The iPhone 4 rumor mongers have been having a ball with Steve Cheney’s blog post on TechCrunch. While he started out strong by saying, “I am going to go on record to say Verizon will be selling an iPhone this coming January,” he kind of pussies out at the end by adding, “I can’t say with 100% accuracy that an iPhone will hit Verizon store shelves in January.” (Pussies out is a technical term, btw.)
Perhaps the more interesting news is that AT&T addressed the possibility of losing iPhone exclusivity in the near future. The company seems to be prepping investors for the loss of some kind of exclusivity…and I’m betting Wall Street doesn’t care much about the BlackBerry Torch. The Wall Street Journal reported:
AT&T Inc. said Friday it doesn’t expect to suffer a “material negative impact” from the end of its exclusive arrangements to carry handsets, including its lucrative deal for Apple Inc.’s iPhone.
“We do not expect any such terminations to have a material negative impact on our wireless segment income, consolidated operating margin or our cash from operations,” AT&T said in the filing with regulators on Friday.
So there’s lots of interesting information floating around that points to a CDMA carrier — most are thinking Verizon, but Sprint isn’t out of the question — getting the iPhone 4 in January 2011. What do you think of the latest info? Are you still hoping that the excellent iPhone 4 gets paired with a superior network? Or are you tired of all the talk?
They could honestly just be selling them in China with the CDMA chips.
@smartguy I forgot to mention that Verizon's CEO is doing one of the CES keynotes in January. That would be a great time and place to launch big product.
I was wondering why a Google search for "pussies" brought me here.
HA HA!
If the iPhone goes to another carrier AT&T won't lose money but I don't think they will be getting a new customer base unless they offer some pretty nice incentives.
@Ray
True, but would Apple really let someone other than Apple reveal a new product at a non apple show? That doesn't seem like them at all.
Smartguy has a point.
Oh, and AT&T, if you're listening in. You absolutely should be worried.
@smartguy It's unusual for sure, but perhaps a sign of a broader approach and also another FU to the MacWorld show.
@Ray
Interesting points brought up in here so far. I can see the China angle since their CDMA market is the largest….but an FU to MacWorld?? That kinda sounds like Jobs lol.
@smartguy Wasn't this year's MacWorld the first one without Apple? It was pretty weak.
@Ray
Yeah it was. Kinda seems that Apple is trying to separate itself from the homebrew Mac community.
@smartguy I think it had more to do with crappy third-party vendors than homebrew. As Apple became more of a consumer electronics company than a computer company, MacWorld attracted more vendors like case makers, headphone makers, etc. Apple doesn't need companies like those mooching off of its show presence.