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Apple on Verizon - it's officially...
- Thread starter jeremy.king
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Relative to the benefit of having access to almost 200 million customers, the effort to design and build a CDMA iPhone is going to be relatively trivial and one that Apple can't ignore.Yes that's all it is.
Pop a CDMA chip in there
And even *if* a CDMA phone wasn't profitable for Apple initially (which is a misnomer, as all other CDMA phone manufacturers seems to be turning a profit), Apple doesn't want to continue to lose market share to Android. Therefore they'd most likely invest in a CDMA phone anyway now that AT&T no longer has exclusive rights to the iPhone. Not coming to Verizon this year would be a big mistake and I believe Apple knows that.
Verizon does too. They want every shot at increasing their smartphone market share and the iPhone is a proven vehicle for doing so.
AT&T is a worldwide company, the name and trademarks are seen and recognized all over the world. When SBC, who owned Cingular Wireless, acquired AT&T they decided to keep the name because it was more recognizable compared to "Cingular" only being in the US. I'm unsure if Verizon is in the same boat, but I could be wrong. Based on mobile subscribers, yes, Verizon is larger but when you consider all the products that AT&T delivers, its hard to argue that it is not a much larger company. ATT is a trusted name more so than Verizon. Verizon is a healthy and growing company but it is yet to achieve the notoriety that ATT has for the telephone market in general.
small business
enterprise
residential
DSL
UVerse
wireless
These ATT services provide Apple with a vast network for future products. If rumors are true and an Apple television is in the works then being able to "bundle" with existing iphone/ipad contracts would be to their advantage.
Apple strives itself on creating a seamless user experience across the board with their products. What I experience here should be exactly what someone else experiences across the world according to Apple. Yes they did make exceptions for the China market but that's for a whole different thread. CDMA is a dying technology and Apple knows that. A cdma phone would disrupt their process. It would be different firmwares, different handsets, different training for geniuses. Investing in CDMA would be like European countries switching over to the imperial system. If you can see the end of a products life, it just doesnt make sense. The world is becoming smaller and people expect their phones to work wordwide, which would not be the case with CDMA.
4G will be "rolling out" within the next few years and iphone users will demand it for their increased dependence on data. ATT made fortunes with its long distance land line service in years past. Now it is thrown in for free with home service. In the next few years I believe that voice packages will go the same way. Essentially being free with your $60 data package. internet calling, IE products such as Skype, are the future.
ATT is a submissive partner to Apple which obviously likes to be in charge of everything. I'm not sure if Verizon would be the same way.
small business
enterprise
residential
DSL
UVerse
wireless
These ATT services provide Apple with a vast network for future products. If rumors are true and an Apple television is in the works then being able to "bundle" with existing iphone/ipad contracts would be to their advantage.
Apple strives itself on creating a seamless user experience across the board with their products. What I experience here should be exactly what someone else experiences across the world according to Apple. Yes they did make exceptions for the China market but that's for a whole different thread. CDMA is a dying technology and Apple knows that. A cdma phone would disrupt their process. It would be different firmwares, different handsets, different training for geniuses. Investing in CDMA would be like European countries switching over to the imperial system. If you can see the end of a products life, it just doesnt make sense. The world is becoming smaller and people expect their phones to work wordwide, which would not be the case with CDMA.
4G will be "rolling out" within the next few years and iphone users will demand it for their increased dependence on data. ATT made fortunes with its long distance land line service in years past. Now it is thrown in for free with home service. In the next few years I believe that voice packages will go the same way. Essentially being free with your $60 data package. internet calling, IE products such as Skype, are the future.
ATT is a submissive partner to Apple which obviously likes to be in charge of everything. I'm not sure if Verizon would be the same way.
I'm sure that's why the iPhone is on AT&T first, and the reason it's taken so long to get the Verizon on board. I'd love to see the ins-and-outs of that negotiation.
And yet almost every other handset mfgr in the world has done exactly that, and done so with that product's end-of-life in view, even planned for.
Motorola RAZR GSM exclusive to Cingular in 2003. Came to CDMA in 2005. Scrapped in 2007.
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Don't get me wrong, they could definitely turn a short term profit by releasing a Verizon phone, but Apple cares about long term effects. Remember their primary business competition is Microsoft and the iphone serves as the initial introduction to Apple/OSX for millions of people each year. If Apple can market themselves successfully over the next few years, they stand to gain a substantial number of people who switch from PCs to Macs for personal computing. A strong partnership with AT&T which provides bundled services for Apple products would catapult Apple into the PC market. Within 5 years I predict AT&T will be providing service for no less than 4 Apple products:
1. iPhone
2. iPad
3. 4G data packages for iTouch/MB/MBP/MBA
4. Apple TV reincarnated to be a television with the capabilities of the current Apple TV built in, IE a TV with DVR
Apple strives for integration.
Apple imagines a world where your Mac can sync to your Apple TV, your iPhone/iPad/iTouch can control your Apple TV, your Mac can find your iPhone, etc.
In my opinion, it is a necessity for Apple to introduce a multimedia remote app. If they do, I will most definitely be picking up an iPad. The possibilities with said software and such a device would be endless. With such a large screen, you could control all your Apple products from the one device. Imagine holding your iPad, your UVerse channel guide pops up, it has the PIP so you can see whats on each channel, you swipe to the next page and its your ITunes account you can start a song while you pause your movie for whatever, you swipe pages again and your Mac desktop pops up where you check the status of a download, you swipe pages again and your iPhone screen pops up where you send a quick text to someone and realize you missed a call so you hit redial and the call is broadcast on your home theater speakers, you swipe again and your TV remote pops up where you skip ahead 5 mins past a scene you don't want your kids watching.
