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Rumor Mill Ramps Up Production of Cheaper and Smaller iPads

John Paczkowski — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:24:22 +0000

The Apple rumor mill has kicked into overdrive in advance of next week’s iPad event, pushing out a pair of speculative reports this morning about what lies in the company’s product pipeline.

The most plausible: Taiwanese trade mag Digitimes’ claim that Apple plans to sell a cheaper, 8 gigabyte iPad 2 alongside the iPad 3 in a play for the lower end of the tablet market being staked out by Amazon’s Kindle Fire. I’ve heard nothing about such a plan, but it makes good sense. A new, low-capacity iPad 2 — priced at, say, $299 or even $349 — could wreak havoc on the low-end tablet market, clearing out a raft of struggling competitors and making the choice between Kindle Fire and iPad a much more difficult one for those consumers weighing the two.

The second report, also from Digitimes, is far less credible and resurfaces long-running rumors that Apple is gearing up to produce a “mini” iPad, a 7.85-inch device to compete with the Kindle Fire and Nook, which have created some demand for tablets with 7-inch displays. It’s widely known that Apple has experimented with an 8-inch iPad that would have a screen resolution similar to the iPad 2. But that doesn’t mean the company intends to ever bring the device to market.

As I’ve noted here before, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was a harsh critic of 7-inch tablets.

“One naturally thinks that a 7-inch screen would offer 70 percent of the benefits of a 10-inch screen,” Jobs said during a 2010 earnings call. “Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. … The reason we [won't] make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit [a lower] price point, it’s because we think the screen is too small to express the software.”

AMD Gets Ultra-Competitive in Skinny Laptop Market

John Paczkowski — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:11:05 +0000

Advanced Micro Devices is planning to mount an aggressive challenge to Intel in the nascent, but soon-to-be-very-crowded Ultrabook market.

Early this summer AMD will debut its new Trinity chips, which promise to deliver the same performance while consuming half the power of AMD’s A-series chips. Launching alongside them: A new class of ultrathin, lightweight laptops to run them.

Why are they called “ultrathin” when we’ve been taught to refer to these devices as “Ultrabooks”?

Because Ultrabook is a moniker trademarked by Intel and entirely off limits to AMD.

So what’s to distinguish an ultrathin laptop from an Ultrabook, keeping in mind that they’re really both just laptops with sillier names?

Evidently, the biggest difference between the two will be price. Sources tell the occasionally reliable Digitimes that AMD is looking to seriously undercut Intel on this front by pricing Trinity 10 percent to 20 percent lower than its rival’s offering.

If that is indeed the case, these ultrathin machines could end up being $100-$200 cheaper than their Ultrabook couterparts. A troubling development for Intel, which is hoping the Ultrabook will carve out a 40 percent slice of the laptop PC market. The company has said in the past that it plans to drop the Ultrabook’s price over time. With AMD now aiming to undercut it, it may need to make those price cuts earlier and deeper.

Supply Chain Chatter Has Two Apple TVs Targeted for Midyear Launch

John Paczkowski — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:50:38 +0000

The rumored Apple television now has a rumored launch date and a few rumored screen sizes as well.

Supply chain sources tell the occasionally reliable Digitimes that Apple hopes to launch the device in either the second or third quarter of 2012 and that initially it will be available in two sizes, 32 inches and 37 inches. The so called “iTV” will reportedly run on a Samsung chip and feature modified amorphous TFT LCD displays manufactured by Sharp, which has been rumored to be retooling a production line at one of its factories specifically to manufacture them.

Assuming Digitimes’ report is accurate, which is a big assumption, Apple would seem to be gearing up to disrupt yet another industry with one of its trademark seismic shifts. And if it succeeds, the rewards could be massive.

UBS analyst Maynard Um says Apple stands to gain an incremental $50 billion to $100 billion in market cap if it manages a successful television-set offering, one that not only stands out from the competition but steals market share away from it, as the iPhone has from incumbent smartphone manufacturers.

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Digitimes: Is a Mini iPad on the Way?

Lauren Goode — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:41:32 +0000

Is a tiny iPad in the works? At least, according to the occasionally reliable Taiwanese trade paper Digitimes, that could be the case.

