Fidacaro sent out a note to investors yesterday based on checks with overseas suppliers, a common way Wall Street analysts obtain information on the secretive company. If his research proves accurate, the move to CDMA technology would put Apple in a good position to release a Verizon iPhone early next year.

CDMA, a less common cell-phone technology than the GSM standard AT&T and most carriers worldwide use, runs Verizon and Sprint’s networks. It is also the dominant standard in South Korea.

Apple is hardly abandoning GSM. Fidacaro expects Apple to build between 21 million and 22 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2011, up from about 18.3 million iPhones this quarter. Apple was able to ramp up production this quarter because display-panel issues with LG have been resolved, he told investors. He expects Apple to sell 11.6 million iPhones this quarter — a 39 percent increase from the 8.4 million sold last quarter.

The news coincides with an earlier report from Bloomberg that Verizon is preparing to offer the iPhone in January. According to Credit Suisse, AT&T would lose 1.4 million users to Verizon in early 2011. A survey found that 23 percent of iPhone users would switch to Verizon when it’s available, and 18 percent said they would wait for their AT&T contract to end.

Tags: CDMA, GSM, iPhone, iPhone 4, smartphone

Companies: Apple, AT&T, Lg, Verizon

People: Jeffrey Fidacaro

Goldman’s report noted that most of the stores it called didn’t sell out of the Torch and that most purchases were made by current BlackBerry customers. Meanwhile, it found that sales of popular new Android phones like the Droid X and Evo 4G remained strong.

AT&T is still listing the BlackBerry Torch for $199.99, but it’s available at Amazon and other sites for $99.99, reports PC World. It’s unclear if the price drop comes from the retailers or RIM itself, but I’ve dropped a line into RIM for clarification. The Torch is a big deal for the company because it features a slide-out keyboard — so BlackBerry fans can still type on physical keys — with a revamped touchscreen operating system in BlackBerry OS 6.

While we don’t know for certain why the price was dropped, it’s fair to assume that it was in response to the Goldman report. It’s not surprising that RIM might drop the Torch’s price — after all, it’s much less powerful than competing Android phones and the iPhone 4, all of which retail for the same $199.99 price tag — but it’s certainly a shock that we’re seeing a lower price so soon. If it was a RIM move, it screams of desperation, and it also highlights how unwise it was to position the Torch as a high-end smartphone when it definitely wasn’t.

In addition to its slow processor (it runs at 624-megahertz compared to current Android phones with 1-gigahertz speeds), the Torch also boasts a diminutive 3.2-inch display with a low 360 by 480 resolution. Its display is smaller than the iPhone 4’s 3.5-inch screen, and much lower than the 854 by 480 resolution that the Droid X and Droid 2 feature. The Torch was released the same day as the much more capable Droid 2 — which also sports a slide-out keyboard — so there was little reason for anyone, besides the BlackBerry-faithful, to anticipate it.

That the Torch was launched on AT&T certainly didn’t help its situation. Heavy mobile users on other carriers would need more than a slightly revamped BlackBerry to move over to AT&T — perhaps the most hated mobile carrier in the U.S. thanks to its iPhone reception woes. And users already on AT&T have the choice between the much more appealing iPhone 4, or the newly released Samsung Captivate — part of its Galaxy S line of Android phones.

It remains to be seen if dropping the Torch’s price will increase its sales significantly. The lower price will likely help somewhat, but it certainly won’t fix RIM’s bigger innovation problem. If this is the best the company could come up with to compete with the iPhone and Android (which ousted BlackBerry in the last quarter as the top-selling mobile platform, according to one firm’s estimates), then RIM is clearly in trouble.

Tags: Android, Blackberry, iPhone, smartphone

Companies: Apple, Google, RIM