Comments on: Verizon CEO: iPhone success a 'conspiracy'

Ivan Seidenberg, chief of the telecom giant, is probably sick of hearing about Apple's iPhone, judging by his comments on the iPhone 3G.

[tomg4255]

The head of the evil empire speaks... More to the point if Verizon take the iPhone it would have been a disaster. An iPhone in Verizon's hands would have been functionally crippled from the outset, you would have had to pay monthly to run an app on it, and they would have insisted on their own terrible UI. As it is what Verizon has done to the BB's they carry is a shame.

[MCOjerry]

I'll bet that Apple wouldn't have allowed that, and it might have been the real reason there isn't a Verizon iPhone. Verizon Phones do suck wind, and their Get It Now apps suck because they charge monthly or a huge fee for unlimited use. Unfortunately, no one knows how Apple is going to charge in the App store.

[voyager529]

something tells me that if the iphone was on verizon, they wouldn't have put the verizon UI on it. I severely doubt that Jobs would let that kind of crap happen. But even if it did, you can count on the modded iphone community to rectify that.

Joey

[Clues]

Ivan defines the "empty suit"!

[Deekman]

Now THAT's a business plan. "When all our competition die out, we will take over." Very nice. With that model, you don't even have to innovate! Hey Ivan, when was the last time Verizon caused this kind of interest? Ooops, was that the store spot I just stepped in?

[technewsjunkie]

Dear Ivan,

The iPhone is a Great product, that's called Demand, not a conspiracy. He must be feeling threatened, as he should. An innovative product like the iPhone get's people using the (AT&T) NETWORK more too.

[MSSlayer]

The most honest review of the iPhone. http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone

[Perry_Clease]

That is themostugliestpageintheuniverse. He may not be getting an iPhone, but he also isn't "getting" design, much less readability.

[Kwasiowusu]

AT&T has by far the worst cell phone service in the business. Thank heavens I dumped AT&T long
ago, and signed up with Verizon, who's service by far trumps the terrible AT@T service in every way I can think of. Plus Verizon currently has smart phones that trump the iPhone feature for feature.

[SixVodkas]

Orly?

That must be why the Verizon phone I replaced 3 months ago was always roaming, right?

Anecdotal evidence isn't worth the electronic paper you're printing it on.

For every AT&T sUxOrs tale you can spin, I can find 2 Verizon sUxOrs to match.

I had Verizon, and my service was PATHETIC.
I signed up with AT&T, and my service now "by far" trumps the terrible Verizon service in every way I can think of

Plus my iPhone trumps Verizon smart phones, feature for feature. Jeez, my old, lame Verizon phone couldn't even synch with the #1 music service on planet earth!

[Kwasiowusu]

Oh Pu leeze! AT&T has been the worst cell phone service in America for years, bar none. It's not even close. And I am not talking about stories I heard from anybody here. I am talking from personal experience. Any Apple fanatic, attempting to come up with sme trumped up story about Verizon, in order to promote the iPhone, is simply wasting his time. No amount of whitewash, can wash away the grime of AT&T's terrible service.

[bigmc6000]

Umm, you're still just peddling anecdotal evidence... As for my anecdotal evidence, the place I worked at I got absolutely no reception what-so-ever with Verizon but with AT&T (Cinuglar at the time) I got 4 bars. How's that for "terrible service?"

And honestly - name me another phone that comes with 16GB internal memory (no I don't want some stupid micro SD card as that's just another stupid thing to buy) and synchs virtually everything from your computer seamlessly - please - do tell...

[SixVodkas]

I wish I'd have taped the panicked Verizon service rep I spoke with as I switched to AT&T 3 months ago!

You should have heard how *lame* the script is when they're told you're buying an iPhone.

Most priceless, was "Yes, the iPhone is a pretty phone, isn't it?".

Jeez friggen Louise, my iPhone has all but replaced my laptop!

