Two issues are pushing Apple to expand beyond its current one-carrier arrangement for the U.S. iPhone, an analyst told investors Monday. Not only is the iPhone maxxing out the AT&T network, the Cupertino, Calif. company needs to stem the tide of Android phones flowing from Verizon.
This is where we usually write about Verizon’s chances of obtaining the Apple handset. Although such speculation has reached the level of the Easter Bunny or BigFoot as an appealing tale lacking only facts, Kaufman Bros.’ Shaw Wu takes a different tact: if not Verizon, how about a two-for-one deal?
According to Wu, Apple is on the horns of a delimma: it can either wait until 2012 when Verizon’s LTE technology is more advanced, go with a stop-gap “SVDO” technique that will provide simultaneous voice and data, or sign deals now with both T-Mobile USA and Sprint which have a combined audience as large as Verizon.
Either way, Apple has to act soon, according to Wu. “From Apple’s perspective, the debate is whether it makes sense to roll out an interim CDMA iPhone sometime in 2011 or perhaps wait untile LTE becomes more available in 2012,” We told his clients.
Although Wu sees going with Verizon as the best way to slow the progress of Android phones flooding from the carrier, he called it “premature” to not consider other carriers. He notes Sprint has 48 million subscribers and T-Mobile USA has 34 million customer, giving the duo a combined audience nearing that of Verizon’s 93 million subscribers.
