Verizon President Offers a Look Inside the Apple-Verizon iPhone Negotiations

[ZMacintosh]

There needs to be some clarification surrounding the voice/data issue.

You can:

1.) Talk and open your contacts
2.) Talk and read e-mails that you have in your inbox
3.) Talk and browse through the phone, play games that aren't actively transmitting data
4.) Talk and browse the web if you have a Wi-Fi connection. For some this will be many places, the exception being your car (I'd like to see someone browse, talk and drive)

You can't:

1.) Talk and browse the web over 3G.
2.) Talk and play an online game over 3G

In addition:

1.) If you're streaming Pandora/XM/Sirius and a phone call comes in, the call gets priority. Your stream will stop, and the call will ring. Once you hang up the stream will continue.

2.) If you are synching your e-mail, and a call comes in, you will get the call.

3.) If you're playing an online game, you will still get your call.

Calls take priority over data. You won't have calls going to voice mail all day long. You will find this experience to be a non-issue unless you're obsessed with giving friends directions at the same time as you talk with them. That is all.

This, and I agree. Good points. So many alternatives that it doesnt really matter...I think people want to make a huge issue over it but forget hey atleast this is a step in the right direction...better than nothing and still I dont believe Apple would put something out there that wasnt up to their quality standards for customer usage.

 

[TheSlush]

In regard to the lack of Verizon branding on the iPhone, Verizon surely knew this would be non-negotiable from day one. It would have been an absolute deal-breaker for Apple if they were to be expected to slap Verizon's (horrible) logo on their pristine hardware.

 

[plathunter]

If only Verizon switched to GSM rather than Apple diminishing its iPhone to CDMA. Sure, a lot of Americans will move to Verizon, at least enough to make the deal profitable for both companies. But there's more people beyond the U.S.
Next stop, as someone already mentioned, is an iPhone for everyone on every IPS. Everywhere.

Yes there is more people beyond the U.S. maybe you forgot the country with the biggest population called China which uses CDMA

 

[mdatwood]

Won what? Verizon got a CDMA version without paying royalties. Pretty good deal for them.

VZW was/is known for taking a featureful phone, ripping out all the features and then charging customers piecemeal to get those features back. They also still install tons of crapware, and love the V branding all over the place. When Apple and VZW first talked (before the original iPhone), VZW would not budge on doing the same things they had been doing. Apple walked, AT&T got the iPhone and the rest as they say is history.

Once the original iPhone came out (and soon after Android) VZW realized they could no longer play the rip out all the features game. Crapware has also been slowly going away, and finally with them getting the iPhone VZW will be relegated as simply a carrier.

 

[jhiner]

None of this will matter after 2012 anyways... what's the difference

 

[davidbrummy]

it's not mulit-tasking - The iphone multi-tasks just find. Simultaneous voice an data it can't do. People keep confusing this term.

I would consider the simultaneous voice to be more of a deal breaker with Verizon if AT&T just didn't suck so back in the Bay Area. A few years ago for work I compared broadband cards. Verizon won hands down on speed and ability to connect. AT&T was not even close. I constantly get call failed in downtown San Francisco and around Burlingame on my iPhone.

If you are in an area with good AT&T service I could see people missing the ability to make calls and use data at the same time. But in high iPhone density areas like New York and The Bay Area I think people will put the ability to use their phone at the top of the list.

 

[gunthermic]

Well, i hope you dont plan to be able to Talk and use the iPhone Wifi...as that uses the data from your phone. so that right there is just as unsuccessful as just stopping the call and looking up the info.

If you or anyone else is using the iPhone Wifi/Hot Spot and someone calls, bye-bye hotspot for the time being.

Ahhhh the goold ol' days of dial up are seeming familiar with this. lol

Please clarify as this type of mis-inofrmation is what is gettign people all riled up.

You can use Wi-fi and a call at same time. If using Personal Hotspot and a call comes in, the call takes piority.

I am on a phone call and wi-fi all the time on Verizon.

 

[kirky29]

I find it nice that they spend so much time making it 'right'. Most other companies, not just cell phone companies....throw out as much as they can in the shortest time!