Verizon?
You guys DROPPED the ball. Contrary to your beliefs, the iPhone isn't succeeding due to Mysterious Apple Marketing (I've seen TEN *Chocolate* ads for every iPhone commercial), and the consumers aren't as STUPID as you keep telling us we are.

The iPhone is a sweeeeeeet device, and it's a only gonna get better.

Man up to your bad decision and, unless you're looking in the mirror, stop pointing fingers. You had a chance and you were too shortsighted to act.

[Kwasiowusu]

My cell phone is primarily for making and receiving phone calls. Very reliable service, backed with great customer service, and bills that make sense, are by far the most important things for me. AT&T's service simply sucks in all 3 departments. As for surfing the internet, 99% of my surfing the internet is done on my laptop, and I don't need a tiny screen on some phone with a virtual keyborad to do my work online.
With over 1.2 billion cell phones sold in the past 12 months alone, and Nokia alone selling to the tune of over 500 million cell phones in the last 12 months alone and making huge profits, Apple's 6 million iPhone sales are not even a blip on the landscape.

[cnetcensorssuck]

Kwasiowusu, try comparing Nokia's smart phones sales to the iPhone, then get back to us. You can't compare Nokia's entire phone portfolio to Apple's because they don't make all kinds of phones...just a smart phone. Additionally, nobody really cares how you use your phone. Millions of people around the world access the internet via phones, your not representative of how the world is changing.

[Kwasiowusu]

@ cnetcensorssuck:" try comparing Nokia's smart phones sales to the iPhone, then get back to us."

Yeah?
Now you are one really funny guy.
Nokia sells vastly more smart phones than Apple has even dreamt of. Last quarter alone, Nokia sold to the tune of 14.6 million smartphones worldide, that is more than Apple's entire iPhone sales for the entire year.
Let me re-iterate, Nokia sells over twice as many smartphomnes in just one quarter as Apple sells IPhones in the entitre year.

http://www.exehome.com/?p=299

If we talk about total smartphones sold, Apple is not even on the same planet, given that Nokia has sold over 130 million smart phones so far.
When we come to total cell phones sold per year, Apple is not even in the same universe as Nokia, given that Nokia is selling to the tune of a massive 500 million cell phones every year, and Nokia is stil growing faster than any major cell phone seler out there,accounting for up to 40% of ALL cell phones sold on the planet.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=FOOL&date=20080627&id=8836875
In fact Nokia stock has been dubbed the "Recession-Proof Stock".
Nokia sells 3 times as many cell phones in just one year, than all the iPods sold by Apple up to today

[johnqh]

Kwasiowusu, Kind of silly to believe Verizon's press release on everything positive about Verizon, isn't it?

See http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/37547/118/

"AT&T Wireless, the largest U.S. cellphone carrier with 70.1 million users, posted the strongest growth in this group, adding 14.9% or more than nine million new customers over the course of the year. Verizon Wireless, second in the group, achieved 11.2% growth "

Regarding Nokia vs Apple...you know Nokia is worried about Apple when you pay 410M to buy Symbian and then make it open source. Fortunately, Nokia's management do not think like you (or Verizon CEO). They take iPhone seriously and respond to it.

Let's face it, iPhone changed the game, and everyone in the industry (from operator to phone vendors) are scrambling to face the challenge. That doesn't mean iPhone is the best phone or iPhone is for everyone. However, anyone who don't react seriously and swiftly will be like Motorola within 2 to 3 years.

[cyclelogicpress.com]

Verizon meet horizon.

[crossingborders]

Verizon's CEO will be rethinking their "chances" when Apple brings home the bacon w/ the new iPhone. I take Steve Jobs over this goob any day. Verizon's CEO needs to do a quick reality check and compare his company's stock performance to Apple's over any amount of time, maybe he will rethink what this "conspiracy" is.

[Kwasiowusu]

@ crossingborders : "Verizon's CEO needs to do a quick reality check and compare his company's stock performance to Apple's over any amount of time, "

Nope. All Verizon's CEO has to do, is compare Verizon's stock performance to that of AT&T, and compare Verzon't profititabilty to AT&T, and Verizon's costumer growth to AT&T's , all categories in which Verizon smokes AT&T.

