Verizon Leaves The Door Open For Apple & The iPhone
Not long ago, Verizon Wireless launched an aggressive ad campaign against the iPhone. That doesn’t mean Verizon is completely moving on and has no interest in the iPhone, however. During Verizon’s third-quarter earnings conference call yesterday, Verizon’s chief executive Ivan Seidenberg said his company would be interested in selling the iPhone.
“We obviously would be interested at any point in the future that they would be interested in having us as a partner,” Seidenberg said. “This is a decision that is exclusively in Apple’s court.”
Meanwhile, Verizon will focus on the handsets it does offer, most notably its new line of smartphones including RIM’s new BlackBerry Storm 2 and the upcoming Motorola Droid. The company also plans to offer Palm handsets early next year. “Our view is to broaden the base of choice for customers, and hopefully, along the way, Apple, as well as others, will decide to jump on the bandwagon,” Seidenberg added.
Other notable pieces of information from the earnings call include the fact that Verizon added a net of 1.2 million wireless subscribers during the quarter and its wireless unit continues to be profitable despite the fact that consumer interest in cheaper prepaid plans is growing. Additionally, Verizon plans to eliminate 8,000 jobs in the second half of this year with additional cuts to follow. Many of these cuts will be in the wireline unit.
Finally, we learned Verizon plans to offer faster wireless data for laptop card users in 25-30 cities using Verizon’s new 4G network by the end of next year. Phones that will take advantage of 4G speeds will take even longer.
