Apple's iPhone Sell By Verizon In Next Year

Verizon Wireless will start selling Apple's iPhone next year, ending AT&T's U.S. exclusive on the phone, say two people familiar with the plans.

The device will be available to customers in January, according to the people, who declined to be named because the information isn't public. Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, and Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, declined to comment. AT&T also declined to comment. USA TODAY was unable to independently verify the reports.

Speculation on a Verizon iPhone has been rampant in the tech blogosphere. If the reports are true, the iPhone, which has been the sole domain of rival AT&T in the U.S. since June 2007, will give Verizon a boost in its smartphone competition, UBS analyst John Hodulik says. Verizon customers, who numbered 92.8 million at the end of the first quarter, may buy 3 million iPhones a quarter, he says.

"Apple is going to dramatically increase the number of devices it sells in the U.S. when exclusivity at AT&T ends," Hodulik says. "It's hard to ignore the quality issues that AT&T has faced."

Verizon Wireless, which is building a high-speed fourth-generation network, plans to unveil several devices that will run on the new technology in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, CEO Lowell McAdam has said. Verizon's CDMALG VX8300 - Cellular phone - Verizon - CDMA2000 1X-based wireless network differs from the GSM technology AT&T's network is based on.

The iPhone has helped AT&T add subscribers even as the U.S. mobile-phone market nears saturation. In the first three months of this year, about a third of AT&T's iPhone activations came from customers new to the carrier. Without those 900,000 new subscribers, AT&T might have posted a loss in contract customers that quarter, analysts say.

AT&T has battled customer complaints about its network and dedicated an extra $2 billion to upgrade it this year.

A Verizon partnership is a victory for Apple over rivals such as Research In Motion and Motorola, whose phones are promoted by the carrier. Motorola makes Droid phones that use Google's Android operating system. RIM makes BlackBerrys. "For Apple, it means a larger addressable market," says Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "It's also good news for Apple in that it will spread the load on the wireless data networks."

Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since their introduction. The latest version, iPhone 4, sold more than 1.7 million units in the first three days after its June 24 debut.