I think this is where Apple wants to be but they are just waiting for the non-physical technology to catch up. IE we need faster DSL, faster 4G data, faster and stronger wireless networks, etc. in order to handle all this traffic.
I'm with everyone else: where are you getting these numbers from?
Verizon has recently stated that LTE would cover all their current 3G areas, and even more, by 2013. For example, in this article from Feb 2010:
http://mobile.networkworld.com/devi....com/news/2010/022510-verizon-lte-melone.html
"Then by the end of 2013 we're going to have our entire current 3G footprint covered by 4G. So in other words, everywhere we have 3G coverage today we'll have 4G coverage. And we'll also have places where we don't have 3G coverage today that we'll have 4G."
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Yes, and in this case the long term effect they need to achieve is penetration into Verizon's customer base, not to mention 80 million CDMA users in China. They need to do that soon, before Android gets too much momentum.
See, that's where I think you got off the track. Microsoft isn't Apple's competition anymore, Google is. And Google's Android phones are the only thing in years that have the potential to stick a fork in the iPhone. So Apple needs a broader customer base, and the only place they're going to get it is Verizon.
Apple, according to Steve Jobs, is a Mobile Device Company now. Microsoft is irrelevant in that arena. Google most definitely is not and under the Open Handset Alliance, they're poised for a quick entry into all 4 major carriers. This is a potentially big deal because the new money paradigm is ad revenue on smartphones. Both Apple and Google have jumped on that mobile ad business, but with all four major cell phone carriers on deck for Google's call, Apple is at a disadvantage if they want to do anything to keep an edge on Google.
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The carrier information has nothing to do with verizon.
It is a new API which allows a carrier to offer carrier specific apps. It is written right there in the documentation.
It is a new API which allows a carrier to offer carrier specific apps. It is written right there in the documentation.
Have to disagree with going that far.
Microsoft's current mobile OS still dominates the industrial handheld market around the world.
Microsoft's current mobile/embedded OS with voice control is fitted to many automobiles around the world. The lucrative embedded mobile market is important enough that even RIM has recently bought QNX.
Microsoft's current consumer mobile OS (WM6.5) is quite nice, especially on HTC devices. The number of iPhone users in the USA only recently passed the number of WinMo users in the USA.
Microsoft's new consumer mobile OS (WP7) looks pretty competitive with Apple's.
If you switched the comment to tablets vs iPad, then I'd say you were more on the mark for now.
So, any of the 4 carriers could have their own specific apps on the iPhone?
That's a legitimate AT&T advantage (in most 3G places) as well. In my case though, I'd rather have more 3G coverage since I frequent a lot of areas that are still EDGE, but Sprint and Verizon have 3G.
Don't forget, the iPhone is all over the world with many many different carriers! An iPhone for verizon is not in the picture and never will be. The only way for verizon to get an iPhone would be to drop cdma like the carriers did in Canada.
Huh? I haven't known anyone with a Windows Mobile phone for over a year. Granted, the 50 or so people that I see frequently enough to know what kind of mobile device they're using isn't a large enough sample of the entire world's population to make an accurate assessment, but I'm pretty sure Windows Mobile is on it's way out - regardless of what Microsoft continues to manufacture. I mean, they continue to manufacture Zune as an alternative to iPod, but they're certainly not making headway in market share for that either.
You don't get out much do you?
I like how you said "industrial". Anyone in an "industry" is using a Blackberry more than likely. Consumer market is iPhone dominated. The only thing Microsoft "dominates" is the OS industry and they really don't even do that. It's more of a given since nothing else out there competes. Winmo as a "dominate" MOS is funny. MS can dress it up, revamp it and call it whatever it want's. It's still going to be crap. They need to stick with what they do best. PC OS'.
Good post. Fully agree
Well as someone who owns a Droid...I will readily admit that the iPhone is a superior phone--nothing beats the iPhone's multi touch precision--the Droid's is pretty mediocre. iPhone apps are also generally superior to their Android counterparts--facebook is much better in the iPhone for example. The iPhone is simpler, and far more elegant to use. I'm happy with that--I don't care to perform nerd dissections of my Android OS...I just don't care that much. I am also pretty invested in iPhone apps through my iTouch, and I haven't paid for many apps on my Droid. But not every Verizon customer is like me in that respect--some are very invested in Android by now, and more and more will continue to be the longer Apple waits. It's hard to switch to an iPhone when you've spent say 100 bucks on Android apps already.
There are a few things the Droid does better: google integration, the camera, SMS ...but overall I would prefer an iPhone, and I hope it does come eventually to Verizon. But I just will not switch to AT&T for it, and I wanted a good smartphone and just got tired of waiting. The Droid does a good job and I like its capabilities, there is no need to trash it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Apple's revenues are made if not 50% in the US, very close to that number. The US is Apple's #1 market BY FAR...making a CDMA phone for Verizon would not a waste of resources for insignificant revenue. Every single other manufacturer does it because they know that the CDMA market in the US is big, and very very profitable for them. Otherwise they wouldn't bother.