it seems that Apple approached AT&T first, then six months later tried to make a deal with Verizon as well. In other words, they wanted to be on both carriers.

After Verizon turned them down, Apple later submitted to the AT&T demand for exclusive U.S. sales... without getting AT&T to agree to anything like that in return. Thus AT&T continues to get and sell new 3G WM phones.

Original WSJ History of the iPhone

The upshot is the same, however. If Verizon had said yes, then we'd also have a CDMA version.
( Last edited by kdarling; Sep 13, 2007 at 04:43 PM. )
     
   
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