[secrecyguy]

I know Cingular probably made a very good offer to Apple to have exclusive rights to the iPhone for the next few years and Apple agree to it.

But you have to think about this. The biggest carriers around the U.S. is Verizon, Cingular (soon to be AT&T again), T-mobile, and Sprint (NexTel). So there are at least 3 other carriers besides Cingular. Some people may not like Cingular, don't have the coverage to have it, or don't like the price plan. Cingular is actually ranked 3rd place in most areas.

So Apple will end up missing selling the iPhone to those people. Apple probably could make lot more money on selling the iPhone if it was available to other carriers.

Do you think Apple made a mistake in agreeing to be exclusive to Cingular only?

---

› See More: Do you think Apple made a mistake to go with Cingular?

[AppleiPhones]

I think Cingular and Apple will together to ensure the widest possible acceptance of the device including new rollouts into areas not currently well served by Cingular.

[tavenger5]

Humm.. either that or people will switch to cingular to have the thing. But having the coolest phone in the world doesn't mean anything if your customers can't afford it.

[kstab]

Personally I think the price is not THAT off the mark considering that people often pay $250 for an iPOD and $250 for a phone.. and this device is both and much, much more.

The iPhone has other issues beyond it's price.

[Kam1645]

I think apple made a mistake by making the phone in the first place. If the phone flops it will be because the usability of the phone itself. It just was not designed right. It will probably do good only because all the press and attention its already getting.

Heres an article by Samsung saying how they are unimpressed by the iphone.
Samsung unimpressed by Apple’s iPhone

[peryus88]

I don't like to make presumptions, so only time will tell. Perhaps Apple might make a CDMA variant of the iPhone for Verizon or Sprint, IDK. But I think that the Japanese are laughing at this phone.

[PhotoJim]

Having the long-term agreement with Cingular means there is no rush to make a CDMA version of the phone. The only country where it might be tempting to do so now would be Canada, but Apple can simply use the GSM version with Rogers instead. Every other country on Earth (except South Korea and Japan) uses GSM. As for South Korea and Japan, once Apple develops a 3G version of the iPhone it will work in those countries, since they support UMTS, which is the 3G protocol that GSM uses in Europe.

A CDMA version at launch wouldn't make much sense because it could only be sold in a handful of countries. The GSM version can be sold as-is almost everywhere.

The only other US carrier that would make sense is T-Mobile, and I'm guessing either Apple negotiated with T-Mobile, or Cingular/AT&T offered Apple enough that a T-Mobile deal wouldn't make sense.

[wirelessfan]

Apple probably could make lot more money on selling the iPhone if it was available to other carriers.

Cingulbar totally got taken to the cleaners.

The Apple agreement requires Cingulbar to buy 12 MILLION iPhones. If you check your stats, that will require Cingulbar to sell an iPhone to roughly every 1 out of 4 of their subscribers. That is totally ridiculous. Aside from a handful of business users and a handful of "Cult of Apple" Koolaid drinkers, the iPhone is not going to be a huge seller. No SmartPhone sells that hot. And the iPhone isn't even necessarily a SmartPhone by pure definition.

There is a very good reason Verizon told Apple to get lost two years ago. Verizon's executives are a lot sharper than Cingulbar's.

I predict a shortlived life for Apple in the cell phone business and a dark chapter for the careers of the executives at Cingulbar who signed off on this deal.

[Cellhutcom]

i think this i was a good deal for both companies and i m sure sooner rather than later apple will come out with an improved unlocked version that can me used world wide (for its euro/asian market)