Verizon CEO Claims He Convinced Steve Jobs to Add LTE to iPhone

[Arcady]

Apple offered the original iPhone to Verizon, but they turned it down because of Apple's insistence on control of the device for updates, the need for visual voicemail, and the lack of carrier branding on the device.

So Apple went to Cingular, which became AT&T by the time the phone was released.

Verizon came crawling to Apple by the time they realized their mistake.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I'm sure he did in the same way the a healthy brain convinces us to eat... rather inevitable.

 

[lazyrighteye]

Turns out, this guy's no slouch. He had a brunch with Al Gore and 6 months later - BOOM - the internet.

 

[Xenomorph]

This is all false. **I** am the one that (personally) convinced Steve Jobs to use LTE.

 

[HangmanSwingset]

I myself don't much see the point of LTE. I stream Netflix fine on 3G, and GOD FORBID if Facebook takes longer than 5 seconds to load. Plus T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 is a bit faster than -most- of the [other carriers'] LTE speed tests I've seen. It's REALLY nice for CDMA carriers though.

Not saying that it isn't the way of the future though. I'd LOVE it myself (Once T-Mobile rolls it out and I get ahold of an iPhone 5...), but when I hear someone saying "I love this phone, but I don't want it because it doesn't have LTE and 3G sucks", my knuckles turn white.

/rant

 

[foodog]

Big Deal

I convinced him to make the iPhone

 

[Plutonius]

and Al Gore invented the internet .

 

[Pirate515]

Verizon came crawling to Apple by the time they realized their mistake.

I wouldn't call it "crawling back", I'm pretty sure Verizon would still be around even if they didn't carry iPhone as of today. IMO, both saw an opportunity to make more money and finally took it.

On Verizon's side, with amount of iPhone fanboys getting increasingly unhappy with AT&T, Verizon knew that they would be able to get at least some of them to switch. Maybe not immediately as people were under contracts, but eventually they would get some former AT&T customers. I am one of those and could not be happier that I made the switch.

Apple knew that their US sales would not increase if they continued sticking with one carrier (AT&T). They also knew that there was a considerable number of Verizon fanboys who were holding out on iPhone as they were refusing to switch to AT&T, especially in light of all the complaints. Not to mention that in many European countries they were already selling iPhones on multiple carriers, although with most of Europe being GSM it was a lot easier to do and did not require a separate model.

At the end of the day, I would say that both Apple and Verizon both saw benefits of doing business together and finally put their "differences" aside and seized the opportunity.

 

[redhawk87]

lol! While this may of actually happened as he describes, its completely meaningless. Steve Jobs had his own agenda as I am sure this guy had his own too. Im sure Steve did not learn anything new about LTE from this guy and had already made up his mind about LTE before the meeting. Its hard for me to believe Steve did not know the download speeds of LTE (or at least a ballpark as im sure each carrier has slight variations in speed) before this meeting.

 

[GenesisST]

I have to agree here too. Sounds like this Verizon CEO is talking BS out of his ass here.

That's why he's an "executive"!

 

[Gasu E.]

I don't think he is taking credit for LTE iphone but we all know apple was hesitant to switch until the technology could at least walk on 2 feet. I think his role was one of convincing Steve that the technology had matured enough for Apple to jump on board.

Sounds right. You must be an actual adult!

 

[rGiskard]

Left out of his telling is what Steve convinced him to do. No doubt Steve Jobs let him think he sold him on LTE as a negotiating tactic.

I just cannot believe Steve Jobs would not have heard from anyone at Apple that LTE is good for streaming video, that he had to hear it from Verizon's CEO.

 

[inlinevolvo]

Verizon came crawling to Apple by the time they realized their mistake.

Actually this is a mute point. While the iPhone was single handily crippling AT&Ts network, Verizon got to watch from the sidelines and make improvements in their network in preparation for the iPhone. They were also a key player in androids success in the US. This actually just benefitted the consumer. I have had Verizon for over a decade now and wasn't convinced to switch carriers. Apple knew that if they wanted to expand their market share and respond to androids growth, they had to broaden their list if supported carriers. It's hard to say in the long run that Verizon begged apple because it was a mutually beneficial arrangement for both parties to be partners.

