AT&T and Apple probably have a quid pro quo in place that has extended the mobile carrier’s exclusive deal with the iPhone in exchange for heavily-discounted data plan pricing for the iPad, Brian Marshall, an analyst at BroadPoint AmTech, tells “Computerworld” (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176351/AT_T_extends_iPhone_exclusive_in_quid_pro_quo_says_analyst).
“AT&T had to do something dramatic to get the iPad,” he says. He thinks that, in exchange for its special data pricing for the iPad, AT&T was able to negotiate a six-month extension on the iPhone exclusive.
Many analysts had predicted the AT&T-Apple deal to expire this summer, three years after the two companies first partnered on the iPhone. At one time, Marshall was among those who figured that the expiration meant Verizon, the country’s largest mobile provider, would also sell the iPhone this year. No longer.
Marshall tells “Computerworld” that he thinks that Verizon won’t have the iPhone until the first quarter of 2011. He based his opinion on the failure of Verizon earlier this year to land an exclusive wireless deal with Apple for the latter’s iPad media tablet, a move he said numerous sources had told him was a “certainty.”