Verizon May Pay Apple For iPhone Exclusvity

First off, the Verizon iPhone is still unannounced and we still don’t know if it will ever come to be. However we’ve reported on countless stories which would hint towards a 2011 release date. But the Wall Street Journal are fairly confident that it will happen, so much so that they claim Verizon may be willing to pay Apple to keep the iPhone off competitors networks once it eventually gets the iPhone.
An analyst published a note to investors citing this information from unknown sources, claiming that Verizon will be willing to pay Apple to have the iPhone partially exclusive. According to the analyst, Verizon “does not want the iPhone, the hottest selling smartphone, available on T-Mobile USA and/or Sprint and may be willing to pay for exclusivity to itself and AT&T.”
Another reason Verizon are so keen to get the iPhone on their network is because sales of Android devices are beginning to slow a little and they don’t feel that Blackberry is going to do anything special anytime soon.
It’s easy to see why Verizon would want semi-exclusivity on the iPhone, it’s been the best thing for AT&T getting them millions of new subscribers, they are now nearly the biggest carrier, only Verizon is in front of them.Verizon Wireless is the largest U.S. carrier with 93 million subscribers. AT&T have 92.8 million, so I’m sure Verizon are getting somewhat nervous.
As usual Verizon declined to comment about these speculations, but over here in the EU i’m not to sure if that’s even legal, due to complex competition laws