“And while Apple is getting a very sweet deal from AT&T in the form of huge payments for each iPhone sold, which is pulling in billions of dollars in revenues each quarter for the company, the relationship is also the subject of much discontent. Obviously, plenty of users are fed up with AT&T complete and utter failure at times to provide a network that will support the iPhone. But word is that Apple has also not been a happy camper for some time now, as what many perceive to be greatest source of weakness for the iPhone, AT&T’s network, is something that is completely out of their control,” Siegler writes. “The big question for 2010 is: Is Apple finally ready to do something about it?”
Siegler writes, “A few signs are starting to suggest that the planets may be aligning… [that] will in fact lead to a Verizon iPhone this coming summer.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “grh” for the heads up.]
Nope. It will be 2012 with an LTE phone. I can’t imagine Apple making a CDMA phone unless they are using the GSM-CDMA combo chip from Qualcomm – which has denied that Apple is using them. That would open up Verizion, the other china carriers, and DoCoMo & AU in Japan. For 2 years. Until they all move to LTE networks. Verizions network will fall with the onslaught of data just like AT&T;and orange’s (?) did.
AT&T;works just great where I live. Besides the suppose better coverage of verizon; will they force changes to iTunes? Would an Apple iPhone ‘scream’ Verizon all over the place (welcome screen, phone, etc)?
Well, I don’t see the point really. If Apple HAD been able to land Verizon initially, we’d still be having the conversations about insufficient network prowess simply due to the overwhelming quantity of iPhone users and the significant impact they’d have on any network.
Besides, with Verizon having a considerably slower 3G standard lacking the ability to provide simultaneous voice and data, it would feel like a backwards move. Additionally with LTE 4G networks still over a year away from any kind of fruition, the speculation still seems early. Once those networks are in place and Verizon and AT&T;are both utilizing that same standard, making such a port would be relatively easy… much more so than making a CDMA phone for Verizon that would quickly become obsolete.
If anything Apple could use the threat of such a move to light a fire under AT&T;to get them to invest more money and time in implementing their network upgrades with greater expediency.
@ Amex –
No.. I mean, do you see AT&T;branding anywhere on your current iPhone? Every other phone that AT&T;sells has their branding on it… I am certain that Verizon would have to make a similar concession if they were to obtain reseller rights.
The ATT network in the Washington Dc metro area just got a GREAT speed boost this last week.
3G was down almost to non-existent lest week, but all of a sudden this Monday, it picked up over five or six times faster for downloads and almost doubled upload speeds. Latency is down into the low 200 ms.
Nice upgrade, apps now load so fast I can watch without getting bored and falling asleep.
AT&T;is great on Kauai…
I agree with Willie G. I will go as far as to say that if Verizon and Apple would have partnered for the original iPhone and we were all on Verizon’s network with our iPhones today the experience would be worse. Verizon’s 3G is slow, very slow at times and add several million data hogging iPhones and Verizon’s network would buckle as bad, if not worse, than AT&T;’s does.
To be honest, I very, very rarely have any 3G issues with AT&T;. It feels really good to stand next to a Blackberry using Verizon friend when they start looking for something online. I like to wait, tap my foot for a few seconds, then pull out my 3GS and spout out the answer before the Blackberry has a chance to load its crappy version of whatever page they were trying to load.
I just don’t understand AT&T;. They want to get rid of landlines, but complain about cell use? Give me a cheaper landline & I won’t have to use my iPhone as much. They can’t even give you caller ID, or other features to compete.
I don’t see Apple wanting to Verizon. Remember the ATT vs Verizon ads? The ones that show that Verizon’s network will not allow both surfing and talking simultaneously?
Do you REALLY think Apple will go for that kind of poor network service – no matter how widespread that network may be?
A agree with Javbw – it’ll be 2011 and the next generation network before they’ll go to another carrier – T Mobile just isn’t big enough.
By then, Verizon’ll be begging at the door for Apple to let them in!
“I don’t see Apple wanting to Verizon.”
Should have been:
“I don’t see Apple wanting to sell through Verizon.” D’oh!
