Hardware geeks have carefully dissected the Verizon iPhone to dig up its secrets.
Repair company iFixit pried open the iPhone and found that it uses the same Qualcomm chipset as the Droid Pro “World Phone.” That means this chipset is capable of supporting both GSM and CDMA, which means Apple might unify Verizon and AT&T iPhones in the future.
If Apple made just one iPhone to work on both network types in the future, it would solve a major problem facing the current Verizon iPhone. The current CDMA-only Verizon iPhone can only be used in the United States, as international networks are on GSM. An iPhone compatible with both AT&T and Verizon would turn future Verizon iPhones into world-compatible phones as well.
Why doesn’t the Verizon iPhone support GSM to solve that problem right now? iFixit thinks it’s to keep the antenna design simple for CDMA.
“It may be that it was easier to design antennas for a CDMA-only phone?this phone supports two cellular frequency bands, while Apple supports five bands in the GSM version,” iFixit said. “But this is a sign that Apple may be considering unifying the CDMA and GSM iPhones in the future.”
iFixit also observed that the Verizon iPhone has a redesigned vibrator to make vibrations quieter and a little softer. Check out iFixit for the full teardown details.
See Also:
- Hands-On With Verizon iPhone Hot Spot
- Reports: Verizon iPhone Likely Coming Jan. 11
- Gadget Lab Podcast: Verizon iPhone, Hot Spots and The Daily …
- Verizon iPhone Gets Better Coverage, Slower Data, Wired.com Test …
Photo courtesy of iFixit
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/dnCi4T76Gio/
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