 

[the8thark]

Actually this is a mute point. While the iPhone was single handily crippling AT&Ts network, Verizon got to watch from the sidelines and make improvements in their network in preparation for the iPhone. They were also a key player in androids success in the US. This actually just benefitted the consumer. I have had Verizon for over a decade now and wasn't convinced to switch carriers. Apple knew that if they wanted to expand their market share and respond to androids growth, they had to broaden their list if supported carriers. It's hard to say in the long run that Verizon begged apple because it was a mutually beneficial arrangement for both parties to be partners.

This is not entirely true. Apple originally pitched the iPhone to many US carriers and the only one that would take them was AT&T with an exclusivity contract. The others were like "an Apple phone? haha". After the success of the iPhone on AT&T and the exclusivity contract with t hem was up, the other carriers quickly added the iPhone to their lineups. They wanted a piece of that profit action too.

"While the iPhone was single handily crippling AT&Ts network" This is true cause it was so popular there. Well it was the only place to get an iPhone for a long while (in the US).

 

[kugino]

Actually this is a mute point. While the iPhone was single handily crippling AT&Ts network, Verizon got to watch from the sidelines and make improvements in their network in preparation for the iPhone. They were also a key player in androids success in the US. This actually just benefitted the consumer. I have had Verizon for over a decade now and wasn't convinced to switch carriers. Apple knew that if they wanted to expand their market share and respond to androids growth, they had to broaden their list if supported carriers. It's hard to say in the long run that Verizon begged apple because it was a mutually beneficial arrangement for both parties to be partners.

what's a "mute" point?

it's hard for me to believe that steve would listen to anything anyone from the cell business would have to say...

 

[inlinevolvo]

This is not entirely true. Apple originally pitched the iPhone to many US carriers and the only one that would take them was AT&T with an exclusivity contract. The others were like "an Apple phone? haha". After the success of the iPhone on AT&T and the exclusivity contract with t hem was up, the other carriers quickly added the iPhone to their lineups. They wanted a piece of that profit action too.

"While the iPhone was single handily crippling AT&Ts network" This is true cause it was so popular there. Well it was the only place to get an iPhone for a long while (in the US).

What part of what I said was false?

 

[iHelios]

in a way, Steve convinced Verizon to convince Steve to add LTE to iPhone.

Image

I lol'd

 

[BiggAW]

The bottom line on the iPhone 5 was that it came out after the cutoff date for smartphones to be LTE on Verizon. If it didn't have LTE, it wasn't going on Verizon, and that's not something Apple wanted to do.

On Verizon's side, with amount of iPhone fanboys getting increasingly unhappy with AT&T, Verizon knew that they would be able to get at least some of them to switch.

I don't think anyone, AT&T and Apple included knew how popular the iPhone would be when they launched.

And the fact of the matter is that a small percentage of VeriPhone customers were "switchers", most of them were on Verizon family plans, and couldn't leave Verizon but wanted the iPhone, and were finally able to.

 

[wkadamsjr]

While all these memes are funny and all, did anyone actually read the article link? The reporting is entirely different from MacRumors' account...

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story...eless-traffic-video/2013-04-10?utm_source=rss

 

[Premium1]

Sure ya did

 

[xak]

the only one using the term "convince" was the author of the article. all the guy did was tell a story as far as i'm concerned, and in that quote he never claims sole responsibility for the addition of lte to the iphone or that he was the single person to convince him to do so.

 

[haruhiko]

I convinced Jobs to enter into the tech industry.

 

[Sir Michael]

Thanks Mr. Version CEO! You totally did.

 

[antonis]

This is all false. **I** am the one that (personally) convinced Steve Jobs to use LTE.

But you wouldn't be able to, if **I** hadn't convinced him to return to Apple.

Now, seriously, is this CEO guy really expects to get any credits, stating such things after Steve's gone ?

 

[Arcady]

Actually this is a mute point.

The word is moot.

I didn't bother reading anything else you wrote.

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iPhone fanboys getting increasingly unhappy with AT&T

I hear this kind of stuff all the time.

Guess what? Carriers vary greatly by geographic region. I have an AT&T phone and my co-worker has a Verizon phone. We travel to a different state practically every week. Some weeks, my phone works and his sucks. Some weeks, his phone works and mine sucks. Most weeks, both of our phones work fine. We've been in 32 cities in 20 states since January. I found one small town where I only got Edge. His Verizon phone in the same town had LTE. In the town we are in now, I get 5-bar 3G (my phone is not 4G/LTE) and he can't even make voice calls.