You know last week we discovered that Apple and Verizon had discussed working together on the iPhone, but they couldn’t come to terms.
For some, that was a big disappointment. With Verizon it is very likely that we would have seen a CDMA iPhone…which would have made many a geek extremely happy…but when you start to think about it…an Apple/Verizon deal would NEVER have worked out…here’s why…
Control – This is speculated to be the primary reason that there was no deal between the two companies. Both Verizon and Apple are notorious for wanting to control every aspect of their products. Even if these two media giants had signed on the dotted line, their equal demand for control would have created tension between the companies immediately, and would have most likely led to headache for both companies down the road.
iTunes Vs. V-Cast – Verizon is pushing their V-Cast service like it’s the holy grail these days. They really, really want you watching TV on your phone. Apple also really, really wants you watching TV on your iPhone (ya know…when it comes out)…but the way that each company wants you to do it are completely incompatible with one another. Verizon wants to sell you streaming live television via a subscription fee, but Apple wants you to download your TV through iTunes and watch it on your iPhone (and you computer, and your Apple TV) at either $1.99 a pop…or a season at a time.
The same thing goes for music…these two services just couldn’t work together…and yes, I know that Cingular has a music download service of their own…but they’ve obviously made some serious concessions to get the iPhone…and that is one of them.
Ultimately, I just don’t think these two companies would have been a good fit…even though many geeks would have preferred that they work it out.
What do you think?
