Verizon: Apple accepting "proven" model
updated 02:10 pm EDT, Tue June 10, 2008
Verizon on iPhone 3G Plan
Apple's decision to allow subsidized prices for the iPhone 3G is an admission that it needs to follow the traditional cellphone provider model, Verizon's chief operating officer Denny Strigl claimed at the second day of the Deutsche Bank Conference. The executive downplays the impact of the new cellphone on his own company and contends that Apple and AT&T are simply learning to accept a conventional practice that discounts the phone's up-front price rather than insist on splitting monthly phone revenues.
"I don't see anything that changes the game for Apple," Strigl says. "They changed their own game; I'm surprised it took this long."
Verizon is known to have been one of Apple's first potential customers for the iPhone during its early development phase but is believed to have refused to accept revenue sharing terms. Since then, the company has placed a strong emphasis on touchscreen phones such as the LG Voyager and Samsung Glyde and has tried counter-campaigns such as advertising its normal business hours as a special event during the iPhone's launch last year.
Strigl also expresses little worry about Sprint's WiMAX-based Xohm wireless service, saying that it's still a future network and that Verizon will only have to change its approach if Xohm proves successful. Verizon's fourth-generation Long Term Evolution service arrives in 2010 and should outperform WiMax with a peak speed of 100Mbps versus the 10Mbps of WiMAX.
$199...
06/10, 02:21pm reply
Can You Hear Me Now?
You still don't have an iPhone on Verizon. Should have worked with Steve Jobs and been flexible rather than having a bunch of half-baked junk phones.
rvhernandez
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2005
Sure, but...
06/10, 02:31pm (3 replies) reply
...what many people would really like is an unlocked, unsubidized phone with NO contract that I can take to whatever service provider we chose.
Once you give us that, then you can start gloating about your "I told you so" attitude!
ender
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 1999
wuss
06/10, 02:40pm reply
and now you can sleep well tonight. your precious sales model is in tact. keep putting those manufacturers in a corner. keep passing the pain on to consumers.
Rezzz
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2006
Verizon
06/10, 03:00pm (1 reply) reply
iPhone or not, I will never join a carrier that doesn't use SIM cards. That' just too much power for any carrier to abuse in having draconian control over the phone itself.
dagamer34
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2007
re ender
06/10, 03:24pm (1 reply) reply
What is the point of having an iPhone if the service does not work well with it? Visual voicemail was developed with AT
simdude
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2004
Verizon = Evil
06/10, 03:39pm reply
I like Verizon's coverage and customer service...but Man! a company that will not let me sync my music, videos, pictures and calendars with my phone, because they want me to buy these stuff thru them...plain corporate evil !
November 2008 = iPhone 3G
jorgem4
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2003
Proven model?
06/10, 04:27pm reply
Verizon's guy forgot to mention one little difference from what he called proven model - it is not the service provider who decide which phone he will take on his network and who request specific phone features from the phone manufacturer. It is Apple who picks service provider which will suit their phone. This is your "proven model" turned upside down, Denny. And that's why you don't have iPhone and army of its customers.
ViktorCode
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2006
SIM card
06/10, 04:38pm reply
What do you mean no SIM cards? The iPhone uses SIM cards and all iPhones when bought come with an AT&T SIM card. When I bought mine I slipped out the AT&T one, loaded my Swisscom SIM card and unlocked it for use in Switzerland, easy peasy.
rytc
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
sigh
06/10, 06:20pm reply
I don't like Verizon the company and I want the iPhone but I like the voice quality too much to switch to AT&T. I will just have to wait to see what comes over the horizon.
pt123
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2007
Bull****
06/10, 06:21pm reply
That burns my butt. Is Verizon's COO trying to say the model used in the rest of the world (you buy the phone you want, you buy the service you want) is "unproven"?
timbck2
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2006