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Verizon Passed on an Exclusive iPhone Deal

Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 11:55 AM - by

Verizon didn't like Apple's terms for distribution of the iPhone and passed on the chance to be the exclusive distributor. That was because Apple wanted a percentage of the monthly fee and to be in control of the customer relationship according to Jim Gerace, a Verizon VP. USA Today reported the story on Monday.

"We said no. We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone. We just couldn't reach a deal that was mutually beneficial," Mr. Gerace said.

One of the other sticking points was that Apple and the carrier could sell the phone, but Verizon's distribution partners Wal-Mart and Best Buy would have been left out. That was unacceptable to Verizon.

USA Today reported that the Apple-Cingular exclusive deal is USA-only and that Apple can market the iPhone globally.

It was a story of the "Lost Verizon."

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jan 29, 2007 1:58 pm

If this phone would have worked with verizon then, it will work now. I wonder how difficult it would be to buy this phone overseas and then mod it to work on verizon.

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Edison Carter said:

member since 10 Aug 2006 with 228 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jan 29, 2007 2:20 pm

"Verizon's distribution partners Wal-Mart and Best Buy would have been left out. That was unacceptable to Verizon."

Leaving them in would have been unacceptable to me

Seriously, maybe they were left out because of support issues. Who do we "call" if there is a problem with the iPhone, the vendor, the carrier, Apple?

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jan 29, 2007 2:31 pm

This story smacks of damage control by Verizon to me! The iPhone uses the GSM standard and Verizon is CDMA. It is VERY unlikely Apple would make two versions of the iPhone, one CDMA for the small market Verizon serves and another GSM for the rest of the world. The two protocal scenorio does not fit in the Apple business model of simplicity and elegance.

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bweels said:

member since 24 Jan 2002 with 4865 posts, TMO Forum Mod, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:00 pm

Selfishly, I wish Verizon had worked it out. I'm an Alltel customer and I'm actually pretty happy with the service when I compare my experience to what I've heard others talk and write about. Consumer Reports rated Alltel's service very high, also. Had it been a CDMA phone, modding it to work with Alltel would've be easy, eventually, and I could go out and buy one. As it is, I don't see it happening. From what I've heard, Cingular pretty much sucks. Further complicating a change is the fact that I have four family members on one plan all with different contract dates. Bummer for me.

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mrmgraphics said:

member since 05 Sep 2003 with 825 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:59 pm

+

While I'm happy with my Verizon wireless service, I still have dropped calls, so I'm willing to consider other carriers. Assuming I can afford an iPhone a year or two from now, it will come down to how well Cingular covers my area, and if they can give me fewer dropped calls than Verizon. Likewise, I'll be very curious to learn just how well -- or not well -- the iPhone performs as a phone: sound quality, reception, reception, and reception.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:48 pm

This sounds like total BS to me. The headline should more appropriately read, "Steve Jobs passed on Verizon". Verizon are totally trying to save face here, because I think they have a clue that maybe, just maybe, they are going to get buried.

Verizon's network IS incompatible with the rest of the world, and their customer service SUCKS. They are well known for crippling the capabilities of their phones- people complain that the iPhone is crippled now! What a laugh.

This is like those publishers who passed on JK Rowling's little book...........

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Rainy Day said:

member since 07 Jun 2005 with 607 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:58 am

“It was a story of the "Lost Verizon."”

Ha ha! Too funny. Looks like Cingular found Shangri-La.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:28 am

I really wish they had worked something out with Verizon, because Cingular has truly lousy coverage in Western New York. How can I justify buying a $500 phone with which I can't even make a call? Hopefully, Cingular will be vastly increasing their coverage area in the next several months.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:52 pm

Guest wrote:
This story smacks of damage control by Verizon to me! The iPhone uses the GSM standard and Verizon is CDMA. It is VERY unlikely Apple would make two versions of the iPhone, one CDMA for the small market Verizon serves and another GSM for the rest of the world. The two protocal scenorio does not fit in the Apple business model of simplicity and elegance.

That's silly. Nearly all the major phone makers make both GSM and CDMA phones. It's not that hard, and considering that there are over 300 million CDMA users worldwide, it is also very worthwhile.

Consider also that CDMA is the most popular cellphone technology in the US, Apple's home market. Apple will have a CDMA iPhone eventually, the only real question is when.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:56 pm

Guest wrote:

Verizon's network IS incompatible with the rest of the world, and their customer service SUCKS. They are well known for crippling the capabilities of their phones- people complain that the iPhone is crippled now! What a laugh.

GSM is definitely more popular overseas (though there are countries, like South Korea, that are heavily CDMA). However, this doesn't really matter to the 90% plus or so of folks who don't routinely travel overseas for business. In the US, CDMA is actually more popular than GSM.

Also, in my experience, Verizon's customer service has been great- very fast, friendly, and helpful. However, you are dead-on right about Verizon's unfortunate feature-crippling of their phones- that's a very short-sighted decision by Verizon's upper management of choosing revenue over keeping their customers happy.

Eventually, it will come around to bite them in the behind. :\

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