Verizon: We Expected the iPhone 5 in June, Too

Like most everyone else, Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo expected Apple’s iPhone 5 to launch in June, not October, as AllThingsD first reported.

Speaking at the Oppenheimer Technology & Communications Conference today, Shammo said Verizon thought Apple would debut its next generation iPhone in early summer just as it has for the past few years.

“Obviously we’re disappointed that the iPhone 5 didn’t come out in June,” Shammo said, echoing comments made by Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam earlier this summer. “We continue to prepare for it and when that comes we’ll be ready.”

And more eager than ever to add it to its portfolio. Shammo said the device’s delayed debut has slowed its push into the smartphone market.

“Obviously this will slow our smartphone penetration down from where we thought it would be,” he said. “We [hoped we] would end the year around 50 percent, but that will probably delay that for a quarter to the first quarter of next year to hit that target.”