| | By Nick Farrell in Rome @ Monday, February 23, 2009 7:10 AM
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| | Apple is certain to allow Verizon to join its elite band of Iphone providers, bringing to an end the exclusive and somewhat stupid exclusivity deal in its biggest market.
Deep throats in Apple claim that Iphones for Verizon Wireless will be announced soon.
While the deal is so secret that Apple will not even hint that it is happening, the outfit had been trying to find EVDO and CDMA Engineers for months in their online Iphone job postings. While EVDO could cover a wide range of 3G skills, it is more likely that Apple is specifically after the Verizon Wireless standard.
 According to 9to 5 Apple has had a huge problem with its AT&T deal because Steve Jobs mis-judged its control over the US wireless market. While the outfit is big, Apple needed to bring in Verizon and perhaps Sprint to get the sort of coverage that would give the same sort of coverage enjoyed by Blackberry, Symbian and Android users.
AT&T is betting on LTE technology which will not be around until 2010, which is a long time for Apple to wait to increase its reach. An EVDO version of the phone will mean that Apple can dump the Canadian Rogers network which is really expensive. Developing an EVDO phone will draw Apple closer to Vodafone which has most of the contracts for the Iphone around the world. But what is strange about the whole deal is that Verizon claimed it was relieved not to get the Iphone exclusivity deal because Apple CEO Steve Jobs insisted on too much control over Iphone distribution.
This would have blocked Wal-Mart, Best Buy and other Verizon distributors from selling the gear. Steve Jobs is now off work sick and Apple might want to be extending its distribution. It is possible that Apple employees are hammering out a more open deal while Jobs is recovering from something that is definitely not cancer. X
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