New CDMA version of the Apple iPhone is being field tested, close to release?

If it's any day ending in "y", it is time for the latest Apple iPhone rumor. This one comes from a "solid Apple source" that says that model 3,2 of the iPhone has gone into the field testing phrase while the Apple iPhone 5 has reached the Engineering Verification test of the development stage.

The iPhone model 3,2 is very close to release. "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," the insider's report noted.

In "Apple-talk", the first number of the model being tested contains the number of major revisions, the second number is the number of minor revisions. That leads the "insider" to claim that model 3,2 is an Apple iPhone 4 with a revised antenna system. This would allow a new CDMA version of the phone to avoid the "Antennagate" problem that occurred when the phone was held in the lower left corner where the two antennas meet. When touched, the hand would act as a bridge between the two antennas which would de-tune the signal and lead to dropped calls and loss of signal.

The anonymous source also says that the iPhone model 3,2 will have a SIM card slot which would seem to rule out it being a CDMA device. However, speculation is rampant that Apple has asked Qualcomm to provide it with a dual-mode baseband chip that would support both CDMA and GSM phones. Another possibility is that the Verizon branded model will offer global roaming which would require the use of a SIM card slot.

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source: BGR