Verizon iPhone will get internal antenna, source says
What – you thought all those Verizon iPhone rumors would go away? Not a chance. The latest comes from the tech site DVICE, which has chatted with a source that claims to have hands-on experience with a Verizon iPhone. And here's the kicker: the Verizon iPhone, DVICE's source says, would replace the wraparound antenna on the current edition of the iPhone 4 with an internal antenna.
The AT&T-powered iPhone 4, of course, was widely reported to be prone to reception issues – the dreaded "death grip" – apparently caused by a malfunction with the wraparound antenna. Apple sought to tamp down concerns about the iPhone 4 death grip, before finally relenting, and issuing free bumper cases to all eligible consumers.
Now DVICE is saying – and take this one with a grain of salt – that Apple has effectively learned its lesson about external antennas.
"[I]t appears the Verizon iPhone will have an internal antenna, at Verizon's wise insistence," the DVICE team wrote yesterday. "That means no death grip problems and a new, more rugged exterior. There's a small possibility the exterior will be constructed from the new alloy licensed exclusively by Apple for mobile devices, though that's unlikely for this device."
Last week, the blogosphere was kicked into a frenzy when the blog TechCrunch announced that it has proof that a Verizon iPhone was on the way. "Sources with knowledge of this entire situation have assured me that Apple has submitted orders for millions of units of Qualcomm CDMA chipsets for a Verizon iPhone run due in December," wrote TechCrunch's Steve Cheney.
Cheney added that "this production run would likely be for a January launch," and said that he would "bet the phone is nearly 100 percent consistent with the current iPhone 4 (with a fixed internal insulator on the antenna)." The same day TechCrunch posted the item about the Verizon iPhone, AT&T released its quarterly filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. In the filing, AT&T discussed reducing its dependence on "any single handset."
As we noted at the time, AT&T might have meant the BlackBerry Torch.
