The already popular iPhone from Apple could see a further boost to its sales this year with help from China Telecom and Japan’s KDDI.
According to market research firm iSuppli, iPhone shipments could be boosted by up to 12.1 million units in 2011 if the CDMA version of the device is carried by Verizon Wireless and other CDMA carriers around the world.
This forecast comes on the back of United States-based Verizon Wireless’s long-awaited announcement that it will ship a CDMA network compliant version of the iPhone from February 10.
Verizon’s retail of the iPhone is expected to be the pre-cursor to similar announcements from other CDMA carriers worldwide. On the Asian front, China Telecom and Japan’s KDDI are expected to have significant impact on CDMA iPhone shipments.
According to iSuppli, total iPhone shipments are expected to rise 33.3% this year, due to the introduction of the CDMA compliant version of the device. Without CDMA, the growth rate is expected to be a more a modest 7%.
The CDMA iPhone is expected to ship 16.5 million units in 2012 and 20.3 million units in 2013. This number is expected to peter down to 18.2 million in 2014.