The model that Apple & AT&T seem to be operating under is in complete opposition with Verizon's operating model. They provide Ring Tones, music & photos to sell more types of services not to help an outside company or partner like Apple or to help supply their customers with low cost user run services. I'm speaking this as a Verizon customer that is happy with my cell phone service, but do not use any of the other Verizon pay extra for services. Around here they have about the best cell connection service. That's what I bought my Verizon cell phone plan for. Not for the unsupported items & features of my cell phone.
I would imagine the most difficult obstacle stopping Verizon from making a deal with Apple was their business model of crippling hardware and trying to sell customers all sorts of useless media they don't really want while keeping from the services they doo want. That doesn't jibe with iPhone.
I don't believe that Verizon would have goten along with the always obtrusive Apple. AT&T, not being the top cell phone company, had less to lose & more to gain. I would have liked to have seen either Verizon or Sprint to have been the iPhone partner. But they are both doing too well on their own to change their business model to that which Apple appears to require. Part of the requiring has to do with the many features of the iPhone.
There are so many things wrong with this statement.
First, from: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/2007-05-21-at&t-iphone_N.htm
USA Today said:AT&T currently claims about 62.2 million customers. Verizon and Sprint have 60.7 million and 53.6 million, respectively.
So AT&T is not a small-time provider. I think going back in history there are times when Verizon was on top and times when Cingular was on top. If reports are correct and Verizon has a better network than AT&T, then they may be spending more on the network than AT&T and they therefore need the customers more than AT&T. Second, the only feature AT&T likely had to change was to add server side-support for visual voicemail. This is a minor upgrade to a provider with 60 million subscribers. The other issue was perhaps Apple pushing for an acceleration of upgrades to AT&T's Edge network. If Verison's network is as great as many claim, Verizon wouldn't have even had to accommodate Apple on that request: its already taken care of.
I think the best explanation for Verizon losing the iPhone is that they just had their heads up their asses.