The new rumor coincides with a report published by CrunchGear earlier today, which claimed Verizon's branding partner, Landor Associates, was busy working on an advertising campaign related to a summer product launch of a Verizon iPhone.
The source of the latest rumor, communicating confidentially with AppleInsider, specifically cited Verizon's "senior vice president of West Coast marketing" as being involved in the secret effort, although Verizon does not have a senior vice president of marketing devoted to the West Coast region. The company's regional marketing is assigned on a director level. Additionally, the executive is described as being a man, while Verizon's current director of West Coast marketing appears to be Kim Cochran, according to public records.
Rumors that won't die
Rumors related to a Verizon iPhone have persisted since before the iPhone was even announced, dating back at least to comments made by Jim Cramer of The Street, who described how a hedge fund manager could seed media sources with false reports to foment the market and then take advantage of wildly fluctuating stock prices that resulted.
"It is very important to spread the rumor that both Verizon and AT&T have decided they donât like the phone," Cramer said in 2006, just before Apple officially announced the iPhone. "Itâs a very easy one to do. You also want to spread the rumor that itâs not going to be ready for Macworld [Expo]. And this is very easy, because the people who write about Apple want that story. And you can claim that it is credible because you spoke to someone at Apple, because Apple isnât in [a position to comment on unannounced products]. It is an ideal short."
Subsequent reports that Apple's iPhone either was or was not heading to Verizon have resulted in similar dramatic price swings in Apple's stock, distorting the real results of the work that went into actually delivering the phone in the US and globally.
Availability of the iPhone on Verizon's network would likely have a relatively minor affect on Apple's overall sales; the company sold 8.8 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2010, but AT&T only activated 2.7 million phones in the US within that same period. The vast majority of Apple's iPhones are being sold outside the US, which is also where the greatest potential for future growth in the smartphone market is.
While many American users are unhappy with AT&T's level of service in specific markets, particularly in overloaded regions such as San Francisco and New York City, the arrival of a Verizon-compatible iPhone would likely result primarily in a shift of users from AT&T to Verizon, rather than sparking a large number of new iPhone sales. Verizon has a smaller concentration of smartphone users than AT&T does.
Few clues from Apple
Apple has remained silent on the potential for a CDMA-only, 4G LTE, or hybrid version of the iPhone which could be sold on both AT&T and CDMA providers such as Verizon or Sprint, with company executives only ever praising AT&T as a valued partner in the US. In other global markets, Apple has readily opened up its exclusive service contracts to make the iPhone available from multiple, competitive mobile providers, but those markets are not split by the UMTS/CDMA technical divide that suppresses mobile phone competition in the US.
Verizon and Sprint deployed a large number of BlackBerry and Android-based CDMA smartphones in the US, often using aggressive "buy one get one free" programs which helped Android as a platform to surpass Apple's first calendar quarter of iPhone sales in the US, according to data from NPD. However, Apple continued to outsell all Android vendors globally and remains a stronger, less fractionalized installed base for app developers in the US. Apple has also maintained stronger average selling prices than its competitors, including smartphone leader Nokia.
If Apple chose to deliver a version of the iPhone capable of working on Verizon's network, it is possible it could eat up a significant chunk of the sales of competing smartphone platforms, which currently are isolated from direct competition with the iPhone due to the network technology barrier that currently prevents the iPhone from working on Verizon and Sprint. However, Apple would likely also lose significant leverage in driving concessions from AT&T, such as the low iPad 3G pricing deals for unlimited data that the company has not been able to establish in many other markets outside the US, as well as hardware pricing leverage.
29 Comments
Lets remember folks...
Apple doesn't let ANYONE do ANY advertising for the iPhone.
Don't believe me?
1 - Find an AT&T comercial that SPOTLIGHTS the iPhone...
2 - How about an AT&T commercial that SPEAKS the word iPhone, even just in passing.
3 - Find iPhone in the fine print of AT&T ADs.. I haven't the eyes to read that stuff quick enough but you might get lucky... maybe
Good luck looking..... but I haven't found any. Do you think Apple would behave any different with Verizon?
Apple is far too 'protective' about its product to let just 'anyone' design an AD around it.
So yes, basically confirming what we knew all along... the media is duping investors that have no knowledge of how the media actually reports to make money off them Of course, it's Apple... so anything is possible. Anything so much as a rumor starts the fluctuation. Must be great to be a hedge fund manager. Easiest job in the world... earn a million bucks to seed some faulty rumors and then dupe people into believing it's true. Sound like someone familiar? *cough* bank executives.
I don't see why we wouldn't believe this - I mean it's not like Verizon has any incentive to convince the world that they should hold out and not jump ship for ATT around this time of year. I mean if they assigned *A* marketing exec to a TOP SECRET project and it got leaked... well I guess that marketing exec is in big trouble. Unless of course, the whole point of it was to be leaked, whether or not there was an actual phone.
As much as I want it to happen, I don't believe it's true. But I like the fact that this issue won't go away. The more people buzz about a vIphone the greater the chance someone at Apple will realize there is an opportunity to make money here.
Besides, it's also an opportunity to do the right thing. Exclusive providers are bad for consumers. Competition is best and everyone should be able to choose the company that has the best coverage where they live and work.
That this is a blatant attempt by Verizon to quash the mass hysteria of iPhone 4.0 due next month. Verizon is doing all it can to stop the endless number of customers jumping to AT&T to get an iPhone.