Digitimes, citing sources, reported earlier today that Apple is likely to launch a “7.85-inch iPad prior to the fourth quarter of 2012,” in addition to a new iPad scheduled to be released at the end of the first quarter of the year.

The Taipei-based paper said that Apple has been pressured into developing a smaller tablet device in order to cope with increasing competition from other vendors, including Amazon. The online retail giant just released blockbuster sales figures for all Kindle devices.

While Apple could indeed be feeling the heat from the Kindle Fire, despite the fact that the company has a current estimated share of 75 percent of the still-emerging tablet market, these rumors aren’t entirely new ones.

Last year, for example, following the launch of Samsung’s seven-inch Galaxy Tab, the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs blasted devices smaller than the 10-inch iPad, dismissing these mini-tablets as “dead on arrival.”

Barnes & Noble Hoping to Sell a Ton of Nook Tablets Over Holidays

John Paczkowski — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:54:06 +0000

Barnes & Noble has high hopes for its new Nook Tablet this holiday season. So high, in fact, that it has reportedly raised orders for the device.

Upstream component suppliers tell industry trade mag Digitimes that they estimate Barnes & Noble has shipped (not sold) about one million Nooks since the tablet’s mid-November debut.

That’s about 200,000 more than the company was expected to push into the channel before year’s end. A significant increase. The reason for it? Strong sales in North America over Thanksgiving, which kicked off the holiday shopping season.

That bodes well for the Nook Tablet, which Barnes & Noble said last week is already its fastest-selling Nook device to date. It’s also great news for the company’s growing Nook business. According to Barnes & Noble’s second-quarter earnings, the value of that business — which includes not just the devices themselves but their content and accessories as well — hit $220 million during the period, an 85 percent increase.

Really? Two New iPads and a Reboot of Apple's Entire Product Portfolio Next Year?

John Paczkowski — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:00:24 +0000

Break out the salt lick for this one, because it’ll take more than a grain …

Apple typically updates many of its products each year, sometimes extensively, sometimes less so. But in 2012 it’s got big plans for a number of them. Supply chain sources tell the occasionally reliable Taiwanese trade mag Digitimes that Apple will “completely overhaul” its product portfolios this year — everything from the iPad and iPhone to the iMac and MacBook Air. And evidently it’s already hard at work on the iPad and has requested flat panel modules and LED light bars for two prototypes.

Details beyond that are slim indeed, though in a separate report Digitimes says we can expect two next-generation iPads next year: An upgraded iPad 2 around March and a true iPad 3 late in the third or fourth quarter.

Two iPads launched between March and December? Seems dubious to me. As I said, break out the salt lick. Still, you never know.

LTE iPhone Expected in 2012

John Paczkowski — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:29:28 +0000

Apple has evidently found a way around the design compromises that have so far dissuaded it from releasing an LTE-capable iPhone. Industry sources tell Taiwanese trade mag DigiTimes that Apple will “join the LTE club in 2012.” Presumably by that time, LTE networks and the chips required to access them will be mature enough to relieve Apple’s concerns. As Apple CEO Tim Cook said earlier this year, “The first generation of LTE chipsets force a lot of design compromises with the handset, and some of those, we are just not willing to make.”

iPhone 5 Supply Chain on High Alert as October Launch Looms

John Paczkowski — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:08:14 +0000

Apple’s manufacturing partners are ramping up production of the company’s forthcoming iPhone 5 in preparation for its October launch.

Supply chain sources tell Taiwanese trade mag DigiTimes that Foxconn Electronics is pumping out 150,000 next-generation iPhones per day, with a goal of shipping up to six million in September alone. With volume like that, fourth-quarter iPhone shipments could rise as high as 22 million.

Which is just about the number some analysts expect Apple to sell during the period. BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk, for example, predicts Apple will sell 21.5 million iPhones in Q4, though he argues it could sell far more than that if the company adds Sprint as a third carrier in the United States, and the debut of a brand-new iPhone at Verizon causes a big spike in sales.

