Verizon iPhone to release in early 2011?

These rumors have been doing the rounds for almost a year, but till date there’s no official confirmation from either Apple/Verizon.

Meanwhile, in September Verizon’s CEO Ivan Seidenberg, in an interview, had said that they were yest not sure if they would launch the device on Verizon network, indicating that they are still in middle of negotiations with Apple.

"We would love to carry it, but we have to earn it,” said Seidenberg.

How Verizon intends to “earn it” is no concern of users awaiting iPhone’s arrival on Verizon network.

The market analysts are expecting that the announcement of its launch would be made in January.

A report published by The Wall Street Journal in October suggests that Apple has already started recruiting engineers who are aware of technology used and it wants to produce enough iPhones (before launch) capable of running on Verizon’s CDMA network.

Ever since iPhone’s launch in 2007, it’s exclusively offered by AT&T but as per numerous reports, carrier’s exclusivity contract with Apple ends this year.

Apparently, Apple is in no mood to renew AT&T’s exclusivity contract as the carrier has failed to provide quality services to iPhone’s users and the Cupertino-based Company wants to explore new horizons with some new carrier.

Releasing soon?
Market analysts are not just busy guessing the date of official announcement but are also trying to guess iPhone’s release date.

Some believe it’s likely that Apple will release iPhone on Verizon sometime in February/Match.

As per Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, "Our model assumes Verizon launches the iPhone in early- or mid-[2011]. While we do not know the timing of the launch, we have modeled it to occur midway through the Mar-11 quarter."

A report published by The Wall Street Journal in October suggests that Apple has already started recruiting engineers who are aware of technology used and it wants to produce enough iPhones (before launch) capable of running on Verizon’s CDMA network.

As many are eagerly waiting for the iPhone to release on Verizon, it would not be wrong to say that Verizon iPhone is a highly-anticipated device.

End of AT&T’s reign?
Some analysts believe that arrival of iPhone on Verizon would end the reign of AT&T in the smartphone market as iPhone users are unsatisfied with AT&T’s services that they will gladly move on to another carrier.

However, some believe that nothing of this sort will happen.

"iPhone would be a plus for Verizon, but not a seismic industry change, given the relative stickiness of smartphone customers. The primary source of Verizon iPhone [subscribers] would be pent-up demand by existing Verizon [subscribers],” said Barclays Capital analyst James Ratcliffe.

Reportedly, Verizon has no problem when it comes to sharing iPhone with AT&T, however, it wants to prevent T-Mobile and Sprint from getting their hands on the device.