David Morton (mortonmanor)
“I’m waiting for a Verizon or T-Mobile iPhone”
That is a consistent refrain from people when I talk to them about why they are using (insert phone name here). This is usually followed by a discussion about why they are unhappy with AT&T and my explanation about why a Verizon/T-Mobile iPhone, while technically possible, is very unlikely.
While I’ve talked about it here in passing, local tech author Glen Fleishman lays it out very well in his latest article on Tidbits.
Verizon has been much mentioned as a replacement or supplemental partner for Apple. But many folks forget that the iPhone simply can’t operate on Verizon’s network today. There is no technical reason why Apple cannot create a modified version of the iPhone that works on Verizon’s current 2G and 3G networks. – Glen Fleishman in Tidbits
This article is a good read and worth a peek for anyone interested in the subject. In addition to the points that Glen makes, I’ll add a couple of my own.
Apple Likes Simplicity
Dell and Burger King have made their business by allowing for infinite customization. Apple on the other hand is a very big fan in keeping their product line simple with few product configurations to manage. Walk into an Apple Store to buy a MacBook and you only have a couple of choices.
With this in mind, I find it hard to imagine that Apple would design, produce, distribute, test, support and sell a special version of the iPhone that would work on Verizon’s network. I believe that they are much more likely to use a threat of Verizon or T-Mobile as leverage with AT&T to get more of what Apple wants.
Verizon’s not the only game in town
As Glen points out, T-Mobile USA uses the same underlying technology (GSM) as is used by AT&T and the iPhone. The problem is that T-Mobile’s US 3G network uses frequencies not currently supported by the iPhone. It may be easier for Apple to release a version of the iPhone that supports these additional frequencies, but it is unlikely (see the simplicity argument above).
Apple Courted T-Mobile
On a final note, there is a lot of talk on the Internet about how Verizon turned Apple down for the iPhone, forcing them to go to AT&T. I don’t know if that happened, but I don’t think that is the whole, or even real story.
For many of the reasons that Glen and I laid out, I believe that Apple would have always preferred to have AT&T or T-Mobile as a partner. In fact a deal that included T-Mobile USA would have made a lot os sense and was likely very close to happening. From Apple’s standpoint a single deal with T-Mobile would have made the initial rollout in the US and Europe a much similar task.
You might remember that in the weeks and days leading up to the iPhone carrier announcement, T-Mobile USA executives began publicly praising Apple. Before this point, I don’t recall any public statements in support of Apple. At this point, I think it likely that T-Mobile believed that they were about to do a deal and had begun to lay the PR ground work of the two companies working together.
At the time Apple was asking a lot from a potential carrier partner. They were asking the carrier to give up a lot of control; to turn the customer over to Apple; to let Apple host servers in their network for visual voicemail; to turn over a lot of potential revenue, etc. They were also asking for a strong 2G network (which both AT&T and T-Mobile had) and a strong roadmap to 3G (a place where T-Mobile was weaker). In the end it may have come down to who blinked first and gave Apple what they wanted. AT&T did, leaving TMO with all worm and no Apple.
What do you think happened?