"You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part."
Tom Petty, The Waiting Song
There's millions of people in America.
Millions.
It really is huge. I mean, if you sit down and think about it there's millions who can't have an iPhone yet, because of Apple's AT&T exclusivity deal.
And they're waiting
.....waiting
......waiting.
Even iPhone users lucky enough to
(a) have an iPhone on AT&T and
(b) to be using that phone in one of AT&T's more effective network areas, (now apparently including New York City, fact fans),
Even they are waiting because some of them just don't want to be with AT&T any more.
But it looks like there's going to be more waiting ahead, as it seems Apple or AT&T are insisting on sticking to the rumored five year exclusivity deal between the two firms.
(Which, in view of some recent events could suggest someone might have hammered a whole bunch of zeros onto the end of the early termination clause when the deal was originally inked.)
What does this mean?
Well, the constant wondrous spin that is the evergreen 'iPhone for Verizon, iPhone for anyone' rumors continues its dance, with an Oppenheimer analyst this morning warning that the chances of seeing the Apple device on Verizon before late next year now seem pretty slim.
The analyst, Timothy Horan recently had a chat with AT&T's chief financial officer, in which the latter, one Rick Lindner apparently explained that Verizon is "unlikely" to get the iPhone until late 2011, Barrons informs.
Among other reasons given two are particularly standout:
Apple's focus on how the iPhone looks may make it difficult to build a model supporting CDMA.
Should one appear it won't be as 'streamlined' and will be slower, the report informs, that's because it will have to support more radio technologies which will demand a larger batter, apparently.
AT&T's other ace up the sleeve? *cough* "Higher penalties for contract termination". Though the company says it is improving its network and customer service.
Despite this, the analyst thinks Apple will be able to sell ten million iPhones to Verizon customers over the first 12-18 months the device finally reaches them.
Those predictions are in the range set out by a second Oppenheimer analyst, Yair Reiner, earlier this week.
That's assuming Verizon customers don't just opt for Android, of course. Particularly when considering iSuppli's warning this week that,
"Consumers, questioning Apple's supply chain management capability, have started looking for alternative devices. In particular, consumers are not satisfied with Apple's response to the antenna issue causing poor reception and dropped calls."
But if you are in the US and really, really, really want an iPhone right now, but don't want to use AT&T, then it looks like you could be in for a long wait.
This tie to AT&T seems set to become a terrible thing for Apple, as it is more than likely going to help Android devices build a strong market and mind share.
Note: This blog first appeared on our sister site Computerworld - read more at http://blogs.computerworld.com/evans - Email Jonny at rocket23@gmail.com.
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