19Oct2010

iPhone 4 Variation Hits Final Field Testing Stage? iPhone 5 at ‘Engineering Verification Test’ Stage?

Boy Genius Report claims to have received information from a source who reports that a tweaked version of the iPhone 4, known internally as “iPhone3,2″, as entered the final field testing stage before production, indicating that a release may be coming in the next several months.

One of our solid Apple sources has just let us know some pretty interesting (and exciting) information surrounding Apple’s upcoming iPhone devices. For starters, we have been told that iPhone model 3,2 – what everyone is assuming to be the Verizon (or at least CDMA-compatible) phone – just hit the “AP” testing stage. This is the very last stage before retail release; final hardware, almost final software.

But according to the source, the iPhone3,2 carries a SIM card slot similar to that used by the existing iPhone 4, a feature not required for a straightforward CDMA-only phone. Boy Genius Report offers three theories as to what this device might be then, given that it possesses a SIM card slot:

- A “global” mode phone offering support for both GSM and CDMA that would be compatible with all carriers. The design could obviously carry a tweaked antenna design to address reception issues and serve as a mid-cycle upgraded model around the world while also introducing new CDMA support.

- A CDMA phone with SIM support for global roaming, although this scenario seems overly complicated.

- A tweaked version of the existing iPhone 4, with no support for CDMA networks. This could simply be an updated version to addresses antenna issues.

The source also indicates that the fifth-generation iPhone has entered the “engineering verification test” (EVT) stage, a phase the CDMA-based iPhone 4 was said to have entered back in May. Additional claims of the CDMA iPhone 4 being in the EVT stage surfaced in mid-August. The first software references to iPhone3,2 appeared in iPhone OS 3.2 back in early April.

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