September 12th, 2008 
ccurwick Apple Extends Exclusive Agreement With AT & T
I found this article on localtechwire.com and decided to blog on it because I have been thinking a little about this. I have been wondering why Apple would choose to go exclusive with one carrier in the first place. Any thoughts on why Apple would make this business move given the high demand for the phones? From the article came a few thoughts I agree with (see below).
“If Apple made the iPhone available for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon users, can you imagine the selling frenzy? The company would be at the center of one of the most monumental days in the history of technology. If the iPhone 3G can sell this well on one carrier, I can’t imagine how well it would sell on the top three.”
”While I don’t think Apple has little faith in its product, I do think this is a poor decision. The iPhone has a chance to become not only the dominant smartphone for the coming years, but also the first real powerhouse in mobile computing. By limiting the device to one carrier, it limits its potential to reach such goals.”
Any other thoughts on this?
Article Source: http://localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wire/venture/story/3322365/
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Their decision had far more to do with technological limitations than folks acknowledge. There are two core cellular technologies in the world, CDMA and GSM. All service providers can be split into these two camps (for now). AT&T, TMobile, AllTel and several others (Found Here) operate on GSM. While it is far less secure than CDMA, it is less expensive and more versatile. Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, and others operate on CDMA. Each network would require different hardware in the actual handset used therefore Aple would have easily doubled it’s R&D cost and would have to had developed two different models for use on each respective network.
Another point to consider is that Apple is veraciously defensive of it’s brand and experience. By partnering with AT&T alone they have far more control and influence over the user experience. If you could buy an iphone from Cletus’s phone shop (Otherwise known as Tmobile) or other tier 2 providers, the customer experience would be far less desirable than what Apple is able to provide by partnering exclusively with AT&T.
Apple originally offered the iPhone partnership to Verizon, but Verizon turned it down due to music licensing and subscription disagreements. Verizon already had it’s own music service that would have been completely obliterated by an iphone with iTunes. Additionally, Apple gets @ 10% of all airtime charges that AT&T collects from iPhone customers nd Verizon would not agre to those terms either.
Toodles…
thanks Hank! I had no idea about the technical network aspects of Apple’s decision to partner with AT & T. Pretty cool insight. You are just a bank of knowledge Hank.
I knew that Verizon turned Apple down but now I have a better understanding of the reason behind it.
Keep posting comments Hank. They are very much appreciated!
Tbird