Originally Posted by USA Today
What you may have known… The Apple iPhone due out sometime next month will be exclusively offered by AT&T.
What you may not have known… AT&T will be the exclusive carrier of the iPhone for the next five years.
AT&T has exclusive U.S. distribution rights for five years — an eternity in the go-go cellphone world. And Apple is barred for that time from developing a version of the iPhone for CDMA wireless networks.
A question that I would really like to to know the answer to is if this 5 year period of exclusivity is just for the iPhone that is coming out next month, or, does AT&T have a lock on anything iPhone like coming out of Apple until 2012, i.e., if Apple releases an iPhone Nano or an iShuffle or something, would it be exclusive to AT&T as well?
If the iPhone is as hot a device as everyone thinks it is going to be AT&T has a great opportunity to nab customers from the other carriers because their period of exclusivity on the device that everyone wants is so long.
What you may not have known… AT&T will be the exclusive carrier of the iPhone for the next five years.
AT&T has exclusive U.S. distribution rights for five years — an eternity in the go-go cellphone world. And Apple is barred for that time from developing a version of the iPhone for CDMA wireless networks.
A question that I would really like to to know the answer to is if this 5 year period of exclusivity is just for the iPhone that is coming out next month, or, does AT&T have a lock on anything iPhone like coming out of Apple until 2012, i.e., if Apple releases an iPhone Nano or an iShuffle or something, would it be exclusive to AT&T as well?
If the iPhone is as hot a device as everyone thinks it is going to be AT&T has a great opportunity to nab customers from the other carriers because their period of exclusivity on the device that everyone wants is so long.
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