Apple discussed Verizon switch 'at least half a dozen times,' and other stories about its AT&T relationship
By Ross Miller 
posted July 19th 2010 7:25PM
posted July 19th 2010 7:25PM
What's most interesting to us here is the ongoing reported discussion to drop AT&T in favor for Verizon. That chapter apparently begins just months after the original's launch, with an investigative team (including Scott Forstall) ultimately concluding that Qualcomm's CDMA (or CDMA / GSM hybrid) chips would require a complete redesign of the device, not to mention a nasty lawsuit with AT&T over its exclusive contract (perhaps a minor issue, knowing Apple). Back then, Verizon wasn't seen as a guaranteed improvement, and according to one executive privy to such meetings, the carrier switch has been discussed at least a half dozen times, with the general consensus always being that it would "cause as many problems as it solved." We can't imagine this is gonna help stem the perpetual VZW iPhone rumor mill.
Hit up the source link for the full tale, which does hit on a fundamental issue of the mobile industry going forward: as smartphone makers continue to push their devices' capabilities, bandwidth concerns will continue to grow and carriers are likely to take the majority of the blame. If you ask us, David Fincher has just found his ideal follow-up to The Social Network -- we'd especially love to see someone film the part where AT&T asks Steve Jobs to ditch the turtleneck and wear a suit when meeting with its board of directors.
Interesting how 2 major carriers in Canada (Bell and Telus) were all hardcore CDMA. You know how they got iPhone? They switched to GSM. Maybe Verizon should do the same.
So like, i know this guy who knows this girl who's cousin works for verizon. He says verizon will have the iphone next week. And it'll be way better than the att iphone. Totally reliable source, seriously.
Besides, there's no way i would go w/ att's shitty-ass network. I mean, i cant even make a call from my bomb shelter two miles underground in the middle of iowa. Whats up with that?
has anybody stopped to think that apple might just do the legal thing and stick out their contract for the next two years? After that it'll probably be open to all the major carriers (read locked version for every carrier). Anyone remember an old att exclusive called the motorola razr?
Two iPhones got married.
It was a lovely ceremony but the reception was awful.
Apparently they held it in the wrong place.
Just release a small iPad for Verizon that just happens to have a voice app.
I bet those moments when Jobs is "thinking" about Verizon were just a strategy to get AT&T to up the ante with better deals. The sad part is, they obviously cannot get out from the provider-locking part.
Apple should let AT&T have the iPhone, and start a new platform on Verizon's network. 2gHz processor, 1gb of ram/rom, 32gb on board/ upto 32gb sd, 4-4.5" hi-res screen, hdmi-out, optional projector attachment with built it battery, all metal rubber coated body with glass top and bottom(for signal reception), 2000+ mAh battery, solar cell film on back surface, 10mp rear camera/1080p, 5mp front cam, another model with slide out keyboard, LTE/CDMA, fastest wifi, seperate gpu with dedicated ram, waterproof, and unlimited data and minutes for $100 or less per month. I would pay $800 on 3 year contract for that... f*ck the iPhone... I want something that will be top of the line for a few years, and something that would justify my phone bill. Android is okay, but low quality, never a long term investment. Why can't cell phones be like a desktop? By that I mean, my four year old desktop that I paid a lot of money for, but still performs like any other new desktop. IPhone is played out, and Andriod just likes to play. The others are a waste of time... combine the two companies, make something awesome damnit! Verizon is the only network that is worth the money, and if they put out the phone I described, who wouldn't buy it?
Engadget can't go one fucking day without mentioning Apple. Seriously, What the fuck?
And don't give me your stupid fucking Engadget_minus_apple links. Fuck.
@Kenny Fn Powers
Yeah, you're stupid. Seriously.
@Jack
eloquently put for someone who wasted 5 minutes of their life responding to my post. Good job!
@HighestRanked2
Says the troll who's posted 6 times on this article. Umadbrah?
Great reading on wired, as far I can tell Apple is definitely moving to Verizon once the contact expires!. Such a bad relationship with ATT..
Good day to all,
I would like you to know that I'm super happy as I have a super fast connection provided by Tmobile now. I used speedtest.net in my old & dilapidated G1 and I got 6.5mbps then 2.6 uploads in Houston then when I tethered it in my netbook then use again the speedtest.net I got this http://www.speedtest.net/result/853126141.png ( 25.84 MBPS down - 1.54 MBPS up ) Its mind blowing,then my latency_ping are between 45-60 in my location-shadow creek ranch in pearland (a bit outside of downtown Houston) then 70-150 in other locations. I did the test between 9:30am-10:00am as many people starting to use the service as my clear if that time of usage will be horrible.