 

[Feynman]

1) sounds good - no vz logo on iphone
2) would have been cool if aapl employee put a pirate flag on vz cell tower on campus
3) sounds cool they had their own lab to cook things up
4) the senior vz engineer was fortunate to have a paid long-term road trip to work at aapl hq - he probably got a good bonus on top of that

Not to mention some delicious food! I worked at Apple headquarters for almost a year and their Cafe Mac is by far, hands down, the best food ever, and incredibly cheap for what you get. Not cheaper than Google (free) but the choices and quality of food is unbelievable!

 

[btcutter]

Anyway, I can easily see Verizon giving in to not branding the device. My Android is not branded too much from Verizon, no real "bloatware" or anything.

AT&T locks down their Android phones much more than Verizon does.

That's probably because ATT iphone can be JAILBROKEN and used on other GSM networks where as Verizon CDMA phone can't really be JAILBROKEN to use on other network I believe.

 

[Cinch]

branding defacement

"They don't put a lot of logos on their phones," McAdam said in the interview. "So that wasn’t a major issue for us."

It is call aesthetics you numbnuts. It is the same idea as NOT having intel inside sticker tarnishing a beautiful design.

It used to be that only Sony cared about aesthetic design, but now Apple is taking the lead. While the rest of the electronic world e.g. LG, Samsung don't give a ****** about design and beauty.

 

[MacAddict1978]

You know from a fluff interview released yesterday nothing. VZW publically bashed Apple for over 2 years. They decided to play nice well after the fact. They now have a relationship. I don't think they will air out dirty laundry and bash one another anymore (As VZW did publically until the 3GS launched, which seems to coincide with their renewed negotiations. Convenient, huh?) VZW was the first carrier Apple approached, and if you Google a bit you'll find lots to support this. This is a contrived story to make the public feel like these 2 companies have had this harmonious relationship and VZW is making it sound like they have a better quality control approach than AT&T. There are people who fear it's the iPhone and not the carrier that are to blame for the problems too. Clever of Verizon. It's shooting the bird to AT&T in ever so subtle a way. This is a marketing piece, nothing more. Neither Apple nor Verizon can physically erase the evidence of their past relationship, so they seek a buy in with fluff. It worked on you quite well. Which is why they do these things.

Because that never happened. That's a child's idea of how negotiations work. In the real world, they simply agreed to disagree. But it did. Don't be too literal. It's an expression.

Now we know from interviews that almost immediately after the iPhone was revealed, both Apple and Verizon realized they each had made a mistake. We do? How? There is no evidence to support this and nothing but evidence to support otherwise. If you count backwards on a calendar from this article alone, it lines up with the 3GS and when rumors and sources of renewed talks began. VZW spent millions of dollars in advertisements bashing the iPhone. Those ads also stopped... in concert with later going back to the table with Apple. They weren't kicking themselves in the ass really. Apple with their ATT exclusive, and Verizon for not taking a chance on the unknown. So they started talking again.



Won what? Verizon got a CDMA version without paying royalties. Pretty good deal for them. After AT&T grew millions of subscribers at their expense. Trust me, it hurt Verzion's balance sheet. Just because they are the largest carrier doesn't mean they didn't loose revenue to a competitor to this.



You do it for testing.

In addition, there was an article years ago about how when the Apple team first started working on the iPhone, there was almost no ATT reception on the campus. So ATT put a tower up there as well.

 

[ZMacintosh]

Please clarify as this type of mis-inofrmation is what is gettign people all riled up.

You can use Wi-fi and a call at same time. If using Personal Hotspot and a call comes in, the call takes piority.

I am on a phone call and wi-fi all the time on Verizon.

No, its the misunderstanding. from the original quoted text, the person was saying that while driving instead of using voice+data at the same time just connect your PCNetbook/whatever to your iPhone via HotSpot and you can talk and surf at the same time...but as I made mention of WONT work.

I never said anything about talking on the phone and using a WiFi connection to use data.

Folks should read first, before riling themselves up.

 

[jacollins]

Is the Verizon signal in Cupertino so weak that they couldn't develop the phone without the extra tower?

You act like AT&T hasn't had a tower there for years for the same reason. I suspect it's a key point in the contract to have a tower installed...

 

[SeanMcg]

One of the things I knew Apple would insist on was protecting the iPhone from ANY Verizon branding. I'm glad to see Verizon was smart enough not to fight that.

What did Apple cede? Future product plans (iPhone redesign and the iPad chief among them, I think), the announcement and the concession to the inability of CDMA to do voice and data at the same time.