“Since the iPhone 4 has been launched we estimate that AT&T and Verizon have represented 30 percent of Apple’s unit volume,” Piecyk says. “If the U.S. continues to represent 30 percent of Apple’s iPhone sales, it would imply a global iPhone demand for as many as 30 million iPhones in calendar Q4.”

Question is, can Apple deliver that many phones?

Apple's Higher iPhone Order Includes About 25 Million iPhone 5s

John Paczkowski — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:00:05 +0000

Apple has high hopes for the iPhone as we head into the second half of 2011 and the annual holiday consumer binge. The company has reportedly raised its iPhone orders for the rest of the year by upward of 12 percent.

Supply chain sources tell Taiwanese trade mag DigiTimes that Apple has ordered 56 million iPhones for the second half of calendar 2011, about half of them (25.5 million to 26 million) the fifth-generation model expected to launch in October.

If correct, that 56 million iPhone figure means Apple will have produced an astonishing 95 million iPhones in CY 2011.

iPhone 5: See You in September?

John Paczkowski — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:59:50 +0000

Dust off the urban camping gear — the next iteration of the iPhone is reportedly on track for a September launch.

Supply chain sources are telling the occasionally accurate DigiTimes that Pegatron Technology has received orders to build 15 million iPhone 5/iPhone 4S handsets as the device’s presumed fall launch nears.

As others have reported before, DigiTimes claims that the iPhone 5 will not be a major update from iPhone 4. In design, it will feature only slight modifications from its predecessor; the real improvements will be found under the hood. There we can expect to find the faster A5 processor on which the iPad 2 runs, a higher resolution 8 megapixel rear camera and perhaps a Qualcomm dual mode GSM/CDMA baseband as well.

And as for that September launch time frame, my guess would be that it’s reasonably accurate. As I wrote earlier this year, it’s entirely plausible that Apple would commandeer its annual September media event to launch the latest iPhone:

Buzzwise, the iPod has been subsumed by the iPhone. And the continuing evolution of the iPod line isn’t nearly as exciting as it once was; just look over the hardware announced at last year’s fall music event: A new Shuffle that looked a lot like its second generation predecessor, a smaller multitouch nano, a thinner iPod touch and a smaller Apple TV. Pretty staid stuff for Apple.

And we’re likely to see more of the same at this year’s event. Let’s face it, once you’ve perfected the iPod the way Apple has, there’s only so much you can do to refine it, and we’re at the point now where “thinner” and “smaller” aren’t the impressive achievements they were a few years back.

So why not spice things up by throwing the iPhone into the mix?

iKindle For August?

Peter Kafka — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:15:02 +0000

The latest entry in the “when will Amazon come out with its iPad-killer?” guessing game: Maybe as soon as August.

This comes from DigiTimes, the trade journal that sometimes does an astonishingly accurate job of sussing out secretive product plans by reporting on Asian component makers. And sometimes, it’s not accurate at all.

So take all of this with as much or as little salt as you’d like: DigiTimes’ sources say an Amazon tablet could hit the market “as soon as August-September,” and that the company thinks it can move four million devices by the end of the year.

Like other reports, DigiTimes predicts that the tablet will take advantage of the streaming movie service that Amazon has been quietly building over the past couple years, and presumably other media as well.

It’s worth noting that Amazon officials have done a good job of not dissuading people from thinking they’ll launch a full-featured tablet built to compete with Apple’s iPad. And that the company has already gotten into the mobile business by operating its own version of an Android app market. So if/when it does launch an iKindle, we won’t be shocked.

It would be nice if Amazon could offer users a full-featured music service at the same time it launches its mystery device. And music industry sources say that Amazon is now “very engaged” in discussions with labels to beef up its locker service, which it launched without label sign-on earlier this year.

Did Apple's Grip on Touch Screens Hold Back PlayBook?

John Paczkowski — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:06:47 +0000

Research in Motion’s PlayBook tablet might have launched a month earlier were it not one thing: A shortage of touch-screen panels caused by the iPad.

Industry sources tell Taiwanese trade mag DigiTimes that “PlayBook shipments were postponed for about a month from the original schedule due to a delay in software testing as well as shortage of touch panels because Apple already booked up most of the available capacity.”

