Why GSM?!?!

[Billbeme]

My only question is why for GSM? What about us CDMA users? Are we expected to switch?

-Bill

[r0k]

CDMA is on its way out. It will be replaced in 18 months. Of course they were saying this 72 months ago! If I had to pick a standard to support, I'd pick GSM and have a world wide audience. Apple can release a CDMA version when they get around to it. CDMA will be around for years to come but the first release needs to be usable in more than one country. Rather than thumb their nose at the world, they chose to thumb their nose at some users in the US. GSM users were all raving at Palm for ignoring them when the 700 series was being launched. It's just a matter of priorities with limited development budget. Give 'em time and they'll release the phone on CDMA. If these things sell well, the CDMA carriers will beat down the doors at Apple and a CDMA version won't be that far behind.

[Ed Hardy]

r0k has hit the nail on the head. The number of GSM users worldwide vastly outnumbers CDMA users. Simple economics.

Colloquially, you dip one toe in the water, not two.

p.s. Wow, two clichés in one short post.

[SGosnell]

And two twos in one sentence! I'm not sure how you dip a two in the water, though. Do you hold on to the top, or the straight part at the bottom?

[glorfindeal]

CDMA is on its way out. It will be replaced in 18 months. Of course they were saying this 72 months ago! If I had to pick a standard to support, I'd pick GSM and have a world wide audience. Apple can release a CDMA version when they get around to it. CDMA will be around for years to come but the first release needs to be usable in more than one country. Rather than thumb their nose at the world, they chose to thumb their nose at some users in the US. GSM users were all raving at Palm for ignoring them when the 700 series was being launched. It's just a matter of priorities with limited development budget. Give 'em time and they'll release the phone on CDMA. If these things sell well, the CDMA carriers will beat down the doors at Apple and a CDMA version won't be that far behind.

Don't bet on a cdma iPhone in the near future. Cingular has it as an exclusive for at least 2 years. This includes any future version of the iPhone.

Glor

[holvoetn]

Simple economics indeed: 2 billion GSM subscriptions and over 81% share of the global market !

See here, this article (dated july 2006) indicates more and more CDMA carriers are either building a GSM overlay on their network or completely switching over. Not one single GSM carrier made the reverse move ...

I don't believe a CDMA version will ever be build for iPhone.
Not unless the requesting carrier is willing to pay for the additional development costs ... they are not going to do this since it is a niche product. And Apple is surely not going to do it since it would hurt their nice 50% margin

[headcronie]

Interesting article Holvy. What's mind boggling in regards to that though, is that Verizon and Sprint keep on pushing out more CDMA. Their networks are huge across the US. Something makes me think they aren't going to abandon that technology any time soon.

[Billbeme]

So theoretically, what do you do if you want the iPhone and (literally) 95% of everyone you know has a Verizon CDMA account? What is the major difference between CDMA and GSM? Is a data plan cheaper? Does anyone have one and wish they had the other? Will people copy the iPhone as soon as they can to bring it to a CDMA network? How is GSM coverage? These questions and more at 11:00...
Billbeme

[Ed Hardy]

Don't bet on a cdma iPhone in the near future. Cingular has it as an exclusive for at least 2 years. This includes any future version of the iPhone.

I know it's a Cingular exclusive, but where did you hear this will last for two years? A typical exclusivity contract is for three months.

[Adama D. Brown]

My only question is why for GSM? What about us CDMA users? Are we expected to switch?

Besides the market-size issue, there's also the fact that GSM carriers are much more leniant about what phones they allow on their network. Verizon, for instance, exerts a large amount of control over even the basic design of the phones they carry.