Verizon Wireless: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ iPhone
When Apple announced it had chosen to go with Cingular (now AT&T) as the preferred carrier for its new iPhone, observers in the peanut gallery (myself included) blogged about whether Verizon Wireless, the Cadillac of cell phone carriers, would ever get a shot at it.
Turns out Verizon Wireless did have a shot at it. Two years ago.
Verizon Wireless turned it down.
It seems Apple wanted a percentage of the monthly service fees, control over how and where the iPhones would be sold and control of the customer relationship. Verizon would have none of it.
“We said no. We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone. We just couldn’t reach a deal that was mutually beneficial”, according to Verizon Wireless vice president Jim Gerace.
This raises some interesting questions about the deal Cingular has cut with Apple. The most intriguing question: Will one of Cingular’s most powerful distributors, Wal-Mart, get to distribute the iPhone along with the rest of Cingular’s lineup? And how about Radio Shack?
As of now Cingular stores, Apple stores and their associated websites are the only places we know of that will have the iPhone for sure.
Apple, iPhone, Cingular Wireless, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Wal-Mart
[via USA Today]
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