Certainly sounds plausible. Apple is rumored to have has locked up nearly 60 percent of the world’s touch-panel capacity, leaving behind scant supply for its rivals. Indeed, during the company’s first-quarter earnings call in January, COO Tim Cook said Apple had invested $3.9 billion to secure future component supplies in “an area we feel is very strategic.” He didn’t elaborate, but as I noted here at the time there’s a good chance he was talking about touch panels.

Just ask RIM.

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Fumbled Tablet Strategy Cost Acer CEO His Job, Sources Say

John Paczkowski — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:07:58 +0000

CEO Gianfranco Lanci’s departure from Acer yesterday was both sudden and unexpected. What precipitated it? The company line says it was his differences with Acer’s board of directors. But over what, specifically? Evidently, Lanci grievously misjudged the impact that tablets would have on the company’s core business.

Sources at Acer told DigiTimes that Apple’s iPad undercut the company badly in the netbook market. And it quickly became clear that simply boosting shipments of notebooks to win market share was no longer a viable strategy. “We were almost too successful in the past…but more recently the iPad and other new form factors have had a very big impact on the PC market,” Acer Chairman J.T. Wang told the Financial Times. “We have to change our business strategy.”

And leadership. Because Acer needs to replicate in tablets its success in notebooks. To do that, it must approach the market as Apple or HTC might, searching out profits on high margin devices. And according to Acer execs, Lanci was too busy fighting a pricing war with Dell and Hewlett-Packard to realize it. Said Acer CFO Tu Che-min, “There is good consensus among the board members that the tablet is the way to go.”

Time to chase profits over market share.

Apple's Touch-Panel Appetite Leaves Little for Rivals

John Paczkowski — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:35:54 +0000

Apple is to the touch-panel business what Starbucks is to the coffee business–a market maker and mover. Particularly a mover. To wit: Claims today that Apple’s voracious appetite for the component is expected to cause an industrywide shortage this year.

According to Taiwanese trade mag DigiTimes, Apple has locked up nearly 60 percent of the world’s touch-panel capacity, leaving behind a very tight supply for its rivals to scrap over.

“Touch panels are currently suffering the most serious shortage due to Apple holding control over the capacity of major touch panel makers such as Wintek and TPK, and with US-based RIM, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard also competing for related components,” says DigiTimes. “Second-tier players are already out of the game.”

So Apple ends up with a double advantage–not only has it secured supply enough for its own needs, but it has also caused scarcity in the market and disadvantaged its rivals. It’s impossible to say definitively, but my guess is this is the result of that mysterious $3.9 billion component supply investment COO Tim Cook mentioned during Apple’s first-quarter earnings call.

“We’ve historically entered into certain agreements with different people to secure supply and other benefits. And the largest one in the recent past has been we signed a deal with several flash suppliers back at the end of 2005 that totaled over $1 billion because we anticipated that flash would become increasingly important across our entire product line and increasingly important to the industry. And so we wanted to secure supply for the company, and we think that, that was an absolutely fantastic use of Apple’s cash. And we constantly look for more of these. And so in the past several quarters we’ve identified another area and come to some recent agreements that [CFO Peter Oppenheimer] talked about in his opening comments, in that these payments consist of prepayments and capital for process equipment and tooling. And similar to the flash agreements, they’re focused in that area we feel is very strategic.”

Indeed. Funny how Apple now controls–largely—both the demand and supply sides of the touch panel business.

Dispatches From the Supply Line Stoke iPad, iPhone Chatter

John Paczkowski — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:44:53 +0000

With the first-year anniversaries of the iPad and iPhone 4 fast approaching, and both devices destined for an update per Apple’s annual mobile device refresh cycle, the Apple rumor mill is undergoing a refresh of its own.

Supply chain sources tell China’s Economic Daily News that Apple has lined up four new component suppliers for the iPhone 5, which they claim is scheduled for a summer launch. Meanwhile, Taiwanese trade pub DigiTimes is reporting that Apple recently bolstered its printed circuit board (PCB) supply chain in preparation for the next iteration of the iPad. Where the company once used just three PCB suppliers for the device, it’s now using seven. Not a surprise, really, given the 14.8 million iPads Apple sold in 2010. DigiTimes’ sources claim they’re scheduled to begin small-volume shipments next month, before going all out in April. Which jibes nicely with that annual refresh cycle I mentioned earlier and rumors of a spring launch.

