Apple iPhone 4 Could Be Coming to Verizon in January

UPDATE: This report turned out to be substantially correct, and Verizon launched the iPhone 4 in early February, 2011. More information is available in this news article, or on Verizon's iPhone page.

AT&T has been the exclusive U.S. provider of the extremely popular Apple iPhone since it first launched in 2007, but that's going to change at the beginning of next year, if an unconfirmed report is correct.

Reports that Verizon Wireless is going offer the iPhone have been popping up for many months, but the rate has increased dramatically in recent months.

The latest of these comes from Bloomberg, who claims to have been told by two different sources that the iPhone is coming to Verizon in January. These sources were not named, and were only described as people "familiar with the plans".

iPhone Here, There, and Everywhere
Before the launch of the very first iPhone, an agreement was forged that made AT&T the sole U.S. provider for the iPhone. However, persistent leaks and rumors have indicated that this is coming to an end.

Verizon is the carrier these reports indicate is most likely to get a version of the device, but all the U.S. carriers have made it clear they'd be happy to offer Apple's very popular smartphone.

There are a few technical hurdles, most notably the fact that the current iPhone supports only GSM networks and Verizon (and Sprint, too) would need a new version for their CDMA networks. However, information that leaked out Asia earlier this month says that a CDMA version of the iPhone is going to go into production in the fourth quarter of this year by a company called Pegatron.

Some people doubt that Verizon is going to offer the iPhone any time soon, and point out that rumors saying this carrier will get Apple's smartphone crop up almost every year and have never panned out. This year is different because Apple has already ended its exclusive carrier agreements in some other countries and seen immediate large increases in sales.

Overview of the Apple iPhone 4
Apple's fourth-generation smartphone is a significant upgrade from the previous one, starting with its 3.5-inch, 640 x 960 touchscreen, a much higher resolution than any iPhone has offered before.

It has a new slimmer design and runs iOS 4.0, the latest version of Apple's operating system, on a 1 GHz Apple A4 processor.

The iPhone 4 comes in two configurations: a version with 16 GB of storage costs $200 from AT&T and one with 32 GB goes for $300.

The iPhone 4 has a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera with a flash, as well as support for recording 720p video at 30 frames per second. In addition, it includes a small front-facing camera for video chatting with an app called FaceTime.

This smartphone has 3G wireless networking, as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a GPS receiver.

Source