iPhone on Verizon

Open up the floodgates: Apple is working on a deal with Verizon Wireless:

  1. Apple has been scouting out EVDO and CDMA Engineers for months in their online iPhone job postings (here, here, here and here).  Yes, some of these skills overlap with UTMS and CDMA can also refer to the broad swath of 3G Technologies…but come on…don’t put “EVDO” on the job description if it ain’t true.. (BTW, WiMax is also littered throughout Apple’s Job postings…interesting/digress)
  2. No matter how big AT&T is and how much range they cover, leaving out Verizon and to a lesser extent Sprint, will be eliminating a broad swath of the US wireless market.  If Apple is serious about competing with Blackberry, Symbian and Android, they will have to broaden their carrier footprint.  One carrier does not a platform make.  Apple will need a way to grow its market after AT&T is saturated.
  3. LTE technology won’t be mature until well into 2010.  Apple can’t afford to wait that long to broaden its carrier footprint
  4. Who is happy with Rogers in Canada (*crickets*)?  EVDO opens up to new carriers there as well.
  5. Verizon wireless is a partnership between Verizon communications and Vodafone.  Vodafone, you’ll recall, has contracts with Apple for iPhones in around 15 markets around the world.  Apple has a working relationship with Vodafone (and Tmobile obviously).
  6. Apple has just started going “Open” in a few markets, including Hong Kong. This will likely increase the number of unlocked 3G iPhones on the world market (South Africa is also open).  While this won’t benefit Verizon directly, it certainly shows that Apple is considering being more “carrier agnostic.”
  7. Tim Cook, famously said that Apple wasn’t married to the one carrier/country model.  As Apple expands, it is going more and more open.
  8. Verizon’s iPhone Cheat sheet was weak and their arguments about Stevo getting old were silly.  They’d rather play ball with Apple than try to defend itself against it.
  9. Apple originally wanted to go with Verizon for the iPhone.  Some of the original disagreements included “not carrying the iPhone at Best Buy and hardware reliability” – see quote below.  AT&T was a second choice.  When Verizon balked, Apple went to AT&T…Think Verizon is happy about that decision (no) or willing to reconsider Apple’s overtures (yes)?

The word from my Verizon Wireless operations engineer is “it ain’t gonna happen” and that the AT&T deal is on for another four years. At least that’s what he’s been told.

Comments ( 4 )

  1. RRSReply

    Boy Genius Report has Verizon asking how much they're losing to the iPhone:

    Verizon Wireless must be feeling the sting of losing customers to AT&T due the popularity of the iPhone. A reader just alerted us to a survey peppered with iPhone references that was presented to him upon cancellation of his Verizon account. The coup d’etat was the question that posed, “What could Verizon Wireless have offered to keep you as a customer?” Among the optional answers, iPhone. This is not fodder to spurn yet another resurgence in the “Verizon is getting the iPhone” rumor but it does suggest that Verizon is not turning a blind eye to the iPhone and is trying to gauge the negative effect, if any, the iPhone is having on its churn rate. Needless to say, we would love to peruse both Verizon’s and AT&T’s data to see how many of 4.3 million iPhone 3G activations in 2008 were former VZW customers. Anyone care to confess to leaving Big Red and going to AT&T to get your iPhone fix?

  2. andrewtytlaReply

    FOLLOW-UP: BGR was right. Via USA TODAY...

    Verizon (VZ) and Apple (AAPL) are discussing the possible development of an iPhone for Verizon, with the goal of introducing it next year, people familiar with the situation say. It would mark the first time Apple has produced a version of the iPhone for a CDMA wireless network, which is different from AT&T's GSM technology. Vodafone, co-owner of Verizon Wireless, already sells the iPhone in Europe. The New York-based telecom entered into "high-level" discussions with Apple management a few months ago, when CEO Steve Jobs was overseeing day-to-day business, these sources say. They declined to be named because they aren't authorized to speak publicly. Jobs is on medical leave until June, but the conversations are continuing, they say. Apple declined to comment on the specific question of whether it is talking to Verizon. The company provided USA TODAY with a prepared statement, culled from comments to investors by COO Tim Cook last week: "We're very happy with the relationship that we have (with AT&T) and do not have a plan to change it." Cook added that "CDMA doesn't really have a life to it after a point in time." Verizon is in the process of upgrading its network to a fourth-generation wireless technology known as "LTE." It is possible to build phones that work on both CDMA and LTE networks.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>