As I’ve noted here before, the iPad 2 is expected to be thinner than its predecessor and manufactured with the same unibody approach Apple’s been using for the MacBook. It’s also expected to feature an LCD backlit display, a front-facing camera and Facetime video chat support. Finally, some reports suggest it is powered by one of Qualcomm’s multimode chips and will run on both GSM and CDMA-based networks around the world.

One Million PlayBooks Sold in First Quarter? RIM Hopes So.

John Paczkowski — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:27:49 +0000

Research in Motion VP Alec Taylor says the size of the PlayBook’s launch “will be commensurate with the opportunity.” And word on the street has it that the opportunity is decent in size.

Evidently, RIM is looking to ship one million PlayBooks in the first quarter alone. Market sources tell the occasionally reliable DigiTimes that Quanta Computer has begun volume production of the PlayBook with a shipment target “expected to top one million units.” Which seems a decent number. That said, it does pale in comparison to early iPad shipments, the obvious touchstone here. Apple sold more than 300,000 iPads the day the device went on sale. And just 27 days later it had sold one million.

Report: Apple Orders 21 Million iPhones, 6 Million Verizon-Ready

John Paczkowski — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:15:55 +0000

Apple has reportedly raised its iPhone shipment target for the first quarter of 2011 by up to 2 million. This according to the occasionally reliable Digitimes which claims the company has told its component suppliers it now wants 20-21 million units, instead of the 19 million it originally requested. Interestingly, five to six million of the total order are believed to be CDMA devices presumably intended for Verizon or, perhaps, CDMA operators abroad.

Logitech Delaying New GoogleTV, Too–Report

Peter Kafka — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 16:11:56 +0000

Google has reportedly told some of its partners to hold off introducing new versions of Google TV. So this one at least sounds right: Google has supposedly told Logitech to stop shipping its version of the Google TV box while Google upgrades the software. The catch: This report comes from DigiTimes, which is sometimes quite accurate about the Chinese supply chain for consumer electronics, but also misses the mark with some frequency.

Report: HTC Will Ship 60 Million Smartphones in 2011

John Paczkowski — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:15:54 +0000

To be taken with a grain of salt, if not a shaker. “Industry sources” tell Taiwanese trade mag DigiTimes that HTC will ship 60 million handsets in 2011–about triple the number it shipped in 2010. An ambitious number, if it’s accurate, though with Android usage exploding and Windows Phone 7 now on the scene, it might be realistic.

IPad 2: Start the 100-Day Hype Countdown

John Paczkowski — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:54:29 +0000

Industry sources are telling the occasionally reliable DigiTimes that Foxconn, Apple’s Chinese manufacturing partner, will begin shipping the next-generation tablet within the next 100 days in preparation for a spring debut that will follow the launch of the original iPad by about a year. The iPad 2 is expected to be thinner than its predecessor and manufactured with the same unibody approach Apple’s been using for the MacBook. It’s also expected to feature an LCD backlit display, a front-facing camera and Facetime video chat support. Finally, some reports suggest it is powered by one of Qualcomm’s multimode chips and will run on both GSM and CDMA-based networks around the world.

Apple Ramps Up Holiday iPad Production

John Paczkowski — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:13:13 +0000

Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn is ramping up iPad production capacity to meet demand for the tablet over the holiday season. Taiwanese trade mag Digitimes claims Foxconn has begun using its newest factories in Chengdu, China, to manufacture an additional 10,000 iPads per day, or about 300,000 iPads per month.

Not a huge number, but together with the 2.5 million units Foxconn’s main production site at Shenzhen can produce each month, it’s presumably enough to offset the inevitable spike in holiday demand. And once Chengdu’s 50 iPad production lines are up and running in 2011, Foxconn will be able to produce about 40 million iPads per year–according to Digitimes, anyway.