AT&T;is great in Phoenix. No data throughout problems here. My Verizon friends don’t have it as good and are jealous of iPhones
@rwahrens
“T Mobile just isn’t big enough.”
I hope that’s not the case. T-Mobile has a similar network to AT&T;, I am still crossing my fingers. I really don’t want to go to AT&T;.
Bringing the iPhone to verizon shouldn’t be a bad thing at all if anything in the end AT&T;customers will be happy! With the overwhelmingly amount of people on AT&T;with iPhones it has really brought the network down. But when the iPhone goes to verizon in June i’m sure more than half of the people on AT&T;will switch to a verizon iPhone along with already existing verizon customers and also people that don’t have iPhones. Now with that amount of people switching over, AT&T;network will be far more powerful as far as improved 3G downloading speeds, fewer dropped calls, improved network quality and reception. It might also help AT&T;deliver their tethering promise as well. So me as a iPhone customer on AT&T;can say that I’m really happy and is waiting for the apple-verizon!:) btw the new iPhone 4G is really nice!! And is worth the upgrade!
After hearing about Verizon’s customer service and reading some of their fees, I don’t think I want to be a customer of theirs.
I’ll stick with my first generation iPhone running on xxxxxxxxxxxx.
If the supposed new tablet has a 3G chip in it – I wouldn’t mind it being a CDMA chip so I can use it on Verizon and potentially saving on a data plan; compared to ATT.
However, I am so sick and tired of all the griping about ATT. Fact – all cellphone (and cable television) customer service stinks. Fact – it is a modern marvel that I can be in the middle of a national park checking in for my flight the next day on either a EDGE or 3G network. Fact – I have never been not able to make a call or send data, except for at a couple of sporting events. Fact – all cell networks drop calls.
Get over it people. The grass is always greener on the other side. While the sun may make it seem greener – it may in fact just be as dried up and brown as it is on this side.
AT&T;works great in the metro Philly area. No complaints at all.
My daughter has an old BF that works for the T-Mobile help desk.
They’ve closed their Tampa office and consolidated it with the Frisco Tx office, they’ve fewer than 30 people for round the clock customer service nation-wide. They are praying – hard – that Apple doesn’t sell the iPhone to their upper management.
I love all these “analyst” stories about “indicators” of “potentialities” for Verizon to carry the iPhone. Let’s face it, there’s one indicator that matters.
When Verizon starts upgrading capacity on their towers like crazy, then they will be getting the iPhone soon. If there’s so much pent-up demand for a Verizon iPhone, the last thing they’d want is for people to get them and find that their network is getting killed just like the Death Star’s.
MDN word: basic
Piss on Verizon.
Crap network, crap technology, crap everything. A turd.
The only thing that will help the iPhone’s network performance is a robust 21st-century wireless network, which no one in the U.S. has at this time. At this rate, India will probably have a modern network before U.S. carriers finally part with the cash required to rebuild their aging infrastructure.
Apple has said “mobility” is the topic of the 1/26 event. Would their entry into the Mobile Carrier business qualify as a “mobility” event?
@rwahrens
If Tmobile actually got the iphone.. that would be something they are praying for. since many people would switch over to them if the plans are cheaper.. even though their network is kinda junk
I hate all cell phone companies…regardless if Apple is working with them or not.
As for the iPhone being on other networks…well that would be a good thing.
The the more networks iPhone is on, the better the iPhone with be at giving it’s customers a great experience.
An open iPhone would be a very good thing in deed.
Checking data in a national Park?
Must be a small park, or near the entrance. The National Park Service doesn’t allow cell towers in parks.
Another day, another wishful article hoping Verizon gets the iPhone. Let’s remember that Verizon had it’s chance – they were offered the iPhone before everyone else. But the big-wigs at Verizon refused to support it unless they could lock down features a-la-carte. Steve wouldn’t compromise the user experience that Verizon wanted and so he went to ATnT.
Did anybody notice Verizon’s smear campaign against the iPhone in the past 6 months? There’s the misleading Red vs Blue coverage maps, calling the iPhone a “misfit toy” (bad move) and basically sticking it in Steve’s eye at every chance. And NOW they want iPhones on their network?
