Verizon CFO: iPhone 5 is CMDA + GSM world phone

Well, we’ve known this one for while but now it’s sort of official. Barrons reports that in Verizon’s earnings call today, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said Apple’s next-generation iPhone will be a world phone. A world phone of course is a phone capable of connecting to both CDMA and GSM networks worldwide. You may remember that Shammo was the Verizon executive who spilled the beans on the upcoming Verizon-capable iPad 2.

Both the Verizon iPhone 4 and the CDMA iPad 2 carry the Qualcomm Gobi chip, which we previously detailed, and this chip is capable of connecting to both CDMA and GSM networks. Apple is rumored to start iPhone 5 production as early as July and is tracking a September release. Apple typically holds an early-September event so we’ll probably see the world phone there. The iPhone 5 is rumored to look similar to the iPhone 4 and will sport an A5 dual-core processor.