Verizon Rejected iPhone Deal due to Apple's Terms

[bluebomberman]

The pain! The pain! Argh! The pain!

Why, why, why Verizon must you suck so much? Why do I keep on paying you month after month when I hate you so? Why am I stuck under contract with you for another 18 months?

 

[Rodimus Prime]

well apple needed Cingular or Verizon to really have a chance with the iPhone. The other carrier are just 2 small. And they will do just find with out the iphone but if apple wanted to sell an real amount of the iPhones they needed those 2 companies. Based on this I do not think you will see the iPhone ever really spreading outside of cingular because apple demands are pretty damn high.

The % sells maybe. But the ones that I think are over board are the outlets it can be sold, and apple being the only one allowed to decide on repairs and replacement. That 2nd one is a sure fire way to making customers pissed off because they are going to take there broken phone to cellular store they got them from before they would contact apple. I mean it will just piss people off telling them they need to contact apple. And apple would be a lot slower o a turn around time the the stores which can be mins compared ot what from apple more than likely would be days. Something people never can stand.

I can understand the limiting of the subsidizing but apple made a lot of demands that are well over the top and I think it was the correct thing to do by Verizon turning them down.

Oh yeah and pretending I was cingular yeah I would of turned apple down limiting where it could be sold and for the repair and replacement one. both those a great way to piss off customers and risk losing them. Even more so since it appears that insurance will be even less of an option is apple holding all the cards.

But then again those demands are typical apple. if cingular turn them down apple would of had to really back down on there demands. Hell I would not be surprised if cingular force them to because apple needs the cell companies a hell of a lot more than they need apple.

 

[budugu]

It's not as absurd as you think.

It's common practice in quite a few professions. It's the concept of referrals; if I refer you a client, I will get a portion in your sale. You should be grateful, because if I didn't refer you the client, then the sale never would've happened. The concept applies here.



That's what they said and some still say about the Macintosh and the iPod. I can't wait until next MacWorld when Apple and Cingular prove you wrong.

Referral - generally gets you (if you refer some one) a 1 time bonus ... not a life long revenue stream. All phones are discounted by the providers

Cingular charges rediculously high price for the Data service ~ 50$ or more for unlimited. How many of them will be willing to have a 100% rise in their bill?

 

[mlrproducts]

This is a mess. I for one cannot predict what will happen like I believe us Apple devotees usually can. A few points:

1) iPhone is expensive so they have room for $400 iPods below the phone line.
2) I doubt Apple demanded portions of the contracts.
3) I think a FIVE year contract is a bad move. For whom, Apple, Cingular, consumers, I don't know.
4) The iPhone will revolutionize the mobile phone industry BUT...
5) The iPhone and its subsequent lines will probably not see the popularity that the iPod sees.

 

[NoCleverSNForMe]

Referral - generally gets you (if you refer some one) a 1 time bonus ... not a life long revenue stream. All phones are discounted by the providers

You're absolutely right. It may truly be a one-time referral, with Apple receiving revenue from the two-year contract. (At the end of the two-year contract, the customer may renew where Apple doesn't get anything off of the new one. On the other hand, the customer may elect to purchase a new iPhone for another two-year contract and sell their old one on eBay )

Then again, that's all speculation. We don't know the inner workings of the deal to truly comment on it.

Cingular charges rediculously high price for the Data service ~ 50$ or more for unlimited. How many of them will be willing to have a 100% rise in their bill?

I believe it's $39.99 for unlimited data. The $49.99 plan is unlimited data plus 1,000 text messages.

We should keep two things in mind:

1) Cingular is about to be transformed into AT&T, which may choose to change its plans to something more competitive.

2) AT&T may have some kind of special data pricing for iPhone customers. Keep in mind, Yahoo! has already struck a deal to give iPhone customers a free Yahoo! Plus upgrade to get the IMAP service. There's a possibility that AT&T may have separate iPhone prices, much like the special Blackberry plans.

Again, we won't know anything until June. So hang on tight, guys.

 

[maxterpiece]

First off, I can't stand Verizon at all, they lock up features on a phone that other carriers let us use (bluetooth contact sync for example), then force us to pay if we want to use that. I CANT STAND VERIZON. As soon as the iphone is released I will be trashing verizon moving on to cingular.

Yeah verizon is a joke. they are all about making it impossible to switch (they charge ridiculous $ to buy out their contracts), they put that horrible software, remove features, use old technology so their phones are only compatible with their service. You can usually erase the verizon software from the phones though ---- google around and you'll find info on how.

As far as the five year contract goes, Cingular can have a 5 year contract with Apple to sell the phones and it can say in the contract that they have exclusive rights to the iPhone for X amount of time (what is it, two years?).

 

[Andrew F]

That's what they said and some still say about the Macintosh and the iPod. I can't wait until next MacWorld when Apple and Cingular prove you wrong.

