Forecast: Apple to ship 12.1m CDMA iPhones in 2011 says iSuppli

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Research firm says CDMA iPhone may boost Apple's global handset shipments by 25% this year.

The addition of a CDMA iPhone to Apple's portfolio will boost the company's global handset shipments by 25% in 2011, according to research firm iSuppli.


The company predicted late Tuesday that 12.1 million CDMA iPhones will ship worldwide this year after Verizon announced it had struck a non-exclusive deal with to offer a version of the coveted smartphone that will run on its networks.


"Potential and current iPhone subscribers in the United States have long been clamouring for an alternative to AT&T," said Tina Teng, senior analyst at iSuppli, in a research note.


iSuppli said this will increase global iPhone shipments to 61.2 million devices, up 24.5% from the 49.1 million shipped in 2010.


"The arrival of a CDMA version and the addition of Verizon as a carrier will significantly boost the available market for Apple's iPhone," said Teng.


iSuppli said it expects global CDMA iPhone shipments to rise to 16.5 million units in 2012, and to 20.3 million in 2013.


"Shipments will then decline to 18.2 million in 2014 because of the increasing availability of versions of the iPhone with newer air interface standards," such as LTE, predicted iSuppli.