‘USA Today’: Verizon rejected iPhone deal
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jan 29, 2007 at 11:44am
Verizon Wireless, the number two U.S. cellphone carrier, passed on the chance to be the exclusive distributor of the iPhone almost two years ago, balking at Apple’s rich financial terms and other demands, according to USA Today.
Among other things, Apple wanted a percentage of the monthly cellphone fees, say over how and where iPhones could be sold and control of the relationship with iPhone customers, said Jim Gerace, a Verizon Wireless vice president. “We said no,” he told USA Today. We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone. We just couldn’t reach a deal that was mutually beneficial.”
Verizon’s decision sent Apple to Cingular, which will be the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone. The multifunction device is due to ship in June with pricing starting at US$499.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
J. Scott Anderson Says:
Time will tell who made the right decision. One thing to note however, is that I’ll bet that Verizon balked most at letting Apple have any contact what-so-ever with the customers. The cell phones are still trying to keep absolute control over the customer and to keep them locked in. The problem with that is the same that is happening with the music industry–technology. As technology provides users with more choices over how to connect the lock-in that cell phone vendors have enjoyed will diminish. This scares them, but they’ll be screaming and kicking all the way down.
Posted on January 29, 2007