Broadpoint AmTech research analyst Brian Marshall speculates that AT&T might have gained an extra six months of iPhone exclusivity in the US with its bid to provide data service for the iPad, extending its window through the end of 2010.
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“AT&T had to do something dramatic to get the iPad,” said Brian Marshall, a Wall Street analyst at BroadPoint AmTech. AT&T's move was to discount their normal wireless data plans by 50% to iPad customers.
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There have been doubts raised about Verizon's take-away from the deal, which not only appears to be heavily benefitting Skype, but could also potentially cannibalize Verizon's own income from international calls.
The move, it now appears, has been made out of Verizon's apprehensions over the threat from iPhone . According to Om Malik from
, there is a high possibility for the agreement to be an exclusive one. Malik's sources have (more…)

They're quoting two reports by Reuters. Reuters has reported yesterday that Vic Gundotra, who leads Google's mobile engineering told journalists:
“Apple is a very close and valuable partner and we're very excited about the relationship we have with them today. We have no reason to believe that's going to change.
We don't want to comment on those rumours. We think that relationship is stable.”
When asked about the reports, (more…)

“Our source tells us “there's too many options” for search on the market, so there's no reason for Apple to build its own search engine.
Another reason Apple might not want to build its own search engine: It's getting over $100 million a year from Google in its revenue share deal, according to our source.
For Apple , that's not a lot of money. But, it's enough that it doesn't make sense for Apple to put considerable resources (more…)

Since then, it has been revealed that AT&T will be the sole partner offering data connectivity to the device. While a CDMA version of the device is
to be in the works, there is no doubt that AT&T's pricing plan for the iPad are extremely competitive – $14.99 monthly for 250MB and $29.99 monthly for unlimited data usage, along with free use of AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide.
So why didn't Apple look outside its existing carrier partner (more…)

Yesterday's launch of the iPad was yet another instance when Apple failed to unveil a perfect device. The absence of a front-facing camera or webcam, in my opinion, could be one of the major drawbacks of the
.
Video calls; either for business or among friends, is one of the popular activities and it is unclear why Apple chose not to include a front-facing camera.
Additionally, though I agree that it would have been a little awkward to take (more…)

In the three months ending September, 4.3 million new connections were activated by AT&T. Of this 74% – 3.2 million connections were just iPhones! Of these 3.2 million iPhones, close to 40% were new customers confirming what all of us had guessed for a long time – AT&T would be close to dead without the iPhone .
On the revenue front, the total revenues for the quarter equalled $30.9 billion, down from $31.3 billion in Q3 2008. This meant a net income (more…)

According to IDC, the partnership seems to be closed from both the ends. Although iPhone users have expressed their displeasure over
time and again, Apple does not seem to be in any hurry to open the iPhones to another carrier. A recent report by iSuppli Corp in fact predicts an
beyond 2010.
On the other hand, Verizon has a lot of reasons to sit pretty. With the partnership with Google in place, IDC claims that Verizon in the near-term future (more…)

iSuppli prediction is based on the anticipated growth of High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology being adopted by AT&T. According to the report, HSPA will have 1.4 billion subscribers by 2012, while competing standard EVDO, used by Verizon, will have only 304.6 million users by 2013.
According to Francis Sideco, principal analyst, wireless communications at iSuppli:
“Speculation is rife that Apple will end its exclusive U.S. iPhone service (more…)

“We believe China Unicom's high-speed mobile broadband network, coupled with … (the iPhone ) will create new communication and different experiences for customers in China,”
said Unicom CEO Chang Xiaobin at a news conference.
If China Unicom wants to be successful then it should take some pointers from the failure of the iPhone in India, the world’s second largest mobile phone market. Since the carriers there don’t offer any subsidy, (more…)