Verizon iPhone May Feature Some Improvements

Verizon Wireless has yet to deliver an iPhone, but technology analysts have already gotten their hands on one, which they tore down and inspected. They say it has two major changes from the version sold by AT&T.

A team of “teardown experts” at iSuppli obtained and opened up a new CDMA version of Apple’s iPhone 4 designed to work on Verizon Wireless’ network.

“This new CDMA iteration of the iPhone 4 naturally borrows heavily from the UMTS/GSM version introduced last June,” iSuppli says on its Website. “However, early results of the teardown analysis reveal several key changes to the smart phone’s design. These changes likely foretell of future updates coming in the next major model release of the Apple iPhone later this year.”

No more ‘death grip’

The first big change in the Verizon version of the iPhone 4 is in the antenna design. The original UMTS/GSM version came under heavy criticism for signal integrity issues related to handheld use of the phone.

No sooner had the eagerly anticipated iPhone 4 reached AT&T customers last June than there began to be heard complaints about the so-called "death grip." When holding the phone a certain way, consumers said bars indicating reception dropped off and -- sometimes -- so did calls. Apple said the problem was an optical illusion caused by a software glitch, and urged customers to buy a plastic case for their phones. The company later backtracked, and provided plastic cases that seemed to fix the problem.

The experts at iSuppli say consumers using the Verizon version of the iPhone 4 should not have that problem. While Apple kept the fundamental integrated antenna and enclosure design, provisions were made to improve reception quality, the experts said. The new CDMA version employs a dual-antenna design that takes advantage of antenna diversity to improve reception. 

Integrated GPS

The new iPhone also includes integrated GPS. The inspection team said early analysis led it to believe that Apple has eliminated the discrete GPS chip, previously supplied by Broadcom, and, instead, relies on the integrated GPS functionality of the Qualcomm MDM6600. 

“The significance of the MDM chipset is that Apple has again, chosen a ‘slim modem’ platform, just as in the UMTS/GSM (AT&T) version of the iPhone 4,” the iSuppli team said.

MDM chipsets are typically sold to manufacturers of embedded wireless modules or dongles. The MDM chipset from Qualcomm is essentially an entry-level chip and provides savings for Apple both in terms of device complexity and in the cost of manufacturing.  

The team also praised Qualcomm for its new baseband processor chip, which is new to the Verizon iPhone. It replaces the Infineon PMB9801 baseband used in the UMTS/GSM (AT&T) version of the smart phone. 

The market research company said it would have a more complete analysis of the device in the next few days. The first Verizon iPhones will be delivered to customers on Thursday.