Will Verizon Be Offering the iPhone soon?
Seeing that the iPhone has been such a game changer, it is no surprise that Ivan Seidenberg CEO of Verizon Communications clearly indicated in a recent interview that he wants the iPhone for his group’s network and to offer the iPhone and a Verizon cell phone plan for it. Something more analogous to a personal computer of sorts the iPhone has transformed the smart phone into and Verizon needs to be part of this.
This would be a breakthrough for Verizon as its CDMA network has better battery life than the GSM networks and it sounds as though Verizon is getting ready to speed up its network as well. Seidenber states, “Eventually, it’s our view we’ll get to carrying Apple (NSDQ: AAPL).”
Early adopters of the iPhone certainly complained of the slow speeds of AT&T’s cell phone network and were frustrated by not being able to use the iPhone as deftly as when in a Wi Fi hotspot. Many users described the iPhone as a ‘crippled device’ when on AT&T’s network.Along with the conversion to CDMA, Verizon would like the its iPhone to operate at 4G speeds as Verizon has plans to roll out its 4G network nation wide over the next coming year.
Although the Verizon group is actively courting Jobs and company, many don’t see the iPhone becoming compatible with Verizon in the near future as the Apple company has just made a deal with some major Chinese carriers and is focusing its efforts over here. Many analysis note that the driver behind Apple’s focus on other networks other than Verizon is CDMA phones cost more to make. Although Verizon could offer 10,000,00 iPhone users the margins would be a lot tighter for Apple. Apple has historically, built high margin units and thus the GSM device was first out of the gate and getting Apple’s attention is difficult.
Verizon’s CEO also was rather dismissive of other talk of his company merging with Vodafone.
Seidenberg says, “Another merger doesn’t offer much appeal at this time,”