Verizon iPhone surprise: iFixit tear-down reveals dual-mode CDMA, GSM Qualcomm chip

By on Feb 7, 2011 at 4:43 PM
mobile February 7, 2011

Well what do we have here. A fresh iFixit tear-down of the Verizon iPhone has yielded a surprise: Apple included the Qualcomm MDM6600 chip; a chip that supports high-speed HSPA and CDMA frequencies.

“This is the same chipset as the Droid Pro world phone,” writes iFixit. “It supports both GSM and CDMA—which means that Apple *could* have supported GSM!”

This certainly is an interesting revelation, and jives with previous rumors suggesting that Apple may be planning to develop a singular iPhone that can be flashed to support CDMA, GSM, or both. Hit the read link to check out iFixit’s complete tear-down and drop us a comment to let us know what you think.

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25 Comments

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  • Anonymous

    Whoa. You took me on a blast from the past on “singular iPhone.”

  • Bringit

    iPhone.

    • Tim242

      Yes, another iPhone that apple left a feature out of. Now, there’s something revolutionary to introduce in the next one. You sheep fall for it every time.

  • Anonymous

    I really dont know what this mean or why its a big deal…Everyone who wants an iPhone will get it and worry about the carrier later…i dont think i have ever heard someone say “im gunna flash the iPhone and take it to ____ carrier.” Maybe its just me, but supporting both GSM and CDMA doesn’t really mean much because ppl wont be switching back and forth between carriers. If im off and completely missed the point, someone please point me in the right direction.

    • DustinF00

      Two things:

      1. world phone possiblity (eventually) if they ever get the device to work with both GSM and CDMA in 1 ohone with all the antenna’s needed.

      2. The start of Apples bringing in supply chain to one set of parts (for the most part…

    • vxk

      It is great for those that travel and want to take the phone with them, and use GSM which is widely used in other countries, but prefer VZW in the states

      If it is only one model that supports both GSM and CDMA it may make it easier for the jailbreak devs to do carrier unlock that works on all iPhones and not have to do it for each

  • Ned

    So since the chip is there, does that mean that a software upgrade down the road (say in July when the iPhone 5 is announced) would turn the VZW iPhone into a world phone?

    • Scott

      It doesn’t support a SIM card, so, therefor, the VZW iPhone 4 will be CDMA only

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=47702625 Anonymous

      The phone would still need a SIM card to be activated on GSM networks. Given that the Verizon iPhone doesn’t have any real place to put that, it wouldn’t work.

  • http://benpike.net Ben Pike

    But what about a SIM card slot? Isn’t GSM kinda useless without that?

    • DustinF00

      Next time, they’ll add it next time…

      OR who’s to say so far that they havn’t embedded the SIM Card

  • Anonymous

    The problem is the VZW iPhone doesn’t have an accessible SIM card slot… which opens the door to the iPhone 4GSM/CDMA, not the iPhone 5.

    • DustinF00

      Leave it for a next generation device…

      • DustinF00

        OR who’s to say so far that they havn’t embedded the SIM Card

    • Ned

      You’re absolutely right. I was too excited at the prospect of VZW joining the rest of the world and giving us an iPhone. My bad.

  • DustinF00

    I expected this – I even wrote it in a little facebook note when I was making predictions for the next iPhone. It only makes sense to do this. The big problems that other phone makers have is that they are always chasing the next model. When you do that, your supply chain is a mess.

    Apple has been successful in keeping 1 phone in the pipeline each year (so far) and that does a lot for your supply chain.

    Now, Apple can make one set of PCB Boards and mostly 1 set of chips and source parts and eventually handle providing hand sets to any carrier via a software option allowing them to maintain a single hand set, available for all carriers, with little hardware work on their side.

  • Chocoberry

    It is useless. Most Qualcomm CDMA chipsets support GSM/WCDMA at the same time, especially for like MDM6600 which is relatively recent chip (2gen gobi?).

    Without antenna, GSM will NEVER work.

    • DustinF00

      Yes, you’re correct, iFixit discusses that there are 5 GSM bands and the 2 CDMA bands to support in one phone.

      However, starting with the chipset now allows for development to continue on the antenna designs…

      Don’t forget, apple did create a huge large antenna lab….

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=47702625 Anonymous

    I’m really not surprised they have chosen this kind of chipset that can go on most any network. I was telling a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago that Apple is likely to not offer two different iPhone 5′s but rather just one device (yes that excludes size differences because the big thing here is the network). I really can’t see Apple having two different versions of the iPhone introduced at the same time.

  • Jobber

    iPhone=FAIL

    • Anonymous

      You = Fail

      • anark1

        iphone=fail

      • IamEzioDestroyer

        IamEzio=EpicFail

  • http://twitter.com/ggore Glenn Gore

    I think it’s great that Apple is now making a phone “motherboard” that can support either GSM or CDMA, depending on whether or not the chassis contains a SIM card slot or not and has the appropriate antenna as well. This development reduces their manufacturing costs overall, since they don’t have to produce a motherboard for a GSM phone and one for CDMA, no matter what the carrier is.

    I think this is an important step to having the iPhone available on all carriers, after a year or more of exclusivity for Verizon. Personally I hope this is true, and I cannot wait for the iPhone to be available from any carrier, because I live in an area that is not covered by either AT&T or Verizon, but we do have full coverage from T-Mobile, CellularOne, US Cellular, Sprint, and Pioneer Cellular.

  • KCRic

    CDMA – codeband division multiple access, it’s the lesser vercion of WCDMA (UMTS aka 3G). So what you’re telling me is that the iPhone has a radio chip that supports voice and data? HOLY SHIT BGR!!!

    Oh nevermind, you’re not a tech blog so you’re referring to CDMAOne and CDMA2000; the slow, crap, non-world band tech. Which to a simple man is know as plainly, CDMA. How’s that 4G and LTE coming Apple? Not good it seems.

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