It. Ain’t. Gonna. Happen.
I don’t think Apple needs to go to Verizon at all. It’s not like they are having trouble selling iPhones. The only reason to jump to Verizon is if the iPhone wasn’t selling.
As a Verizon customer, I sincerely doubt that either Apple or Verizon will change their business model for the other. Which is what would have to happen for Apple to go to Verizon.
Still… stranger things have happened.
Jtc;
I was referring to the help desk personnel, who would be forced to handle a huge deluge of calls about their network crashing with fewer than half the phone people needed to handle the calls.
Can you imagine ATT network issues combined with a Google style failure of help desk assistance?
T-Mobile please!!
From the 3G iPhone owner I met in the grocery store checkout lane, that I had to ask how crappy the AT&T;service is here in Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia area…
He’s got NO COMPLAINTS with AT&T;service in Virginia (Eastern Seaboard)!
Compared with the other ‘shout outs’ of pleased AT&T;users here at MDN, seems like Luke Wilson can add a few more postcards to his repertoire!
And WTH are all those semicolons doing in my post. I didn’t type them?! MDN can you please explain??
If Apple will make money with a CDMA phone then I say go for it. Apple are in a great position now to release the phone to all networks that can handle it. It has the same appeal as the iPod and if available universally then a lot of people will buy it.
I have to agree with the other comments about 2012, and LTE being prerequisites for the iPhone on Verizon. The Qualcomm CMDA2000/UMTS/LTE chip isn’t scheduled to be available until the second half of this year, so that knocks that out for the January announcement. No way to get those chips in quantity until a lot later this year.
With iPhones selling very well here in the US, there doesn’t seem to be a big reason for Apple to make a CDMA2000-only especially since it is a dying cellular technology. Apple is smarter than that.
Service crappy in Norfolk/Virginia Beach? I don’t know where you are trying to make calls, but I haven’t had any trouble with service at all anywhere in southside Hampton Roads.
Why is no one taking into account the fact that Verizon is realeasing the Google Nexus One in the next few months. If that doesn’t show that they are starting to relinquish having total control over their phones, than I don’t know what does.
Verizon may be “slow” to adapt, but they will adapt none the less. They are smart enough to know what they have to do to continue making money and capture market share…
Remember…. in the end.. business is business…
@ATT Griping is Getting Old,
Yes, dropped calls can occur on any carrier. I have Sprint and I think I may have had 3 dropped calls all of last year. And yes, I do use my phone a lot.
Contrast this with my iPhone mates on AT&T;. When I talk to them, if the call is very long, they could drop 3 times in that one conversation. How do I know it is them and not me? I don’t. But when they call me back they say how tired they are of their goddamn phone dropping calls every other word so I just assume it must happen to them a lot.
Besides, when I call landlines, other Sprint users or Verizon phones I have no drops apart from the 3 or so a year I mentioned. I don’t know if those are me or the other party so I just assume they are me. And for T-Mobile? When I talk to friends on that network we don’t experience dropped calls either, but, lots of times the conversation is so “staticy” that I can’t understand a word they are saying requiring a hang up and call back. I’ve never had that issue calling anyone except T-Mobile users.
I live in Dallas, a larger market that should have great service from “all” of the carriers. Every one has my area in the darkest color on the map indicating top voice and data service.
Actually Apple came to Sprint first which many don’t know and Forsee turned them away because they wanted ulitmate control over content, marketing and how the user experience was managed. That went against Sprints commitement to the user experience as it appears Verizon squalked at too. ATT was stupid enough to allow that effort and while the revenue is unquestionable for them they clearly have lost the user experience and will suffer the consequences as soon as the iphone is made available on other networks. Let’s face it Apple knows the more carriers that carry their product generate more users and more money for everyone. It would be nice to finally put the “carriers” networks to the real test by having the iphone on the big three. It would come down to user experience at that point and I think the clear leader would be Sprint purely based on their network speeds and overall coverage. Plus with 4G available already and making strides across the company it won’t be long before the user can experience true landline connection speeds just about anywhere.