I have CLEAR now in the house that I'm paying for $40/month as I bought the modem,so no leasing fee for me just $40/month. That internet of mine hit the highest was 16mbps in early in the morning between (2am-5am) but before or after that time I will hit only 3-6mbps download then 800-900kbps upload unlike Tmobile who has 1mbps-3mbps upload.
I'm always travelling around Texas & I found out that Austin,Houston,Dallas & San Antonio has the highest download speed to compare to any cities when I compare in Westcoast & Eastcoast cities.
Then if ever they will make more fiber optic backhaul, they can minimize the latency problems others have now.I used to have that problem in my location but now its GONE.
I'm not the kind of person wasting time to bash any company but now I will because I was with AT&T and they are full of lies company as I had my iphone 3gs & my wife & we never seen more than 2mbps connection the whole of Texas or whenever I am in California or New York. All PEOPLE WHO WILL SAY THEY SEE 3MBPS OR BEYOND (its not real), THEY ARE AT&T PEOPLE OR JUST ANYBODY WHO WANTS TO DEFEND AT&T EVEN AT&T DOESN'T CARE FOR THEM. Mine is real experience with my wife... I work in IT company & I always use the one that I think is not just cool & good looking but I can tweak & use the heck of it whatever it can offer unlike iphone that YOU can just unlocked & jailbreak (like what i do) but android & windows can be hack & put lots of fast & best ROM that apple iphone cant do. Our iphone is now an mp3 player in our cars, wants some pictures? Then my wife using the EVO as her company pay for her monthly then she just bought the EVO from Sprint. Its a sweet phone but the speed is not consistent & theres time it will be switching a lot of times from 4g to 3g. But still wayyyyy better than verizon & AT&T. Take note, only Tmobile & Sprint didn't have the cap now they will just throttle you if your beyond 5gb but no more paying overages (Tmobile then sprint in 4g mode-no throttling). Can Verizon & AT&T do that? Nope & never because AT&T made the worse decision in lowering the internet usage to 2gb for $25 (Tmobile has $20 for unlimited no cap with super duper fast internet versus 1mbps by AT&T) then Verizon is thinking now to do that also-per usage internet as Sprint & Tmobile will go for no capping.
Theres a lot of fanboys especially in APPLE stuff like iphone that has the basic stuff that was available 10 years ago but Steve Jobs will say its magical & unbelievable, he's the no. 1 liar in the world (I have a friend who still working in APPLE) I'm just new here in Texas as I'm from California & worked with IT company near APPLE. But Texas is the best place to make money now (hehe) then cheaper way of living...He said to me that Steve Jobs is very good in marketing hype but he's not the real guy who's thinking & making apple stuff to work, he's just the marketing guy of APPLE. Then all of his components are made mostly of asus & samsung (not them as other blindly knows) only software & design are theirs, I can attest to that, so wheres APPLE real product-NONE. They are just a big marketing & design company, if you don't believe go to California (to their main headquarter) see if they building any pieces of material to use for their products - none, most of what they are doing is just software & how to market their product. I was there with my friend & I know what I'm saying. Ask ASUS & SAMSUNG then FOXCONN, they will tell you that no parts are made by apple, they will give the design then what materials will use ( APPLE ) then they will wait for delivery and they will use their technology & manpower to build APPLE products ( FOXCONN ).
FANBOYISM towards APPLE is not bad but you should know the reality of what the company you like & love to what they really offer to you & if they lying to you. Even if APPLE will sell ipoop, those fanboys will still buy as long it has APPLE logo on it.
Back to Tmobile, they are the company to watch for & they are not like AT&T that will make advertising 1st before they will do the action, as tmobile will do the work & everything before they will announce in a simple way unlike AT&T like APPLE, they love marketing hype like shortage of Iphone in the 1st day as they know how many people will go & get them but they will not release many units to show they don't have unit to sell, believe me or not those iphone & ipad was made already & its millions now in FOXCONN factory but they will release only hundreds thousands then it will show to their system they don't have stock anymore even they have more, for the people to be more excited & feel the APPLE products are so good that people lining up & their hysteria in getting in store or online, thats MARKETING 101, YOU HAVE TO MAKE PEOPLE EXCITE IN YOUR PRODUCTS THEN THEY WILL THINK YOUR PRODUCTS IS SO GOOD THAT PEOPLE NEEDS TO WAIT FOR LONG TIME.
I hope people will get it now as I want you to be more well aware of what those companies been doing to you, they making you follow them even they are shortchanging you.
