Mobile & wireless

Vindication! iPhone to stay on AT&T, forever

14 comments | 64I like it!
September 14, 2009, 12:12 PM — 

Yes, I know: you all really want a Verizon version of the iPhone in the U.S. Who doesn't? Heck, with all the unprofitable pressure the iPhone puts on AT&T's data network, probably even AT&T would like some help bearing the load of all those data-hungry iPhone users at this point. Well, surprise! It looks like Apple and AT&T are going to recommit to their troubled marriage.

This is all according not to anyone at Apple or AT&T, but to some analyst at iSuppi Corp., but like all tech writers, I'm happy to quote analysts when they agree with what I already believe, and, of course, I already believe that Apple is stuck with AT&T in the medium term. The gist of iSuppli's analysis is that the iPhone is a global product, and the HSPA standard used by AT&T is more widely used than the EVDO standard used by Verizon, and the gap is growing. There are fancy charts that prove this -- or, you know, you could just listen to what Apple has been explicitly saying on the subject, though that doesn't get you fancy analyst points the way that drawing charts does, I guess.

To stave off the inevitable griping about how terrible AT&T is, my goal here is not to defend their service; it's merely to point out what I keep pointing out, which is that Apple, in choosing to make a single phone model for the de facto global standard, has little choice than to stick with what they've got. At best, they could forego exclusivity and also sell their phones with T-Mobile, but since T-Mobile is at this point sort of an also-ran, the most minor of the major wireless carriers, that wouldn't shake the system up very much. The only way the iPhone-on-Verizon scenario comes about in the near future is if Apple changes tactics and makes a second, CDMA-compatible version of the iPhone. Which isn't impossible or anything, but it's much more complicated than just signing a new contract with a different wireless carrier.

Of course, Verizon will be rolling out a new, GSM-compatible 4G network over the next few years, but that probably won't be omnipresent enough to justify GSM-only phones on Verizon until 2013 or so. And four years is an absolute eternity in tech time. By the time 2013 rolls around, the iPhone as we know it will have become something else entirely (or more likely several somethings else entirely) and the terms of this debate will be very different. That's why I stuck "forever" on the title of this post. 2013 might as well be an eternity away.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

I like it!
Comments

This, of course, is assuming

This, of course, is assuming that the continued exclusivity is deemed legal.
| reply

Congress or the DoJ could

Congress or the DoJ could theoretically make exclusivity illegal, but I highly doubt they could force Apple to engineer an entirely distince phone model just to run on Verizon. My overall point is that the barrier to selling the iPhone on the Verizon network is technical, not contractual.

Of course, it's possible that Apple could sell the iPhone on T-Mobile, which would be a sort of fig-leaf of non-exclusivity while still not radically changing the situation.
| reply

Technical Difficulties?

Are you serious. Apple has some of the most talented and smartest engineers out there and plenty of pull to get a CDMA chip for a phone. They have plenty of pull in the industry to get the parts at the price they want. Its all about the bottom line.$$$$$$$$$$MONEY$$$$$$$$$$ If AT&T pays enough that it covers the millions of iPhones that they could sell on Verizon then thats the ways it will be. If not then there will be a Verizon iPhone thats CDMA/LTE compatible because thats gonna be very profitable! AND VERY FAST!
| reply
peer-to-peer

Esther Schindler
If the comments are ugly, the code is ugly

claird
SVG a graphics format for 21st century

pasmith
Take Chrome OS for a test spin

Sandra Henry-Stocker
Solaris Tip: Have Your Files Changed Since Installation?

sjvn
64-bits of protection?

jfruh
Android fragments vs. the iPhone monolith

mikelgan
What Gizmodo missed about the Pro WX Wireless USB disk drive

 

Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News
Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325

Join the conversation here

The Daily Tip

The Daily TipQuick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.

Hot tips:

Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.

Newsletters

Subscribe to ITWORLD TODAY and receive the latest IT news and analysis.

I would like to receive offers via email from ITworld partners.
By clicking submit you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in ITworld's privacy policy.
Featured Sponsor

AISO founders envisioned a Web hosting company that was environmentally friendly. While the company employed energy-efficient innovations like solar panels, its infrastructure produced unacceptable power and cooling requirements. Find out how AISO leveraged AMD technology to overcome their challenge in this case study white paper.

In this whitepaper, Scalar explores the opportunity to change the landscape with respect to mission critical databases built around Oracle. Leveraging technologies such as Linux, high-end commodity processing power and Oracle RAC technology to architect, design, build and maintain database infrastructure that delivers maximum availability, reliability and performance at a fraction of traditional cost.

On a typical day, weather.com, the Web site for The Weather Channel in Atlanta, serves up between 15 million and 20 million page views. But in September 2004, when back-to-back hurricanes ransacked Florida, the peak traffic on one day more than tripled: over 70 million page views by more than 7 million unique visitors. Read the full success story now.

Marketplace