
Android's weak sales drive Verizon toward Apple's iPhone - evo_9
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/12/13/androids_weak_sales_drive_verizon_toward_apples_iphone.html
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cheald
> ITG sent an explanation of their methodology and there is no indication that
> the data represents inside information.

This is a pretty giant red flag here. No "official" data, versus what we know
- Verizon is easily the largest Android carrier in the US, Android's
marketshare has been on a meteoric rise, and Google is claiming 300k Android
activations _per day_ (which, granted, is likely a worldwide number!) versus
Apple's claimed 230k iOS activations per day (which again, is worldwide, and
includes the iPad and iPod Touch).

I don't at all buy the argument that Verizon's Android push has failed, which
is why they're looking to pick up the iPhone. I think that Verizon's Android
push has wildly succeeded, but they're looking to capitalize on AT&T's
battered reputation by carrying the iPhone as well. To think that a carrier
_must_ commit to a single platform at the expense of all others is somewhat
silly. Verizon will see a lot of growth by offering the iPhone, and I suspect
much of it will be in the form of AT&T customers who are fed up with subpar
service but who love the device itself.

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joezydeco
I think Verizon did the right thing by turning down Apple at first.

By strengthening Android over the last 3 years, there's now an alternative and
Apple isn't the monopoly in the smartphone market. Now VZW can get iPhone on
more reasonable terms.

~~~
cosmicray
> I think Verizon did the right thing by turning down Apple at first.

It would be helpful to understand what actually went down...

Back in 2006, Apple wanted a new way of selling handsets. Apple did not want
to do subsidized, they wanted to supply the handsets to the carriers, charge a
fair price to the purchaser, then share in the revenue (that was received by
the carrier). VZW declined that deal. AT&T (which at the time was still
Cingular) liked the possibilities, liked the prototypes, and decided to buy
in. The 'revenue sharing' deal ended up being a bad thing for Apple, because a
very large number of original iPhone handsets sold (perhaps as many as 30%)
were never activated on AT&T. A few were jailbroken/unlocked and used on
T-Mobile, but large number of them ended up on the far side of the Pacific (in
various countries). So Apple had to go back to AT&T and renegotiate a more
conventional deal. Now that the deal is similar to what VZW normally has (and
exclusivity is about to end), we will (hopefully) see some competition in the
US iPhone market.

