verizon wireless

Fans of other wireless carriers can rejoice. The end is near for AT&T's exclusive deal with Apple to offer the iPhone in the US. Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall claims the expiration date is June 2010.

AT&T is said to be in negotiations to extend the deal through 2011. The iPhone deal could be of even greater importance to the carrier since Verizon will have LTE (4G) technology up and running in 20-30 markets in 2010.

Apple's offerings next summer will include a Verizon-only iPhone compatible with the carrier's CDMA network technology. Dual-mode chips, announced this week by Qualcomm, might not be ready for prime time in 2010. Neither will LTE network technology, which is expected to enter widespread service in 2011.

This leaves Apple with only one option to expand to the largest US carrier after their exclusive contract with AT&T ends next year. Build a Verizon Wireless compatible iPhone.

The second half of 2010 could finally bring a much-anticipated Verizon Wireless iPhone. A new hybrid chip developed by Qualcomm makes it possible to communicate with several different network technologies using only one component.

This means Apple can manufacture one device, the "world mode" iPhone that will work on all of the networks it's currently compatible with as well as Verizon's CDMA network. Previous reports speculated that Apple would wait until at least 2011 for Verizon's launch of LTE technology.

The Apple logo on the back of your iPhone now has competition. Next week it will be possible to carry around a mobile device with three corporate logos!

Verizon, Motorola and Google each get their own billboard space on the Droid, scheduled for release next week. In a brazen act of branding, two of these logos (Verizon and Motorola) actually appear on the front AND back of the Droid.

Add analyst Brian Marshall to the chorus of iPhone owners, CDMA fans, speculators, AT&T haters and Apple shareholders clamoring for an iPhone on the Verizon Wireless network. Marshall, who works for Broadpoint AmTech, has noticed that Apple is moving towards a multiple carrier business model in several countries.

His analysis? The company will do the same thing in the United States. Completely ignoring the Motorola Droid and its associated anti-iPhone campaign, Marshall believes the iPhone will come to Verizon in the second half of 2010.