As to CDMA's restrictions - I am a current Verizon subscriber who is fed up my Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. Not one of my complaints has to do with the fact that I can't use voice and data at the same time, so I'm not going to miss that feature on a Verizon iPhone.

What I would gain is a not only a nicely designed phone and media device but also a WiFi hotspot, something I was really looking for.

 

[Todd H]

Glad to see the iPhone on Verizon. Verizon's network blows away AT&T's network where I live. As soon as a 4G iPhone comes to Verizon, I'm changing providers.

 

[kdarling]

VZW was/is known for taking a featureful phone, ripping out all the features and then charging customers piecemeal to get those features back.

A lot of us have used Verizon smartphones (not dumb or feature phones) for years. With the exception of locking nav apps to their proprietary GPS solution because of E911, Verizon rarely ripped anything out or blocked apps or anything of that sort. Unlike Apple, Verizon smartphone users could download any app from any store, and customize their phone as they pleased.

They also still install tons of crapware, and love the V branding all over the place.

They do love their branding! But I wouldn't consider a couple of carrier-specific apps that you don't have to use, as crapware or bloatware or any of those other childish names. Sometimes they're actually useful. It's not much different than Apple forcing people to keep their Stocks app around.

When Apple and VZW first talked (before the original iPhone), VZW would not budge on doing the same things they had been doing. Apple walked, AT&T got the iPhone and the rest as they say is history.

It wasn't one-sided. Apple wanted monthly royalties but not to share ringtone revenue. Verizon wanted their sales partners such as Best Buy and Walmart to be able to sell as well, and for their customers to get subsidies.

Guess who changed the most? Apple dropped the royalties after one year and allowed subsidies. Apple also now sells the phone through almost everyone. Verizon simply had to not put their logo on the phone.

 

[dasos]

Depends really. If its a "normal" CDMA chipset it will have a code to get to NAM programming. Verizon might use a 6 digit Server Provider Code (SPC) to keep you out of it. Normally, Verizon has not done that plus with the new laws who knows.

 

[MonkeyClaw]

This is just fantastic, I have been waiting for VZW to carry the iPhone since the first keynote. Come february, I am going to take this POS Droid Eris, run over it with my car and grab me a real smartphone!

These negotiations, especially the engineering portion fascinate me. I wonder how much ass kissing went on when Apple got the first call from VZW.

 

[ComicJ27]

you can bet money AT&T is going to clamp down on people leaving. Break the contract you pay ETF. They are not going to let the normal BS slide.

Also the EFT is you paying the cost of the phone that your contract was supposed to cover over time.

Actually, the ETF (if your contract started before 6/2010) is $175 minus $5 for every month of the contract that has expired and if your contract was after 6/2010 it's $375 cancellation minus $10 for every expiring month. This change, combined with the dropped iPhone 3gs price, and the soon to be allowance of early upgrades for iPhone customers makes me wonder how long ago Apple broke the bad news to AT&T.

 

[vincenz]

No way in hell would Apple have let the VZW logo anywhere near the iphone. I bet it was one of the things they couldn't agree on in the beginning.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Good to see verizon is easily bent over now...

Only by Apple.

 

[bmturney]

Is the Verizon signal in Cupertino so weak that they couldn't develop the phone without the extra tower? Can people not living close the the Apple Headquarter even use the phone without loss of signal?

I'm sure the tower on Apple's campus was a testing tower... not on the same network as public VZ phones... just a guess... I have no idea

 

[Marlon_JBT]

Oh great! A CDMA iPhone.

Sprint, please.

 

[bmturney]

AT&T had to know...

Actually, the ETF (if your contract started before 6/2010) is $175 minus $5 for every month of the contract that has expired and if your contract was after 6/2010 it's $375 cancellation minus $10 for every expiring month. This change, combined with the dropped iPhone 3gs price, and the soon to be allowance of early upgrades for iPhone customers makes me wonder how long ago Apple broke the bad news to AT&T.

AT&T had to know it was coming... they already knew as soon as the original deal was inked when the exclusivity would end... companies like AT&T and Apple make no deals without evaluating the 5 year impact... I'm sure the contractual exclusivity ended around the middle of last year... and it has just taken Apple and VZ this long to iron out the specifics...