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

[cvaldes]

I doubt Verizon really cares about that. All Verizon cares about is the fact that AT&T now has just as many subscribers as Verizon, and it's pretty much all on the back of the iPhone--and in spite of AT&T's inferior coverage network. Imagine if, once LTE rolls out, AT&T no longer has the same terrible network it has now? What if it's equal to Verizon's? What would happen then? That's why Verizon wants to get on board with Apple now.

Verizon has been in a long standing bet with AT&T: service trumps hardware. And, to their credit, until the iPhone came along, they were right.

I'm sure that Verizon Wireless has been watching the rest of the world.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone. Vodafone is the world's largest telecommunications corporation by revenue and has a commercial presence in 23 markets outside of the United States. Vodafone is an official iPhone carrier in most of those markets.

You better believe Verizon Wireless and its parent companies care.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

From what I heard they are making that stuff downloadable as an app instead of pre-installed.

I am SO glad I was wrong about that on the announcement day. The hotspot in the preferences is fine, and Verizon will quickly learn that nobody will download their crappy v-cast apps.

 

[schwell]

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.

It is an issue if you are on long calls and you are unable to get your email until you hang up.

 

[dvoros]

iPhone 5 and beyond

Will Apple's continued development of the iPhone lead them to develop a single phone or two? Will an iPhone 5 be built for AT&T Network and then another model for a Verizon Network or will one design work for both? I think this is critical for those of us contemplating a switch from AT&T to a more reliable Verizon Network.

 

[cvaldes]

COGS would be lower on a device focused for a certain network. The chips and licensing fees are not just pennies; the cost is significant and we all know how much Apple likes their fat margins on the iPhone.

Also, a unit with combined hardware might be bulkier.

Lastly, there may be significant performance compromises in a unified antenna design.

I doubt we'll see a unified handset until current CDMA operators shut down their CDMA networks (maybe in ten years). And who knows, ongoing differences in wireless spectrum allocation across the globe may force handset manufacturers to look into designs optimized for certain frequencies.

 

[toomanyipods]

Thank goodness for minimal branding

Aside from iOS, this is probably the most compelling reason to buy an iPhone over the other phones they sell. Ever had a Verizon phone? Verizon always has these meddling, half-baked "utilities" (disablers) and physical and virtual Verizon labels slapped everywhere. Good riddance!

 

[karichristensen]

Verizon's logo is one of the ugliest designs ever. It could even make the nice design of the iPhone look cheap!

 

[Doctor Q]

Verizon's logo is one of the ugliest designs ever. It could even make the nice design of the iPhone look cheap!

That's another reason it's nice that only the Apple logo appears.

As an added bonus, we geeks can impress people by learning to identify a Verizon iPhone at a glance when most people can't tell the difference from how it looks.

 

[ripper998]

gotta love the AT&T fanboy's vs the Verizon Fanboy's


Both of you need to get a clue, some networks work better in certain areas more-so then others.

And verizon didnt get to be the largest guy on the block by themselves, they bought AllTel who doubled there size for $28 billion. Alltel wanted to be bought out because there were running ridiculous pricing deals in comparison to other carriers to get there subscribers up and then sold out.

Another thing is verizon has been laying people off in other division for years because they are losing money as a whole (looking for a way to show a profit to keep the investors happy).

Once every carrier has an iphone, maybe then we can stop all these fanboy vs fanboy crap

 

[Geckotek]

gotta love the AT&T fanboy's vs the Verizon Fanboy's


Both of you need to get a clue, some networks work better in certain areas more-so then others.

And verizon didnt get to be the largest guy on the block by themselves, they bought AllTel who doubled there size for $28 billion. Alltel wanted to be bought out because there were running ridiculous pricing deals in comparison to other carriers to get there subscribers up and then sold out.

While I agree with you about a lot of the extreme statements and falsehoods being thrown around here, you're throwing out one of your own.

Verizon was 67M and Alltel was 13M at the time of their merger. This nowhere near doubled Verizon's size. You need to push back a decimal...instead of becoming 200% of it's original size it was more like a 20% increase.

This also doesn't take into account the subscribers that got handed over to AT&T which makes it even that much less of an increase.

 

[sclawis300]

You will be seeing a bunch of Verizon iphone covers...they may even give you one for free so they can get their branding on the thing

I will take it.

 

[URFloorMatt]

I'm sure that Verizon Wireless has been watching the rest of the world.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone. Vodafone is the world's largest telecommunications corporation by revenue and has a commercial presence in 23 markets outside of the United States. Vodafone is an official iPhone carrier in most of those markets.