I want to share more my ideas, experience & knowledge about all these stuff - just don't go with the hype, test drive it - tweak it & if you feel it has everything u want & its more cheaper - go for it... you can email me at sir1honda@aol.com ( i can give you the best advice in telecommunications & computers stuff if I have enough time to answer )
To all those people bashing each other because you like this or that, think first & I suggest that research in google then don't defend what you have that you feel is not giving you the real deal. WE LIVE ONCE NOT TWICE , LIVE TO THE FULLEST ( get the best stuff that you think is appropriate & can make things more easier to you not just LOOKS & BRAND NAME of the products.
Always take care gurls & guys... GOD BLESS YALL...
@sir1honda
TLDR
@HighestRanked2
Wow. For someone who claims to work in IT your language skills equal that of an 8 year old or less. Or is it that you didn't finish the 8th grade?
Your embittered Gettysburg-Adress style raging rant was very long but unfortunately it has nothing of value short of saying that you fail to undertand Apple and somehow feel very frustrated as to why everyone likes the iPhone.
But oh well, what can we do if you are unable to understand the consumer market and walk around thinking like a techie. Then again, when you go to say such severely ignorant things as claiming that the iPhone is nothing more than all Foxconn technology, you've seriously have gone the deep end. For an IT guy you are seriously misinformed on pretty much everything about Apple.
Oh by the way, IT does not equal telecommunications. That's like saying being a pharmacist equals being a nurse. Get a grip.
One fanboy in dusguise....
Dude, if im in 8th grade I think ill be the on the top of the class...
When I said FOXCONN technology - it means they have great worker, machines & know how to MANUFACTURED WHAT COMPANIES WANTS THEM TO MAKE... even its apple,dell,hp or any other companies...
I'm half asian-white & I can tell you that I know more about cars & technology than you because if I like it, I CAN HAVE IT... as long it will not hurt my budgeting...
So I have Iphones,Ipod,ipad,samsung vibrant ( just bought it last july 18- wayyy better than Iphones in hardware aspects-iphone 4 just look better in design) macs,windows,nokia n900 & n95 & im driving Honda s2000 & honda ridgeline.
Please don't defend APPLE as you don't know them, but I had first hand experienced and my friend still working with them.
What APPLE is good, MARKETING,DESIGNING & MAKING A GREAT UI & SOFTWARE - thats all...
ALL their products components was made mostly by asus & samsung, then the rest from 3rd party small tech company.
So, whats APPLE to you GOD?
Even you, I think still in dilemma why your here trolling & bashing others because of why they don't like APPLE.
Whats the problem with STEVE JOBS & APPLE, they don't like to accept mistake - they will blame the user why their products not functioning as it should be then will attack other companies to cover their problems & shortcomings, THATS ELEMENTARY WAY, LIKE YOU...
Being IDIOT is LIKE YOU & APPLE...
@ Ross MIller
When you say "Hit up the source link for the full tale" what source link were you talking about?
@RD
Right... the one at the bottom (that's not blue).
Is this an apple web page? Seriously, how much do they pay?
apple must be one of the most backward companies i know off. If anybody else acted in this manner they would be slaughtered. I just don't understand why the wanted to only use 1 network, it was obvious that it would bottleneck? Unless they wanted to act in a monopolostic fashion, in which case, again, people should be going mental over this.
Unique Pain in the A** partnership
Ehh. I would probably still use android even if the iPhone was available on Verizon. I could never go back to iOS, after using android it would just feel too walled.
Amazing stuff, we rarely hear about these things.
That said, I've often wondered if this Kristin Rinne person (who has repeatedly defended ATT's move to expand HSPA instead of building out 4G) is simply past her prime? She's been with ATTWS since it was SBC Global (then, Cingular, now ATT) and has been responsible for architecting what be the worst wireless network in North America.
AT&T should consider some new talent. She's had her chance and failed miserably.
To say nothing of the fact she shares a slight resemblance with Mom from Futurama:
http://www.sidecutreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/rinne_4g.jpg
YouTube's new mobile HTML5 site pretty much kills off the iPhone's 3G YouTube bandwidth limitations for good.
The site (m.youtube.com if memory serves) has a better interface than the native iPhone YouTube app, it LOOKS a lot like a native app, it streams video as supported by the iPhone (so, you get a native full-screen player pretty much identical to the native YouTube app), and the video is MUCH higher quality when roaming since there are no bitrate restrictions on content in the browser.
Please correct me if im wrong, but AT&T has screwed itself over. By having an exclusive on the iPhone they have taken the full load of the iPhone's data usage. I feel that if they were smart they would allow another carrier to have the phone, that way lessening the load. It seems like simple physics to me. Less phones on the network, better network. I dont think Verizon would have the same problems with the iPhone because by the time they get the phone they will be sharing the load. This is why other countries arent having a problem with the iPhone as far as dropping calls and what not. The carriers in other countries are sharing the load over numerous networks, not 1. But please correct me if my logic is wrong.