They very well may. And if they do, good for them. However, I still say that the price, assuming the service is not discounted, is too high to really get a very large number of people to buy them right away. Everyone has music, especially teens and young adults. Because of this, everyone wants an iPod which has led to its awesome success. But iPods don’t cost $500+ dollars. I think that every one here assumes that the same demographic that buys iPods will buy the iPhone. The largest group of buyers, I believe, is going to be the people would need the other capabilities it offers, which is much smaller than the group who want to carry along a lot of music. The iPod is great because every kid in the world wants one. Not every kid in America needs a computer in their hands. And for people with a large music library, the iPhone is not going to cut it.

The iPhone is going to be an awesome product. It I could afford it, I would get it in a second. But it is kind of like a BMW. It will be wanted by many, but only affordable to a few. I only hope I can be in the few about the time it comes out.

And, although the Macintosh has had a great past year, its success is almost non existent compared to the iPod and what every one here expects the iPhone to be, so you really can't use that as a comparison.

 

[chaser1522]

wow

i don't think apple needed verizon more than verizon needed apple. cingular has a bigger network and so more potential customers. if the iphone does indeed become ipod big verizon will be kicking themselves.

ok, for one. Verizon does have a bigger network. I promise. Um number two I would rather talk to apple about service over Verizon any day. I could have a verizon store in my basement and I would rather deal with Apple. Like Steve said they can sell 10 million phones in a q. Going through Cingular anyways. Anything to get them in the door works great and 10 million times 499.99? Also it's an apple not a motorola so hopefully were not in a store throwing our phone's at the nearest unhelpful customer service dude like we are now. I hate Verizon and Vcast sucks a mean one anyway. Verizon screwed up and it will poke them later. The chocolate by LG is the worst pile of crap I have ever used and same goes for the MOTO Q. Hat's off to Cingular and as soon as I can GOODBYE VERIZON BS.

 

[chaser1522]

how it all happend

Actually Steve probably had a Verizon contract for his phone and that's why we now have an iPhone.

 

[Ryan5505]

Here on the east coast Verizon does a great job with their service coverage. Customer service used to be a lot better with vzw but has slipped down hill, they used to fix most phone problems, but now ask if you have insurance on a damaged phone, and ask you to just make a claim to the insurance company.

I hate my razor phone, its slow and I must pay to use any feature. When I first purchased the razor I could send pics from my laptop via bluetooth connection. Verizon later updated the software and removed this feature. The phone is very slow to respond, due to verizon installing their own operating system on top of the motorolla operating system which forces the phone to operate two systems at once. The verizon logo is also annoying to see on the home screen and now on the outer screen which was also done with the update to the software.

Verizon does not have many "FUN" phones to chose from only the Razr, Krazr, and smartphones Q and Palm series. Bad choice on verizon not to take on a new phone to add more FUN to their lineup.

I may be switching....

 

[yg17]

The iPhone isn't going to make or break any carrier. It's a niche market and way too damn expensive. The average person is just fine with the phone they get for free when singing a contract. Verizon isn't screwing themselves over and Cingular won't be the only company doing well.

 

[PBGPowerbook]

A. Agreed with the previous poster who does not believe this, I think that in constructing the business plan for this phone (features, operating system, and interface aside) the network capability would have been of prime importance. I don't believe that everything was ready except the choice of GSM or CDMA and Apple just stuck the radio in depending on who bit on the deal.

B. Agreed with the previous poster who claims Cingular has little to lose. Yes, if you dig up the MOST expensive and exotic phones from mobileburn and phonescoop and infosyncworld, et al. the iphone is slightly less revolutionary (not that i'm not saving for it) but the LG prada and the N Nokias and so on are not ON THE FRONT PAGE OF usa today, NYTimes, wall street journal and every other print and web medium. This is humongous for cingular whether or not the first gen iphone is a sellout success.

Things will never be the same for Apple now that ipod is big; this is not comparable to the october 2001 ipod release. But at the same time this phone isnt make or break. A zillion people will buy this phone and its descendants. It's starting a new line of devices when your popularity is already fairly untouchable.


edit - post above me is really on target, what a coincidence, i hate W and am from St Louis too! took to long typing my reply i guess

 

[siurpeeman]

Well, seems Verizon lost out on this one. Cingular might pick up lots
of new customers as a result. Besides, once phones are unlocked
and hit the eBay marketplace, they'll be used on other networks.

even if it's possible to use the iphone unlocked, you won't be able to use some of the touted features like random access voicemail.

 

[arn]

For those who are saying that they don't believe it due to the GSM/CDMA difference in networks...

remember, this all started 2 years ago. Cingular signed on without ever even seeing the phone. So, it could have been very early in development.

arn

 

[lazyrighteye]

Cingular will get alot of new customers from this. I know about 10 people already who are ditching their current provider for Cingular and the iPhone.

