While talk of a possible CDMA iPhone for Verizon Wireless in the United States died down after Apple’s earnings call last week, rumors of an Apple/Verizon partnership have picked up again in a different form. BusinessWeek, citing a pair of anonymous sources, say Apple chief executive Steve Jobs and Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam have been in talks for six months about possibly introducing an “iPhone lite” and a media tablet.
While I never thought that Apple would allow Verizon to carry the iPhone, except possibly in an LTE version, I do think the possibility of a media tablet is viable (remember this patent filing?). Especially as wireless providers are beginning to flock to carry subsidized netbooks to supplement revenue. The media tablet is supposedly smaller than Amazon’s Kindle, but with a bigger display, music, photo, and high-definition movie playback, and Wi-Fi.
The “iPhone lite”, which I’m not so sure about, is said to be a cheaper calling device, both smaller and slimmer than the current iPhone, that will use a new system-on-a-chip design to keep manufacturing costs down. Sounds suspiciously like the iPhone nano, doesn’t it? According to the anonymous sources, one of these devices could be released as early as this summer.
What do you think? Could this be true? Or is Apple just trying to gain some leverage for an extended AT&T contract?
