Report: Apple Hikes First Quarter iPhone Shipments to 21M — Another Signal for Verizon?

Verizon may be getting a late Christmas present, if a new report proves correct. Apple is planning to ship between 20 million and 21 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2011 – 5 to 6 million of those CDMA-based. (Another 14 million to 15 million of the Apple handsets will reportedly be GSM.)

According to a Taiwan-based industry publication, citing unnamed suppliers, Asia will also get the CDMA phones. However, this latest talk of CDMA iPhones could bolster the already red-hot speculation Verizon will launch an iPhone early next year. The move would break the exclusive stranglehold AT&T has held ever since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.

Apple shipped 47 million iPhones in 2010 with nearly half – 15.5 million – in the fourth quarter, according to the publication.

Additionally, Apple’s reputed iPad 2, the latest version of its wildly popular tablet device, will reportedly be exclusively produced by Foxconn, the Cupertino, Calif. company’s largest supplier.

[Digitimes, 9to5Mac]

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