IP Democracy: Verizon's President: We're Glad We Rejected iPhone

As the whole world knows, thanks to Leslie Cauley at USA Today, Verizon Wireless turned down a deal with Apple to be the exclusive carrier for the iPhone, a move widely considered to be short-sighted now. But Apple wanted too much control over how and when the iPhone got sold, repaired and replaced.

To drive home the company’s point, Verizon President and COO Denny Strigl said during the company’s Q4 06 earnings call that the telco would do it all over again. “Our take is that she [Leslie Cauley] was right on,” Strigl said during the Q and A portion of the call. “The iPhone product is something that we’re, quite frankly, happy not to be first to market on.”

Strigl seemed to suggest that the success of the iPhone, which won’t hit the market until mid-2007, is merely speculative. “Many are interested in comparing a future offering with what we have in the marketplace today,” he said. With no apparent awareness of the irony in his statement, Strigl said “It’s like comparing apples to oranges.”

He also suggested that Verizon has something up its sleeve that might be an effective competitive response to AT&T’s marketing of Apple’s mighty little device. “We’re very confident with our strategic partners and we’ve had a lot of good product from all three of our strategic suppliers and there too more on that as the year rolls out.”

(More on Verizon’s earnings later.)

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on January 29, 2007 12:18 PM to IP Democracy