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could apple theoretically design a different phone for verizon?

chstr

chstr

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2009
672
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I am curious. Apple is a company that designs hardware. with all the fuss about exculsivity of the iPhone, couldn't apple theoretically design a similar product, call it something else and go through verizon, that way finding a way out of exclusivity with ATT? I know it would never happen as Im sure it would be considered unethical business practice or something but theoretically?
 
JD914 said:
Oh great! Another iPhone on Verizon thread but worded differently! :rolleyes:
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meh its a serious question. I mean they may already be doing it with the tablet. Could they design a different phone for ANY carrier then? hows that??? :p
 
chstr said:
meh its a serious question. I mean they may already be doing it with the tablet. Could they design a different phone for ANY carrier then? hows that??? :p
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Every iPhone is technically the same and will work on any GSM/UMTS carrier in the world. Verizon isn't either there CDMA2000. apple doesn't design special phones for each carrier. Carriers talk with apple and try and get a deal to sell the iPhone provided it supports the carriers Frequencies/standard.
 
chstr said:
I am curious. Apple is a company that designs hardware. with all the fuss about exculsivity of the iPhone, couldn't apple theoretically design a similar product, call it something else and go through verizon, that way finding a way out of exclusivity with ATT? I know it would never happen as Im sure it would be considered unethical business practice or something but theoretically?
Click to expand...

If they cared THAT much, why do you think they extended their deal with A&T?

Wouldn't it have just been easier to not do that?
 
Where do people get the idea that anything is really known about the exclusivity agreements between Apple and AT&T? It seems to be taken as gospel that there is a 5 year agreement with AT&T, but as far as I am aware there has never been any confirmation of this.

Small White Cars, do you have a source that confirms they've "extended" their deal with AT&T?
 
From a technical standpoint, Apple can do whaetver it wants with the iPhone. Hell, they could make an iPhone work on Nextel's iDEN if they wanted to.

But that's the thing... do they want to?

Verizon management has said the ball is in Apple's court. This is code speak for: Apple has made conditions and Verizon isn't willing to accede to them. Both companies have inflated egoes; we've known this for a long time now.

There is also the form-over-function thing: if it costs Apple too much, or it's too impractical to cram a CDMA chipset in with the rest of the radios in their design, then they won't do it unless and until something makes it worth their while. And I doubt they're about to make a CDMA-only version and have separate production lines. The only iPhones that are coming out differently from all the others are China Unicom models, and at best that's to delete WiFi from the package, not to add something different.
 
scaredpoet said:
From a technical standpoint, Apple can do whaetver it wants with the iPhone. Hell, they could make an iPhone work on Nextel's iDEN if they wanted to.

But that's the thing... do they want to?

Verizon management has said the ball is in Apple's court. This is code speak for: Apple has made conditions and Verizon isn't willing to accede to them. Both companies have inflated egoes; we've known this for a long time now.

There is also the form-over-function thing: if it costs Apple too much, or it's too impractical to cram a CDMA chipset in with the rest of the radios in their design, then they won't do it unless and until something makes it worth their while. And I doubt they're about to make a CDMA-only version and have separate production lines.
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Apple could throw a CDMA2000 radio in easy. Look at RIM's newest blackberry quint band UMTS and quint band GSM, never thought that was possible tell now. It wouldn't really take to much battery because if it was running on UMTS/GSM just have the CDMA2000 radio deactivated and if its running on CDMA2000 have the UMTS/GSM radio deactivated. if the consumer wanted to switch they could activate the radio's via settings. I don't see apple doing this but its really not a technical issue more of a bad relationship with verizon.

The only iPhones that are coming out differently from all the others are China Unicom models, and at best that's to delete WiFi from the package, not to add something different.
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Hmmm....if apple is willing to do that I think if anything we are getting somewhere....is that a physical change or a software/baseband change? Why would they want to block wifi I never understood that.....
 
scaredpoet said:
From a technical standpoint, Apple can do whaetver it wants with the iPhone. Hell, they could make an iPhone work on Nextel's iDEN if they wanted to.

But that's the thing... do they want to?

Verizon management has said the ball is in Apple's court. This is code speak for: Apple has made conditions and Verizon isn't willing to accede to them. Both companies have inflated egoes; we've known this for a long time now.

There is also the form-over-function thing: if it costs Apple too much, or it's too impractical to cram a CDMA chipset in with the rest of the radios in their design, then they won't do it unless and until something makes it worth their while. And I doubt they're about to make a CDMA-only version and have separate production lines. The only iPhones that are coming out differently from all the others are China Unicom models, and at best that's to delete WiFi from the package, not to add something different.
Click to expand...


Aren't the phones sold in China CDMA?
 
no disrespect to you but im kinda grown tired of this topic. yes they can design it for any hardware they want. they have not released it so oh well. and if they do how many people are gonna take a phone they already have and go to another company that will HONESTLY charge you the same to have if not more. believe me, verizon will tax you if they get the iphone. hell getting the blackberry storm 2 they force you into data plans that will about equal your bill on at&t.

so please just leave it alone....
 
chstr said:
I am curious. Apple is a company that designs hardware. with all the fuss about exculsivity of the iPhone, couldn't apple theoretically design a similar product, call it something else and go through verizon, that way finding a way out of exclusivity with ATT? I know it would never happen as Im sure it would be considered unethical business practice or something but theoretically?
Click to expand...

Well, it also depends on the contract (as some people would say "if there is one") as we don't know what it entails. If it's simply the iPhone, then they could easily release a "zPhone" that's like a flip phone. If it entails the operating system as well...then there's no point to releasing a different phone anyway as the main part of the iPhone is the OS.
 
Verizon was the first US carrier they approached way back in 05-06 and Apple was denied for various proprietary reasons.

Now they launch a campaign against the iPhone.

Not looking good brother...
 
chstr said:
I am curious. Apple is a company that designs hardware. with all the fuss about exculsivity of the iPhone, couldn't apple theoretically design a similar product, call it something else and go through verizon, that way finding a way out of exclusivity with ATT? I know it would never happen as Im sure it would be considered unethical business practice or something but theoretically?
Click to expand...

Theoretically? Of course.

Likely? C'mon.
 
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