You better believe Verizon Wireless and its parent companies care.

Care about what? And I don't even get the point. Are you suggesting that Verizon thought at the time that no one would accept Apple's terms? But only now that dozens of carriers worldwide have done it, they're okay with making concessions on silly non-issues like logos?

On the contrary, I think Verizon rejected the iPhone because they had nothing to lose and everything to gain. After watching that Daily Show piece from last night, I think not signing up for the iPhone at launch was maybe the most brilliant marketing strategy ever. A classic case of delayed gratification.

 

[cvaldes]

But Verizon Wireless didn't get their way.

Apple basically tossed their terms on the table and said, "They're the same as all the other carriers we've signed. Oh, and we might stop by Sprint and T-Mobile USA."

And Verizon replied, "Where do we sign?" Verizon conceded, not Apple.

If a single AT&T subscriber switches to Verizon, that is proof that Verizon left money on the table by turning down Apple's original offer.

 

[Geckotek]

I'm sorry, were you present for the negotiations?

Not exactly true, Verizon didn't have to pay a subsidy. Not sure if those lost users were worth it depending on how much it was.

 

[tetravus]

More choices mean everyone wins. Hopefully the iphone also goes to Sprint and Tmobile. Once anyone can get one regardless of carrier, maybe all the carrier bashing will end. They're area specific anyway, so comparisons don't really matter.

 

[gunthermic]

Very true, I believe this is getting blown out of proportion. It seems like both sides are ready to cry foul at the drop of a hat. Verizon folks saying AT&T has spotty reception, and AT&T folks saying no simultaneous voice/data. In the end, it doesn't matter:

1. Verizon customers happy with Verizon will stick with Verizon and now have the iPhone as an option. They won't miss what the didn't have. I fit in this catergory.

2. AT&T customers happy with AT&T will stick with AT&T and now have an iPhone rival, which only leads to improvement on a carrier they prefer.

3. There are those that are not happy with AT&T or Verizon, they now have the option to switch.

Each has their positives and negatives and it all depends on what you want/need. Really, more people win with Verizon carrying the iPhone, except those who find something to complain about for everything of course. Now, let's all play nice.

+1
+1
Amen!

 

[vnowarita]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8B117)

What seems interesting to me in all these conversations we are discussing android vs iPhone. BB seems to have become even more irrelevant. Times are changing. Although there are still people out there that love their crackberries.

 

[D*I*S_Frontman]

I have a Verizon Palm Pre Plus. It was FREE with a 2 year contract, so it clearly is 100% subsidized by Verizon.

Only Verizon logo on the phone is on the back of the screen.. only visible when the keyboard is slid out.. and it's grey font on a mirror like surface.. so pretty much invisible.

No 'bloatware', either.. just a VZ Navigator in the menu that I have no idea what it even is.

Verizon has the best nationwide coverage. It's a non debatable point. It's fact. They have the best coverage of any U.S. carrier.

It may not be as fast, but it works.. and working medium speed everywhere you go is far better than not working at all most of the places you go. At least in my book.

Anybody catch The Daily Show last night? Jon Stewart said the only way he could send a text message to Stephen Cobert on his iPhone was to type the message, then have an errand boy take the phone to Cobert so he could read it.

I could care less about being able to surf the web and talk on the phone at the same time. Only time I can imagine that would be of any real use is if you're using the GPS feature that relies on data from the web and a phone call comes in.

I mean, come on.. who are these people that spend their days using their iPhones to give other people directions? Seriously? I'd tell those people to google map search the directions themselves. Who am I? Rand McNally?

When someone calls you and you have to browse the web while talking to them.. there's a word for that.. and the word is DOUCHEBAG.

The inability to do simultaneous voice and data hasn't hurt Verizon's current wide range of smartphones, and I seriously doubt the continued inability to do so will deter a vast number of existing Verizon customers from migrating to the iPhone.

Best post on this thread, IMHO. "Douchebag" LOL!!

 

[SactoGuy18]

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?

That was actually a SMART thing to do. Reason: Apple wanted to make sure the CDMA iPhone 4 worked well on the Verizon network with both CDMA and EV-DO connectivity. Note that even the antenna design was changed specifically for operating on Verizon's network.

Because the Verizon iPhone 4 looks almost exactly the same as the GSM standard iPhone 4, my guess is that Apple engineers may have quietly sent a small number of undisguised Verizon iPhone 4's to test up and down the US East Coast to make sure they avoided the issues the plagued the GSM iPhone 4.

