Apple and AT&T were meant to be exclusive for years. But don't count out a Verizon iPhone.
Back in 2007, AT&T was apparently guaranteed five years as the exclusive carrier of the Apple iPhone. Still, nothing lasts forever – and a Verizon iPhone certainly isn't out of the question.
Apple and AT and T were once joined at the hip. That doesn't mean that a Verizon iPhone is totally out of the question.
Newscom
Verizon iPhone? Hold your horses. This week, the fine folks at the tech blog Engadget published the details of class-action lawsuit that appears to show that the iPhone was originally intended to be wedded to AT&T until at least 2012.
The lawsuit, filed in 2007, the year that the iPhone was launched, alleges that Apple was engaging in a secret monopoly by not opening the popular phone to other carriers. Apple's response apparently confirmed the terms of a deal with AT&T. "[T]here was widespread disclosure of [AT&T's] five-year exclusivity," Apple reps wrote in their response to the lawsuit. By "widespread," Apple means a single USA Today article with unsubstantiated information that soon became the common narrative. This is the first time Apple has confirmed such a deal.
Needless to say, Engadget's scoop has stirred up a good deal of interest in the blogosphere today – not least because Apple is expected to soon make an announcement on the next iteration of the iPhone. Some pundits have speculated that Apple will seek to open up the iPhone to Verizon users.
So could we still see a Verizon iPhone? Sure. As Nilay Patel of Engadget notes, there's reason to believe that the terms of the exclusivity contract may have changed since 2007. "Contracts can be canceled, amended, and breached in many ways, and AT&T's spotty recent service history plus the explosion of the iPhone and the mobile market in general have given Apple any number of reasons to revisit the deal," Patel noted.
Gambling on the existence – or nonexistence – of the Verizon iPhone has become something of a sport. Earlier this month, one Wall Street analyst, Brian Marshall, argued that Apple had extended its exclusive partnership with AT&T for at least six more months, in order to secure better rates for the hot-selling Apple iPad.
"AT&T had to do something dramatic to get the iPad," said Marshall, an analyst at BroadPoint AmTech.