It has long been rumoured that Apple and AT&T signed an exclusivity deal for the iPhone covering five years since the launch of the original iPhone (2007). Apple has confirmed in a court case that this is indeed true; in other words, there is not going to be a Verizon iPhone before 2012. However, it is important to note that the original agreement may no longer be valid (for instance due to AT&T problematic service). This same court case also touched upon another important issue. “The plaintiffs argued that Apple exerts illegal monopoly power over the iPhone applications market by barring third-party apps from iPhone OS 1.0, and the court ruled the argument was valid enough to go forward.” Should be of interest to Adobe and the FTC.
Or don’t we consider them to be “real” apps unless it suits our argument?
Pffft, web apps are never real apps. Until I see a web app access hardware as a native app does, I will never consider them true apps.
Aren’t web browsers starting to use hardware acceleration for video and such? Personally, I won’t be REALLY impressed until I can burn a DVD with a web app
Hey Kristoph… how does it feel to be bitch slapped about Apple choosing to be have *ONE* iPhone SERVICE PROVIDER for 5 years?
To bad your “multiple iPhone provider soon” slam dunk just got a whole lot weaker!
Imagine that… I have a Mac Book Pro, (now)two iMacs, a hackintosh, about 8 iPods. So, as you can see, I follow the Cult of Mac, but do not engage in iDol worship.
Sorry to see your iEgo so badly hurt.
Now that the android sales figures for Q1 2010 are in, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple is starting to regret that agreement. I suspect this is one of the major reasons Android has gained so much traction. From a naive user perspective, Android phones are “just as good as the iPhone, except my carrier has it”.
From my technical perspective, Android phones are just as good as the iPhone.
Maybe I’m wrong, but at the time weren’t the cell providers balking at carrying the iPhone because Apple wanted them to make changes to their backends for things like “Visual Voicemail” to work, etc? I thought the 5 year exclusivity deal with Cingular was to compensate for Apple’s demands.
Yes, its SJ once more implementing his brilliant strategy of refusing to sell to would-be customers, and so driving them to the competition. Other elements in this strategy are to convince developers that you cannot be trusted, to do everything in your power to inhibit interworking with software and systems on your enemies list, to decline to include simple cheap standard hardware connectivity (USB) for no reason anyone can see, other than that people want it, and you take pleasure in refusing.
Oh, and to decide, presumably on the basis of a command received during a dream, that C in various flavors is the Only True Programming Language.
You can be as rich as Croesus, you can have taken your company halfway to the stars, you can have survived mortal illness by something resembling a miracle, but when the Gods decide to destroy you, people will look at you sadly and say that he’s gone mad.
so Verizon gets the iPhone right when the world is scheduled to end. …figures
🙂