• MOST READ

• LATEST NEWS

Steve should have known better. When asked this week at the D8 conference if it would be advantageous if the iPhone was offered in the US by more than one carrier, Jobs responded, "There might be." And so the blogosphere exploded with rumours of an imminent Verizon iPhone - so much so, that Verizon had to counter with a statement that the carrier has "no plans to carry the iPhone in the immediate future." Speculation is now rife that Apple is waiting until next year when Verizon will have pushed out it 4G upgrade. Then, Jobs & Co. will bring out a LTE iPhone for Verizon which, incidentally, would enjoy near-global compatibility since virtually every cellular operator has committed to the same 4G technology.

Several aspects of the LTE hypothesis don't make sense, but the question is worth asking: three years after its introduction, why is there still only a single GSM/UMTS flavour of the device? There are probably two key factors which have driven the economic consideration behind Apple's decision: exclusivity and technology.

Exclusivity: Apple did something unheard of when it bestowed the iPhone onto this world. Through the carrier exclusivity deals it skilfully negotiated, it was able to levy various voice and data revenue share demands while having the carrier foot the cost of subsidising the phone. In this climate, CDMA was never going to be a top consideration since giving the iPhone a global market required it be GSM. Nothing would have stopped Apple from an exclusive deal with Verizon (instead of AT&T) using a CDMA iPhone while it pushed a GSM version elsewhere. Well, nothing if you don't consider cost.

Technology: The cost of developing and managing multiple device models is one of the handset industry's dirty secrets and this is likely a factor underpinning Apple's current decision to only support, essentially, a single model. Compare Apple to all its competitors. From Nokia to RIM to Motorola to Sony Ericsson, they all design, test, manufacture, certify and distribute a plethora of smartphone models based on at least two radio technologies - GSM or CDMA - and in a variety of form factors and input interfaces (keyboards, touchscreens etc.). By comparison, Apple supports a single device, with one radio technology and a form factor which has remained largely unchanged in three years. If the development cycle for an average phone is 18 months, it's easy to see that the difference in cost of managing one model versus 20 can be enormous. As a company entering the highly complex and competitive handset market for the first time, it's easy to appreciate the attraction of the single model strategy. It is interesting to note that even though Apple is not actively distributing the iPad through carriers it is again adopting at single model strategy - albeit with Wi-Fi/3G variants which mirrors its approach with the iPod Touch and iPhone.

Pages: 1 | 2

Related Stories

COMMENTS

Posted by ian on Friday 4th June, 2010

what the heck are you talking about .....

So the conclusion is there should be a CDMA Sprint iPhone and you don't know when ?!

If Sprint gets the iPhone, it breaks your rule No.1"Exclusivity",

and it's nothing to do with Verizon gets iPhone or not.

It's all about business, CDMA is pretty matual and old technology, it not hard to add one extra CDMA model, not even to mention Qualcomm Gobi chipset for dual mode support will become more stable in 2012!

Forget LTE, it still has years to wait for its prime time.

Carrier Broadband Performance: Africa & Middle East
Carriers are using mobile broadband as their weapon of choice in the fight against the commoditization of voice and falling ARPU. This...

Voice over LTE: Market Analysis and Forecasts
VoLTE offer unique advantages in lowering a carrier's voice infrastructure economics and promises to improve voice quality, device...