Nearpoints

Craig Mathias

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Will Verizon Wireless Get the iPhone?

By Craig Mathias on Tue, 04/28/09 - 2:33pm.

Well, as a Verizon Wireless customer, increasingly-avid Mac user, and resident of a spot with no AT&T wireless coverage, I certainly hope so. I've seen a number of stories lately about how the exclusive (and still secret) iPhone distribution agreement between Apple and AT&T comes to an end next year, and how (duh) AT&T would love to keep the exclusive. But Verizon has around 80 million subscribers, about the same as AT&T, and Apple just has to be tempted (and perhaps even salivating) by reaching the 20% or so (my guess) of those who would likely go with the iPhone given relatively little incentive. It's unlikely that Apple would see that kind of volume from incremental sales with AT&T alone. So the big question is how much AT&T is willing to pay to keep the iPhone out of the hands of its only real competitor. And the little question is how difficult it will be to engineer an EvDO version, but that can't be too hard. In fact, I'd be surprised if it's not been done already.

I have been a fan of the iPhone since its inception, although I don't like the non-removable battery and Apple's rigid control over what gets to run on it. But I'd almost surely get one if Verizon offered it - no matter how good the other platform phones might be, there really is no substitute for the iPhone today, and it's difficult to imagine how any other handset could compete with its aura. That means, instead, that the other handset manufacturers need to compete on price, and consequently a veritable flood of LINUX-based platform phones just has to be on the menu for next year - around the time an iPhone for Verizon could become available. My prediction is, yes, Verizon will get the iPhone. And the price is going down regardless - if a price war between AT&T and Verizon doesn't do it, the LINUX guys will scrape a good number of iPhone wannahaves off the bottom of the market, and Apple won't sit still for that.