01/29/2007, 1:35am, EST
Monday, January 29th
Verizon rejected Apple's iPhone terms
Apple CEO Steve Jobs insisted that he have hard control over iPhone distribution as well as sole discretion on warranty and replacement issues. The discretion may have put other Verizon distribution partners such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy at a disadvantage, Verizon's exec claimed. "That would have put our own distribution partners at a disadvantage" to Apple and Verizon stores, Gerace said.
Responding to the customer support portion of the report, Cingular reiterated that it would take responsibility for any wireless support. Mark Siegel, a Cingular spokesman said Cingular would field calls related to the wireless service. "I don't want to leave the impression that these (iPhone) customers are not ours. They are."
Filed under: Apple
,
, 21
,
,
,
,
,

subscribe to comments
for this article
People grouse about Cingular, but at least Cingular doesn't cripple their phones.
You'll be signing a 2-year contract with Cingular when you buy this phone at $500 (or $600 for the 8-GB model).
As for Verizon, since it is big and popular, it is no surprise that Apple wanted to work with them. Neither is it a surprise that Verizon didn't want to work with Apple; instead, they just wanted Apple to do whatever Verizon wanted. There are manufacturers (Nokia/Samsung/LG/Moto/Sony-Ericsson/Palm/etc.) that will painstakingly design a handset, then cripple it at the whim of a carrier, just to get to play in the market. Apple will never be one of them. Unfortunately, these other makers have made carriers so used to the level of control over hardware they now have that it took Cingular (dare I say their vision?) to sign such an exclusive deal (on Apple's terms, no less) without ever seeing even a prototype. While I was never a major fan of Cingular, I really hope they get rewarded here by extra 10 million subscribers by the year's end.