iPhone 4 mock-up

Digitimes is reporting that Apple will begin 2011 with the release of a CDMA iPhone as well as refreshes for the iPad and Apple TV. The site reports that a CDMA “Verizon” iPhone will go on sale in January and will have a metal back featuring an “integrated antenna,” presumably an external antenna similar in concept to the iPhone 4′s. Verizon will announce the launch of the iPhone on their network at CES 2011, where CEO Ivan Seidenberg will be making the keynote address on January 6, 2011. The CDMA iPhone will initially be sold through Verizon in the US and China Telecom in China. An analyst for Digitimes says the expected ratio of GSM to CDMA iPhones sold in 2011 to be 65% GSM to 35% CDMA. Pegatron Technology will ramp up mass production of the device in December 2010.

Digitimes claims the iPad will receive hardware updates and a second new smaller model in 2011. Apple will refresh the device in early 2011 with a faster ARM Cortex-A9-based processor and 512MB of RAM. Apple will introduce a smaller model with a 7-inch screen that will feature a high-res IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 1024×768, giving a more comfortable reading experience closer to the iPhone 4′s Retina Display.

The Apple TV will receive a big refresh as well, with Apple removing the hard drive from the device and adding AMD’s new Fusion processors. According to AMD, the chip offers the following:

CPU and GPU capabilities for HD, 3D and data-intensive workloads in a single-die processor called an APU. APUs combine high-performance serial and parallel processing cores with other special-purpose hardware accelerators, enabling breakthroughs in visual computing, security, performance-per-watt and device form factor. Software developers, utilizing AMD drivers, libraries and either the ATI Stream SDK2 or the Microsoft DirectCompute API, can enhance the user experience and speed application performance by developing applications that fully utilize the unique computer power of the AMD Fusion™ Family of APUs and AMD discrete GPUs.

Digitimes states the new Apple TV will have “a user interface similar to the iPhone,” presumably iOS, which powers the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The new Apple TV will connect to the App Store, allowing users to download and run third-party apps, and will support network media and social networking.

Rumors of an impending Verizon iPhone continue to increase in volume and detail, as today, blog Techcrunch is citing anonymous sources in reporting that Apple has placed an order for “millions of units” of CDMA chipsets for December from manufacturer Qualcomm. Orders to component makers are usually the first clues that a new Apple device is about to be released, as when word leaked to Reuters in March 2009 that Apple was procuring 10-inch LCD screens for a device that was revealed to be the iPad several months later.

Techcrunch‘s report corroborates with other several other recent strong Verizon iPhone rumors. Bloomberg cited two anonymous sources in late June 2010 in reporting that a Verizon iPhone will go on sale in January 2011. Chinese newspaper Digitimes reported in early June that Apple had placed orders with Pegatron Technology to build the Verizon iPhone for delivery in late 2010. In May 2010, Digitimes cited analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in claiming Apple was currently testing a Verizon iPhone, and that its stage of development indicated a 2011 release date. Engadget reported in May that reader tips concerning an imminent Verizon iPhone had reached critical mass, with the tips having “surprisingly specific details.” The Wall Street Journal reported in March 2010 that Apple was working on a CDMA iPhone alongside the AT&T iPhone 4, which was released in June. The CDMA version was to be built later in the year by Taiwanese company Pegatron.