Verizon may get an iPhone, or an iPhone competitor

Some publications have suggested that Verizon is talking to Apple about making a version of the iPhone to run on Verizon's existing CDMA network. USA Today reported this in a story earlier this week, and the New York Times echoed it, even as it noted why this idea makes no sense. CDMA is essentially a US technology used by Verizon and Sprint. The rest of the world operates on a standard called GSM. That’s partly why Apple chose to work with AT&T (a GSM provider) in the first place.

What’s more, Verizon will begin upgrading next year from CDMA to a fourth-generation network using a different technology called LTE. It would be odd, at best, for Apple to invest in a CDMA phone that has limited distribution now and will work on a network that is being phased out in the next 12 to 18 months. In a recent earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook noted that CDMA has a limited lifespan, and Verizon Chairman Ivan Seidenberg told The Wall Street Journal that he didn’t think Apple ever intended to make a CDMA phone.

Apple, as it negotiates with AT&T on an extension of the carrier’s iPhone exclusive, may be looking for some leverage by making a Verizon CDMA phone seem plausible.

There have also been reports that Apple and Verizon would be likely collaborators on a fourth-generation iPhone, made to work on the carrier’s LTE network, which will come online next year. This is pretty straightforward. When Apple creates a 4G/LTE phone, it will want the broadest global reach possible for it, and Verizon will be the largest LTE operator in the US.

The question is timing: Verizon only expects to reach 25 to 30 markets next year, so many analysts believe this 4G iPhone looks more likely for 2011 — which, coincidentally, is how long AT&T would have the current iPhone if it is able to extend its exclusive deal with Apple.

Verizon’s more intriguing discussions may not be about the iPhone, per se, but other devices in Apple’s pipeline, such as a multimedia device larger than the iPod touch. BusinessWeek first reported on this aspect of the discussions. People familiar with the discussions say it is in the early stages — and this, too, could be part of an Apple effort to wring concessions from AT&T in its renewed agreement on the iPhone. But one could imagine Verizon being especially excited about getting a new hit Apple device to itself.

Verizon doesn’t want the risk of attaching its fate to any single device, however iconic. That is one reason it has been building a deep partnership with Microsoft. The Wall Street Journal reported that Verizon has been working for several months on Pink, a Microsoft project to launch a touch-screen multimedia cellphone on Verizon early next year.

It would combine music and video functionality — which Microsoft has from its Zune player — along with other software that would form a new platform that extends Windows Mobile. The inclusion of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Microsoft’s new app store, is also likely.

This project is drawing on the new hardware and software expertise Microsoft has from acquiring Danger, which created the T-Mobile Sidekick. All of this might be too little too late with Apple having staked out such a lead with the iPhone, but it’s an ambitious new project. (info From The Wall Street Journal)