After revealing that the iPhone 4 will finally arrive on Verizon Wireless at an event in New York City Tuesday morning, you’d think the carrier would be out of newsworthy items. Apparently, that’s not the case, as the company’s chief financial officer claims a VZW-compatible iPad is incoming.
Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that the iPhone 4 won’t be the only Apple gadget coming to Verizon Wireless this year. According to VZW chief financial officer Francis Shammo, the telco will also be getting their own iPad, complete with a CDMA-compatible antenna to make it compatible with their network.
In case you’re confused, Verizon Wireless has been selling the current Wi-Fi only iPad since October, bundled with the company’s MiFi 2200 Mobile Hotspot, which enables their customers to use it on the Verizon network -- as well as with up to four other wireless devices.
Apparently, that was just a stopgap measure to get the iPad on Verizon’s network, and now Apple and the telco plan to bring the iPad together with Verizon’s network in one device. Shammo declined to say when that might happen, although the rumor mill has been churning with news of an iPad 2 being announced as early as this month.
The real question now is, will the iPad 2 support both Verizon’s CDMA network as well as AT&T’s 3G network? Or will Apple sell separate models for each, as they are now doing with the iPhone 4? Only time will tell, but Goldman Sachs predicts a whopping 37 million iPads will be sold this year, which could forecast separate models for each carrier.
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(Image courtesy of iPadsHouse.com)
