The hot rumour that continue to top the mobile phone blogasphere, other than the possible release of the iPhone 4G is anything to do with the much sort after Verizon iPhone. Many want Apple to open up the iPhone, dissolve the AT&T exclusivity and give Verizon Wireless the iPhone.
However, Anton Wahlman of The Street has come up with some logical reasons as to why there will be no Verizon iPhone release in 2010 or 2011 although he does state he has no insight to any Apple, Verizon plans or negotiations or the contractual obligations Apple may have with AT&T.
Still he does state three reasons as to why there will not be an Apple and Verizon deal over the iPhone “of any kind” this year or next.
So here goes…firstly AT&T has an exclusive over the iPhone until “time X” in the future. Secondly cash, AT&T has agreed to pay Apple more than Verizon would pay to ensure continued exclusivity over the iPhone. Apparently AT&T hands over to Apple $600 per iPhone which means AT&T eats $400 and sell for $200 and Verizon is not willing to hand over as much.
The third reason is it is possible that Verizon doesn’t like Apple’s term on any or all levels, for example, the App Store, branding, service pricing, iTunes, and such. He also suggests that maybe Verizon thinks the iPhone would clog up their networks and thus would need a form of variable pricing for bandwidth.
The article then gives two scenarios on what if Apple and Verizon managed to cut a deal for a Verizon iPhone with the first being that Verizon was to ship their iPhone before the middle of next year. This would mean the Verizon iPhone utilising a Qualcomm chip which includes CDMA/EVDO/GSM/HSPA standards which is technically possible to ship today.
The second scenario considers that Verizon would ship no sooner than the middle of 2011 which would mean the Verizon iPhone would use the Qualcomm LTE-inclusive chip which is expected to be available in the middle of 2011.
Apple would obviously prefer to make just one kind of hardware which could be common to Verizon and AT&T which would technically lead to users being able to switch between carrier network along with the possibility of Apple offering the iPhone Nexus One style, a sort of universal iPhone.
Never being logical, I look at it this way, all good thing come to an end; the reign of the iPhone at the top will eventually come to an end, but Apple can delay that happening a lot longer simply by allowing Verizon to offer the iPhone, doing so would ensure many more potential customers would bring an abundance of cash into the Apple coffers and as they say a hundred bucks is better than no bucks at all.