[IxDA Discuss] iPhone 2.0 Game Over? I think not!

[Jared M. Spool]

On May 3, 2008, at 11:50 AM, dave malouf wrote:

> How do you know that Verizon didn't
> turn down Apple first?

Verizon *did* turn Apple down. It was Apple's first choice, but they  
laughed Jobs out of the boardroom.

When the iPhone was released, Verizon issued a press release saying  
that Apple had approached them first and they were proud of not saying  
yes because they felt it was a bad deal for both Verizon customers and  
shareholders. Their rationale was that the level of service demanded  
by Apple was unreasonable. (My understanding was the primary sticking  
point was that Apple would activate and service the phones from their  
own retail outlet, but I believe Apple was demanding too much money  
for each contract.)

Apple had hoped to get the telcos in a bidding war. They approached  
several simultaneously. Cingular was the only one that gave them any  
attention. It took 18 months to negotiate the deal with Cingular,  
partly because AT&T acquired them in the middle and negotiations had  
to start over.

[This came from several business articles documenting the iPhone's  
development, including one that appeared in Wired a few months back.  
I'm currently at 30,000 feet and not online, so I don't have citations  
(sorry, Andrei), but you can find the articles amongst my delicious  
links -- http://del.icio.us/jmspool -- probably tagged with something  
clever like Apple or iPhone. I used them as readings for my Experience  
Design Management class for Tufts.]

Jared

Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
e: jspool at uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561
http://uie.com  Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks