Verizon and Apple: To be or not to be?

There's a lot of hubbub this week over reports that Verizon and Apple are engaging in "high-level talks." Some think the two companies would make the world's cutest couple, while others think that the two couldn't make it work if they were the last two companies in a world obliterated by an apolcalyptic zombie outbreak.

The potential relationship would certainly seem to have its share of promise and pitfalls in equal measure, so in the interest of fair and balanced reporting, we decided to give each side of the debate an ardent champion, two voices that would be perfectly and evenly matched against each other in laying out the yea's and nay's of the situation. Two combatants who would know each others' ins-and-outs, stratagems and tactics, gambits and tricks as well as they would know their own.

Then we scrapped that idea and decided that it would be far more fun to have me debate the one person I always seem to agree with: myself.

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There's a lot of hubbub this week over reports that Verizon and Apple are engaging in "high-level talks." Some think the two companies would make the world's cutest couple, while others think that the two couldn't make it work if they were the last two companies in a world obliterated by an apolcalyptic zombie outbreak.

The potential relationship would certainly seem to have its share of promise and pitfalls in equal measure, so in the interest of fair and balanced reporting, we decided to give each side of the debate an ardent champion, two voices that would be perfectly and evenly matched against each other in laying out the yea's and nay's of the situation. Two combatants who would know each others' ins-and-outs, stratagems and tactics, gambits and tricks as well as they would know their own.

Then we scrapped that idea and decided that it would be far more fun to have me debate the one person I always seem to agree with: myself.

Point: Verizon and the iPhone are a match made in technology heaven

If there's one weak point in the iPhone's seemingly Achillean invulnerability, it's the tendon named AT&T. Since day one, potential iPhone customers have hemmed and hawed over purchasing the handset because of the necessity of switching providers, many of them from AT&T's primo rival, Verizon Wireless.

So the news that Apple and Verizon might strike a deal to bring the iPhone--or other portable devices--to that network has consumers hearing Handel's Hallelujah chorus. Verizon reportedly passed on a chance to help bring the iPhone to the market way back when the device was still in the planning phases, as it was hesitant to give Apple the share of subscriber revenues that AT&T proved all too willing to shell out.

Since then, the Apple-branded handset seems to have become the "one that got away" for Verizon. The iPhone's gone on to be a blockbuster seller, meaning not only plenty of profits for Apple, but enough for AT&T as well. The wireless provider said it activated 1.6 million of Apple's handsets in the most recent quarter, many of whom were apparently converts from other networks. It's been said that the iPhone may be a substantial factor in keeping AT&T's wireless business in the black, given its lately shrinking profits.

That's certainly a tantalizing target for Verizon, but what does Apple get out of the deal? Having once been spurned by the company, why would the iPhone maker go back to them now? Simple: because it's good business. Despite AT&T and Verizon duking it out for the title of the nation's best network, Verizon's remains widely perceived as more robust with wider coverage, while many AT&T customers complain loudly of dropped calls and poor coverage. If AT&T's the chink in Apple's armor, then it's no surprise that Apple wants to patch it up with stronger stuff. Who better than the nation's self-proclaimed "largest 3G network" to fill the gap?

Of course, matters are complicated by the exclusive deal that AT&T and Apple have supposedly struck, which takes the two companies through 2010 or 2012--accounts vary. It's possible the terms of that deal have changed--recent stories have AT&T trying to get Apple to extend the contract--but it also lends credence to a recent story, published on Tuesday by BusinessWeek , that Apple's shopping other devices to Verizon. Presumably those devices wouldn't be subject to the same exclusivity arrangement.

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