14 DAY TRIAL // Wireless carrier AT&T is keen on having the iPhone available exclusively on its network in the United States, and the latest reports on the matter suggest that it won't let go of the device until 2010 is over. Previous reports suggested that the exclusivity agreement with Apple would end this summer, but, following the launch of iPad 3G, that deal might have been altered, and AT&T is suggested to have managed to obtain an extension of its exclusivity.
Brian Marshall, a Wall Street analyst at BroadPoint AmTech, suggested that the iPhone would remain at AT&T until the end of the ongoing year, and that the move was the result of it reducing by 50 percent the data plans offered for those purchasing the iPad 3G. “AT&T had to do something dramatic to get the iPad,” the analyst stated, according to a recent article on Computerworld. He also notes that AT&T and Apple might have a quid pro quo in place, something that would explain the heavily discounted data plans for the iPad, as well as the extended exclusivity on the iPhone.
The deal between Apple and AT&T was expected to come to an end this summer, three years after the first iPhone came to the market. Moreover, following the expiration of the agreement, the iPhone was said to arrive at Verizon Wireless too, the largest carrier in the country. According to Marshall, who previously suggested that Big Red would start selling the iPhone in 2010, the iconic Apple device won't land at another US carrier until the first quarter of the next year.
Previous speculations had it that Verizon would also try inking a deal on the iPad, yet, since that didn't happen, it became somehow clear that AT&T would extend its exclusivity on the iPhone as a result of having data plans put in place for the iPad, Marshall notes. “We have a great relationship with Apple,” an AT&T spokeswoman reportedly said. “We don't comment on the specifics of our relationship.” Apple didn't comment on these speculations.