Apple (AAPL) May Cut CDMA iPhone 4 Production in Half

According to rumors circulating today, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) may be slashing its production of its CDMA iPhone 4 in half, according to a company supplier.

The Taiwan supplier Pegatron has reportedly been asked to cut back on production of the CDMA phones in 2011 from an projected 10 million to 5 million.

Interestingly, if the rumor is true, it would contradict the estimated activations put forth by Verizon (NYSE:VZ), which has said it expects 11 million activations in 2011.

It wasn't made clear whether the production cuts were related to slow demand or possibly Apple switching to the next generation iPhone earlier than expected.

Apple was trading at $346.85, falling $3.30, or 0.94 percent, as of 11:52 AM EDT.

Nokia (NOK) Says No to Symbian CDMA Phones

One of the major transitions that Nokia (NYSE:NOK) will make as it changes under new CEO Stephen Elop is an embrace of the wireless technology CDMA, which Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and Sprint (NYSE:S) use. For years, Nokia has only released devices that work on another — more widespread — wireless technology called GSM. In the U.S., that limited the introduction of Nokia phones to AT&T (NYSE:T) and T-Mobile USA. In a strategy to widen its addressable audience, however, Nokia will eventually issue CDMA handsets, Elop revealed at the February Mobile World Congress trade show.

Those Nokia CDMA handsets, though, are still off in the future. In an interview at the CTIA Wireless conference, Nokia USA Vice President and General Manager Mark Slater told Forbes that the Finnish company is unlikely to make any CDMA phones that run on Symbian, Nokia’s longtime mobile operating system. Instead, Nokia will wait until it has devices on Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone platform. “Our go-forward smartphone platform for CDMA will be Windows,” said Slater.

That means no CDMA Nokia phones until 2012 or even later, potentially. Nokia has been understandably vague about the timing of its Windows Phone handsets, hinting that the first device may arrive before the end of the year. The bulk of Nokia Windows Phones will come later. In a recent regulatory filing, Nokia indicated that its transition to Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform would take two years.

For now, Nokia’s focus in the U.S. remains on affordable, Symbian, GSM-based smartphones. On Sunday night, the day before the CTIA show officially kicked off, Nokia unveiled its latest entry, the T-Mobile Astound. The device is a slim touch-screen powered by the latest version of Symbian. It will go on sale exclusively at T-Mobile USA in April for $79.99.

Nokia was trading at $8.39, down $0.01, or 0.12 percent, as of 1:56 PM EDT.



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Sprint (NYSE:S) Needs to Increase Capex to Compete Against AT&T (NYSE:T), Verizon (NYSE:VZ)

One of the major problems a company under competitive pressure has is in relationship to spending versus revenue, as in the case of Sprint (NYSE:S) when competing against larger rivals Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T).

Sprint has been taking some important steps to stem the losses of subscribers, especially with its CDMA platform, which may point to them transferring customers from iDEN to CDMA in order to slow down the losses as well.

The problem for Sprint is it'll take capital to successfully implement the strategy, and when expenditure is measured against revenues, they're falling behind their competitors as measured by percentages.

It's easy to understand their need to curb costs during the worst of the recession, but to grow the company, they're going to have to loosen up the purse strings going forward, although obviously in an efficient manner.

Sprint closed Wednesday at $4.35, gaining $0.04, or 0.93 percent. AT&T ended the session at $27.97, up $0.06, or 0.21 percent. Verizon closed at $36.68, up $0.34, or 0.94 percent.