By the way, I'm glad that Verizon made V-Cast an optional feature, essentially a separate app.

 

[gopnick]

When someone calls you and you have to browse the web while talking to them.. there's a word for that.. and the word is DOUCHEBAG.

Or, "someone who works for a living".

Three times yesterday, I was forced to look something up for a client on the web while we were on the phone. Twice it involved documentation stored online at DropBox. Once it was a piece of data from an HTML table on the web.

 

[gopnick]

I doubt Verizon really cares about that. All Verizon cares about is the fact that AT&T now has just as many subscribers as Verizon, and it's pretty much all on the back of the iPhone--and in spite of AT&T's inferior coverage network. Imagine if, once LTE rolls out, AT&T no longer has the same terrible network it has now? What if it's equal to Verizon's? What would happen then? That's why Verizon wants to get on board with Apple now.

Verizon has been in a long standing bet with AT&T: service trumps hardware. And, to their credit, until the iPhone came along, they were right.

Excellent points all.

LTE should also make handset portability easier. People will be even less loyal to a carrier than they already are, especially with all the ETF reforms going on at the moment.

 

[URFloorMatt]

If a single AT&T subscriber switches to Verizon, that is proof that Verizon left money on the table by turning down Apple's original offer.

Completely wrong.

1) Verizon didn't have to pay for exclusivity. AT&T, by all accounts, paid very heavily for it.

2) Like I said, this is about delayed gratification. AT&T gobbled up the iPhone, then came to find out they have a network that couldn't really support it, particularly in dense markets. Now, everyone thinks Verizon has a vastly more reliable network and thinks that nobody on AT&T can make a call for more than a few seconds and only if standing incredibly still. Is either of those things true? Not particularly, but the perception is what's going to drive sales.

Whatever subscribers AT&T picked up due to exclusivity came at the cost of being the guinnea pig. And most people believe that AT&T failed the iPhone test. That is a substantially hit to goodwill that AT&T will not reclaim any time soon.

Assuming that Verizon has a sufficiently capable network and the dropped calls meme never rears its head against Verizon, then the delayed gratification here was well worth it. Because, when there's an exclusivity contract involved, it doesn't matter how many people AT&T can sign up during the life of the contract. What really matters is how many of those people AT&T can hold once the exclusivity expires. And if current survey data is accurate (roughly 25% of iPhone users plan to switch), the answer is not good at all for AT&T.

 

[chrmjenkins]

Completely wrong.

1) Verizon didn't have to pay for exclusivity. AT&T, by all accounts, paid very heavily for it.

2) Like I said, this is about delayed gratification. AT&T gobbled up the iPhone, then came to find out they have a network that couldn't really support it, particularly in dense markets. Now, everyone thinks Verizon has a vastly more reliable network and thinks that nobody on AT&T can make a call for more than a few seconds and only if standing incredibly still. Is either of those things true? Not particularly, but the perception is what's going to drive sales.

Whatever subscribers AT&T picked up due to exclusivity came at the cost of being the guinnea pig. And most people believe that AT&T failed the iPhone test. That is a substantially hit to goodwill that AT&T will not reclaim any time soon.

Assuming that Verizon has a sufficiently capable network and the dropped calls meme never rears its head against Verizon, then the delayed gratification here was well worth it. Because, when there's an exclusivity contract involved, it doesn't matter how many people AT&T can sign up during the life of the contract. What really matters is how many of those people AT&T can hold once the exclusivity expires. And if current survey data is accurate (roughly 25% of iPhone users plan to switch), the answer is not good at all for AT&T.

Despite the hit to reputation and the billions spent in network upgrades, they still raked in billions. That's what the shareholders care about. And if the exodus really is as big as everyone fears, their now built-up network will have less subscribers and their reputation will build back up.

I'm unsure how Verizon will handle the iPhone. I've seen statistics that Verizon droid users actually gobble more data than iPhone users, but the sheer number of new users may not make that matter anymore.

 

[Geckotek]

I'm unsure how Verizon will handle the iPhone. I've seen statistics that Verizon droid users actually gobble more data than iPhone users, but the sheer number of new users may not make that matter anymore.

They just put up 16 new towers in NYC alone. I'm fairly certain they'll be fine.

They also aren't in the middle of a big network upgrade between 2 incompatible technologies like AT&T was during the launch of the 3G. That upgrade was a big cause of AT&T's issues.