By now you must have heard that AT&T didn’t have the exclusivity of the iPhone anymore, as Apple signed a multi-year deal with Verizon. Business Week has an interesting article showing how it took years for this agreement to take place.
In this article, Verizon’s President Lowell McAdam gives us an idea of what it was like to deal with Apple. Let’s analyze what he has to say…
We said over the last three or four years that the business interests would come together — and they did.
Translation: OMG we were so freaking stupid not to sign a deal with Apple in 2007. I’m glad they finally deemed us worthy enough.
We had to share with them where we were going with our network and they had to share with us what they were planning for devices […] That’s when we said, ‘Yes, this should work’.
Translation: I would have given my wife to Steve Jobs if that meant Verizon would finally get the iPhone. I’m glad I didn’t have to.
We probably worked six or nine months on the technical side of this and saw we could make this work. Then we did the commercial side. The commercial deal took us a day.
Translation: This iPhone deal isn’t cheap but we don’t care. Whatever Apple wants, Apple gets.
You may read the full article without any of my sarcasm here.