Rumors have persisted that AT&T is surely due to lose its exclusivity contract this year with the iPhone, and that users of Verizon could have their own version. But a new report out today from Credit Suisse Group AG thinks that there's a 75 percent chance that the deal will last through 2011, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Whether or not this could be based off of Apple's giving Big Blue the thumbs up to carry the first data plan for the iPad, amidst other reassuring comments given to AT&T, is uncertain. But analysts Jonathan Chaplin and Bill Shope of Credit Suisse think the deal could go 12 to 18 months longer than what most investors anticipated.
A delay in picking up the iPhone could cost Verizon a chance to win over customers, and in turn give AT&T more time to fix gripes from customers about its network, that might have hurt sales, Chaplin had said.
"We don't comment on any of the details of our relationship with Apple, apart from saying we have a great relationship," said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T. Brenda Raney, a spokeswoman for Verizon also declined comment. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris also didn't immediately return a call seeking comment before the start of regular business hours.
Because of all this, the Credit Suisse also downgraded Verizon's stock to neutral from outperform. "In addition, our expectations for earnings per share growth at Verizon have also come down largely to disappointing wireline margin results. As such, Verizon no longer offers superior growth." As of mid-day Thursday, Verizon's stock was down 1.27%.
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SpaceTrucker
February 04, 2010 at 1:07pm
Verizon isn't and never was the best place for the iPhone, although I see no reason they couldn't carry a specific CDMA capable one except that Apple doesn't make such a device. IF Apple were to turn them loose, they would most likely pickup T-Mobile or some other GSM based network, not a CDMA one. Now once the LTE starts rolling out, this may change, as I suspect that Apple will abandon CDMA/GSM for it altogether. 3G is a luxury that most people don't really need, 4G on the other hand will be something everyone will need as it's going to blow current speeds away and provide a much better platform that should be cross provider compatibility. Okay so the providers may use different bands, they will all be using similar frequencies, only separated by a few Hz (MHz?), not all that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, since most phones now do several different frequencies for providing 2G/3G services through their equipment. As far as Apple making the iPhone compatible with T-Mobile, I'm sure it's just a firmware upgrade thing that stands between it working and not.
I look for Apple to possibly tell AT&T they can no longer require a commitment for their devices and still lower the price of it to at least where it's at now with the plans or slightly higher for it but, no where where it was at a couple years ago when it was released. $300 tops for the 64GB version and can use the "New" data plans available with a pre-paid plan to get service.