Pegatron About to Begin Building CDMA iPhone Verizon Hasn't Yet Earned

John Paczkowski — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:16:03 +0000

Cue up those Verizon iPhone rumors once again: Industry sources are telling the occasionally reliable DigiTimes that Pegatron Technology will begin volume production of a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 in November. Within three months the Taiwanese hardware manufacturer will have built three million to four million iPhones, they say, adding that production should top 10 million by mid-2011.

Another Verizon (VZ) iPhone rumor to add to the pile, with a few caveats: Market source reports from Taiwanese trade publications like DigiTimes are sometimes dubious. Remarks by Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg this week suggest that the iPhone isn’t headed to the carrier’s network in the near future–certainly not as soon as this DigiTimes report suggests. “We would love to carry [the iPhone], but we have to earn it,” he said. “I can’t speak for Apple.”

That comment was widely interpreted to mean that Verizon hasn’t yet earned the right to carry the device. Which might be the case–unless this was simply a bit of misdirection from Seidenberg. In any event, the fact that Pegatron is said to be ramping up to build a CDMA iPhone doesn’t necessarily mean the device is destined for Verizon. As I’ve noted here before, it could be intended for Sprint (S)–or a foreign carrier like China Telecom, KDDI (Japan) or Telefonica (Mexico).

Second-Generation iPad Due in January?

John Paczkowski — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 22:00:31 +0000

As I’ve said before, market source reports from Taiwanese trade publications are best treated with at least a bit of skepticism–particularly when they’re about Apple. That said, a report in DigiTimes today that claims the company’s next-generation iPad will launch in the first quarter of 2011 seems entirely plausible. Apple’s upgrade cycle for the iPhone has been annual; no reason to think it won’t be the same for the iPad. And that’s what the device’s Taiwan-based component suppliers are claiming.

Next From Apple? Just Follow the Supply Chain of Evidence.

Voices — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:51:29 +0000

Looks like we may meet our quota of sketchy Apple product rumors early this month. Digitimes, the Taiwan site that regularly files early and occasionally reliable rumbles from the supply chain, today saved Apple the trouble of announcing a whole press event’s worth of new gear. Based on reports from manufacturing sources, senior analyst Mingchi Kuo said we can look forward to: an upgraded 9.7 inch iPad with a new ARM Cortex-A9-based processor and 512MB RAM; a new 7-inch iPad featuring a Cortex-A9 processor; an Apple TV powered by an AMD Fusion chip and rigged with an iOS-like interface and social networking support; and, yes, that stalwart of the rumor mill, a CDMA iPhone compatible with Verizon’s network, appearing in January.

A CDMA iPhone 4 for Verizon This Fall?

John Paczkowski — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:13:53 +0000

During a 2009 earnings call, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said it was up to Apple to bring the iPhone to the carrier’s network. “This is a decision that is exclusively in Apple’s court,” Seidenberg said. “Obviously we would be interested if they thought it would make sense for them to have us as a partner. And so we will leave it with them on that score.”

Well, it looks like Apple may have decided that such a partnership does make sense, because industry sources are telling the occasionally reliable DigiTimes that Pegatron Technology is manufacturing a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 suitable for the Verizon network (CDMA is short for code division multiple access).

Another Verizon iPhone rumor, I know. But in this case, it is lent credence by a March Wall Street Journal report that claimed essentially the same thing.

Still, that Apple (AAPL) has contracted Pegatron to build a CDMA iPhone does not necessarily mean the device is destined for Verizon (VZ). There are other carriers that use the CDMA standard: Sprint (S), China Telecom and SK Telecom (SKM), to name a few.

That said, Verizon is certainly an attractive candidate, as the carrier would immediately give Apple access to about 80 million new customers. And the concessions Apple has recently squeezed out of AT&T (T)–a “breakthrough” wireless deal for the iPad and a six-month extension on eligibility for iPhone 4 upgrade pricing–do suggest that the carrier is doing all it can to prolong its iPhone-exclusivity agreement and lock as many customers into new contracts as it can before it ends.

Anyway, at this point I’d be happy to see the iPhone added to Verizon’s lineup, if only to put an end to these seemingly endless rumors.