The WSJ is back with more CDMA iPhone rumors: less than a week after the latest “scoop” about Apple and Verizon getting ready to release a CDMA-enabled model of the iPhone, the WSJ is now reporting that India’s Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices have been in talks with Apple for five months about a CDMA iPhone.
The talks with Reliance Communications Ltd. and Tata Teleservices Ltd. –which offer mobile phone services based on CDMA technology–come soon after news that Apple is making a version of its iPhone that Verizon Wireless will sell early next year in the U.S. Verizon Wireless offers mobile phone services based on CDMA technology.
“Tata has been in talks with them [Apple] for four to five months now,” said one person familiar with the negotiations.
“This [talks] has been going on as India is a big market for CDMA. It [any launch] should benefit both parties,” the second person said.
It is unclear though when any launch may take place, these people said.
A CDMA iPhone would mean a 500 million people new market for Apple. Analysts contacted by the WSJ are claiming that a CDMA iPhone in India wouldn’t be a good source of revenue for Apple, as CDMA technology is not as used as GSM and, also, due to the strong competition of other cellphone makers like Nokia and Motorola which, apparently, are doing just fine over there. Google is also contacting different manufacturers in India to release cheap, Android-based devices in the near future.
As usual, Apple declined to comment.
