the 5 year exclusive deal with AT&T is just plain stupid. In 3 more years no one will care about the iPhone anymore, it will be old news

Apple's evaluating its options and any place it can squeeze an extra penny out of exclusivity, or non-exclusivity, it will.

@FrancesTheMute: Is it 5 years? I never could find where the terms were actually spelled out.

The exclusive deal with ATT in the US is the biggest thing keeping it from becoming the most popular phone ever. I can't even begin to count the times that my friends or acquaintances have said they would buy an iPhone in a heartbeat if it were available on Sprint, Tmobile, Verizon, etc.

@FrancesTheMute:
I agree that the deal with ATT (Cingular at the time) was, overall, a stupid move on Apple's part; however, there were some advantages to having an exclusive carrier at the time, such as the ability to implement visual voicemail and cheap data plans.

The iPhone will not be old news in 3 years. Look how well they are doing now with an exclusive carrier, think how much buzz will be floating around in 3 years when the deal is up and it starts being available on other networks.

Why do you think that in 3 years "no one will care about the iPhone anymore, it will be old news" In three years there will probably be a 4G or Wimax version, with other features that Steve hasn't even dreamt about yet.

I thought the AT&T thing was just for U.S. carriers… otherwise they would have broken their "exclusivity" when they brought it to Europe (no AT&T there). Unless I'm reading the article wrong…

@Johnny Chimpo:

Yeah it is five years. Both companies' press releases say "a multi-year deal," but it has been widely reported in the press that the contract is for 5 years. I have never seen the specific terms either, but apparently someone has.

@steinah6:

Yep, exclusivity with ATT is only in the US.

That's the way mobile phone carriers do business in the U.S.

Apple's revenue is unique to U.S. mobile carriers and AT&T as the only carrier that would agree to it. Supposedly Verizon turned Apple down.

This sounds like more of a push to actually realize the 10 million number.

there are probably many - many unspoken reasons why the state phone company has to be in on the act....

spaghetti?
come on...

@flyboy:

Mussolini stopped ruling Italy quite some time ago.

@justinpe:

"In three years there will probably be a 4G or Wimax version, with other features that Steve hasn't even dreamt about yet."

I dunno, based on how long development takes, Steve probably dreamt about all that stuff last night.

@justinpe:

"The exclusive deal with ATT in the US is the biggest thing keeping it from becoming the most popular phone ever. I can't even begin to count the times that my friends or acquaintances have said they would buy an iPhone in a heartbeat if it were available on Sprint, Tmobile, Verizon, etc."

I don't know about you, but I'm happy that they've kept the iPhone far away from Verizon. Imagine an iPhone with that hideous red interface and crippled features. And I can tell you it's definitely is "the network" that I will miss when the iPhone goes 3G and I jump ship- the people network. It's free to call all my friends and family cause they all have Verizon too.

@flyboy: The State phone company also happens to be the best and least expensive...hahahaha... I know, I live here!

Comment on Italy's iPhone to Have Two Carriers: The End of Exclusivity? Does this mean the Euro iPhone has to two radio's??? If it does can I use it on Sprint?

Given that Apple was a (really still is) a new entrant into the world of cel phone design and manufacture, it made sense that they didn't want to spread themselves too thin by producing both GSM (AT&T, T-Mobile, Rogers) and CDMA (Verizon, Sprint, Telus, Bell) out of the gate - and since most of the rest of the world uses GSM, the choice as to which technology to use was pretty clear. Since AT&T is by far the biggest GSM carrier in the US, they were the logical partner. The exclusivity deal netted Apple a ton of cash, and allowed them to control the rollout, pricing, plans in an orderly fashion - since their rep depends on everything working seamlessly straight out of the box, this was inmportant.

All that said, 5 years is forever in technology - 3 might have been a better choice.

@geedots:

I'm sure Apple is working on things that will blow our minds. I think the iPhone was in development for 5 years or so, before it launched.

I agree that Verizon sucks as far as phone selection, customer service, and their crappy services like V-Cast. And, Verizon probably turned down Apple because they like to control how customers get music and ringtones and games etc. onto their phones. This is probably a big reason why they get all of the cool phones way after other carriers. I do admit that their network works well in remote areas, better than ATT anyway. But how often do you travel to places like Defiance Iowa?

I've found ATT's network to be just as good (and even better) in some metropolitan areas. I live in a deadspot for Verizon in Denver, so I was forced to switch to ATT (that and I wanted an iPhone). I guess I just wanted to be able to use my phone where I live, which is why people in Defiance use Verizon.

I know you Italians must be annoyed when people mock you guys saying "Mamma Mia" ... We Americans have one too so feel free to annoy us anytime ... "I think I'll use my Credit Card".

so wat this will mean you can buy a phone that' not locked? Oh wow just imagine the possibilities, you could buy a phone and use any carrier you want.

@jkoppee:

Except you won't get visual voicemail. Also, the carrier would have to use GSM, so no CDMA carriers.

@steinah6: Exclusivity with AT&T is only in the US. Most other countries have their own exclusive carriers. What makes this story unique is that there are two Italian carriers, each of which claim to be offering the iPhone shortly. So in Italy it's not exclusive.

Yeah that's nice, except these are all NEW deals. It's great that Apple is breaking the mold for these other countries, but if you think AT&T is going to drop the exclusive they ALREADY SIGNED FOR 5 YEARS you're crazy. The US won't change.

Who cares? Unless the US exclusivity deal ends, this is not news.

@RoCKSTaH53: This is why we import the phone. :)

@Stacky Botrus: How charmingly USA-centric of you.

@Stacky Botrus:

The other 95% of the world disagrees with you.

@Earthslide: Italians don't care if you mock them with "Mamma Mia". Now, say "Sua madre è un maiale peloso", and your ass is grass.

@Stacky Botrus:

Do you know that there are some other people out of your country? I mean, maybe you have ever heard about something called "Europe", or "Asia", or...

@Canoehead:

"since most of the rest of the world uses GSM"

Well, that´s not quite true. Once more, short view range. Try to inform yourself about it, and you´ll see that the US is the biggest market with GSM network. In other countries that´s an ancient technology.

@flyboy:
TIM is no longer the company of our State. Not it's a private company (with many advantages based on their monopoly, but still private)

It was announced last month by TIM (the biggest carrier in Italy) that they got the iphone 3G from Apple, and that it wouldn't be locked. They sold it as a big win (they didn't want to share revenues with Apple) but I can't really understand how not having the exclusivity on the most sought-after gadget ever could be a win for anybody. My take is that Apple wants to test how a wider distribution would affect sales.

My big concern, on the other hand, is how much the unlocked 3G iphone will cost, since not having a revenue stream will undoubtly have to be recovered somewhere else.

@Canoehead

"since most of the rest of the world uses GSM"

@literato is right, in EU GSM is sooo last century...