Goodbye Sprint!

I too have been patiently waiting to move both me & my wife's accounts from VZW to something else (aka: whomever was going to offer the iPhone). While my VZW contract is up in June, hers has another year.
For us, it will be worth the early termination fee to not deal with VZW's "customer service" any more. Granted, all US carriers suffer the same annoying issues VZW does, but at least I'll have that experience with an Apple-branded phone in my pocket.

I know 4 others who are switching from VZW (3) or T-Mobile (1) to Cingular in June.

From my perspective, it appears Cingular is shaping up to gain quite a few customers.


I suppose I could be wrong...

 

[spicyapple]

It's a niche market and way too damn expensive.

People said the very same thing when the iPod was introduced.

I would argue for what the iPhone does, in relation to competitors like Blackberry, the price is very attractive. Businesses will snap up iPhones for their employees like crazy.

 

[powermac_daddy]

greedy s.o.b

$500 for a phone is not enough, and now wanna control the sells and want more money... shame!

 

[p0intblank]

Meh... as bad as this sounds, an iPhone with Verizon service would be so locked it wouldn't even be worth getting in the end. I have a phone with Bluetooth file transfer functionality and Verizon locks me out of such features.

Word is around the house that we may be switching to Cingular anway.

 

[McGarvels]

greedy s.o.b

$500 for a phone is not enough, and now wanna control the sells and want more money... shame!

Yeah, it's almost as bad as a Network locking out your bluetooth transfer functions and crippling the phones in other ways so you have to use their service to buy their crappy ringtones, etc. Gosh, thank goodness no US network does that right?

....oh wait.

 

[LethalWolfe]

As much as i loathe Verizon (paid 175 to break the contract!!!), I think apple went over board as to decide who woud be able to sell it etc. It is none of apple's business to get into the distribution channels.

Why? Down the line I'm sure we'll see Apple relax it's rules, but why release a product like this and not use it to drive more foot traffic into their own stores?

But iPods don’t cost $500+ dollars.

Not anymore but they used to. IIRC, the 4th gen iPods were the first not to have a $500 model.


Lethal

 

[A is jump]

hmm sounds like Verizon stated that if apple wanted to sell there iPhone it would have to play by Verizon rules.

I have to say some of those list of demands by apple are pretty far out there. Big one being apple being the one who decided if phone warrants replacement. Verizon not going to play that game because that means they take the blame when they tell a customer "we sorry we can not help you. you have to talk to apple."
Limiting the distribution from Verizon other outlets again something I think was a little over board.

Demanding a % out of the contract is a little over board.

For the most part it looks like apple demanding to much and Verizon stated it was not willing to bend to apple rules.

Apple needed Verizon more than Verizon needed apple. Hell apple needs the cellular companies more than they need apple and yet apple demands to be the one in control.. typical apple. I wonder if after being told off by Verizon they change there demands quite a bit.

I think Apple was pretty sure they didnt want to work with Verizon. But went into talks with them anyway. always talk to your hopeful partner's competitor.
once the deal with Cingular was looking the way apple wanted, I wouldnt be surprised if they shot Verizon a deal that was very favorable to Apple.
If Verizon would have excepted those terms... that would have been really good for apple, good enough to go back to cingular with some new demands.

either way, even though I have verizon, I could care less, I'm ditching them as soon as my contract runs up.... potentially sooner with the iphone out.

 

[A is jump]

Yeah, it's almost as bad as a Network locking out your bluetooth transfer functions and crippling the phones in other ways so you have to use their service to buy their crappy ringtones, etc. Gosh, thank goodness no US network does that right?

....oh wait.

AMEN! You and I are on the same page brother McGarvels!

 

[Nermal]

Gee I'm glad they did this - there's so little CDMA coverage here, everyone's basically on GSM until 3G-HSDPA or UTMS really takes off.

Interesting, we have CDMA (and GSM) everywhere, and as far as I know have UMTS and EV-DO in the major cities. I guess I assumed that Australia had a similar system, as I was under the impression that you could roam there with a CDMA phone.

 

[donlphi]

I can't help but remember Universal and Zune deal:

Doug Morris, chief executive of Universal, commented "We felt that any business that's built on the bedrock of music we should share in."

or

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple inc., commented "We felt that any business that's built on the bedrock of AMAZING INOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY we should share in."

The whole Verizon thing sounds like a crock to me. Some exec. caught some sh%t from his boss and had to try and save face because he missed a great opportunity. Steve (and his crew) probably walked in and layed out the "PLAN". Verizon probably laughed in their face and refused to even REALLY listen.

Congrats to Cingular for trusting one of the last companies that truly cares about creating a quality product. I just wish they would get a faster data network. EDGE??? geeze

 

[twoodcc]

well considering i already have Cingular, this doesn't bother me one bit....