CFO Fran Shammo said that Apple’s next-generation iPhone 5 will be a “global device” supporting both GSM and CDMA connectivity rather than having separate models for each network standard, as reported by Barron.

Quote :

The fluctuation, I believe, will come when a new device from Apple is launched, whenever that may be, and that we will be, on the first time, on equal footing with our competitors on a new phone hitting the market, which will also be a global device.

Both the existing CDMA iPhone 4 as well as CDMA iPad 2 carry the Qualcomm Gobi wireless chip. Despite having the capability of connecting to both CDMA and GSM networks, Apple has not build any global device yet.

If we go by Shammo’s comment, this dual-mode iPhone 5 would certainly lower down Apple’s supply chain and operational costs and make the device usable globally. We will get the actual picture only when the iPhone 5 is launched which is already rumored to be released in Q3-2011.

On design-upfront iPhone 5 is already rumored to resemble iPhone 4 with A5 processor.