[cnetcensorssuck]

Kwasiowusu, you have no idea what you're talking about....whatsoever. Go to Yahoo or Google finance and look at the 52 week high and low for both stocks (Apple's has nearly doubled) Look at the graphs for just this year alone. Lastly, look at the market capitalization of both companies...and guess what...Apple is WORTH more than Verizon. Apple's market cap is nearly 150 billion and Verizon's is below 100 billion. Stop pretending that you have a clue.

[Kwasiowusu]

Yet again "cnetcensorssuck" shows he can't even read or understand English. Read my post again. It says, compare AT&T stock to Verizon stock, then compare AT&T profits to Verizon profits, then compare AT&T customer growth to AT&T costumer growth. Verizon wins every time. Even after the iPhone, Verison continues to sign up new cel phone users faster than any other cell phone service in America:
http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2008/verizon-reports-continued-stro.html
You don't compare Verizon to Apple, you compare Verizon to AT&T, which is ecatly the same business as Verizon. Get it?

[bigmc6000]

Kwasiowusu - you've got to be kidding me. You're linking to an article from Verizon about customer growth? Of course they are going to spin everything to make themselves look better - just as every company does. What you should do is find a neutral source rather than just continue to peddle BS. Really - keep on trying. 1 question tho - does Verizon actually pay you to do this? If not, you should really look into it as you'd have a great career as a salesman with them...

[ServedUp]

I understand where your coming from with your remarks. But obviously you haven't used an iPhone yet.

[rcsskier]

I have a Blackberry Pearl 8130 from Verizon and I love it! It is probably one of the best phones they have ever had as a carrier. However, the browser and email viewing sucks. No HTML e-mail support? Really? Am I still using Mindspring to send e-mails? This is a must. The iPhone's interface is second to none. IMO, Verizon + the iPhone 3G would be a perfect combo of reliable service and an amazing phone. Too bad Verizon was so short sighted.

[etiahwhite]

So many haters....I like my iPhone...I'm not a business person just a regular gal who finally found a phone that really works for my lifestyle....I've had so many phones. I definitely was a phone junky seriously I would never keep a phone for more than a year. This is the first phone that I truly like...I've not stopped at phone store since I got my iPhone. I love all my apple products they all look neat do neat things and generally bring joy to my life.

[Monkey_Business]

Oh the trolls are out in force. Verizon service is the worst. I had their shoddy service for years and finally got smart and left. I hate Verizon, the geezer CEO is just P.O'.'ed he blew it and can't stand it that Apple is getting all the publicity.

Verizon wireless customer service, billing practices are all really, really bad.

[Kwasiowusu]

You trolls are here alright..Apple trolls.
FACT: Verizon's cell phone service, costumer service and billing practices trump AT&T's by far. I should lknow. I have

used both. It's not even close. Only an Apple fanatic wil even bother to deny it.
AT&T couldn't even manage to launch the iPhone withput terrible grief to those who were unfortunate enough to buy

the iPhone at the time:
http://www.techshout.com/gadgets/2007/02/apple-iphone-debuts-with-terrible-first-impression-and-numerous-customer-complaints/

[bigmc6000]

HAHAH - FACT?!?!? Oh that's just hilarious. How about the FACT that Verizon doesn't have rollover mins and will take you to the cleaners should you even think about going over your mins for 1 month even tho you regularly use less than your allotment. Guess what - I should know as well since I've used Sprint, Verizon and AT&T. I had Verizon for over 3.5 years and eventually switched because where I worked I got 0 bars, not even roaming, nothing. And that article you site - wow, way less than 1% of people had a few problems activating - whoop-ti-doo! I was a day 1 buyer and I haven't even had the slightest problem. Oh wait - FACT - day 1 buyers didn't have problems since I didn't (just following your logic there).

[servermaker]

MrItialian --- I think he may have been referring to the overall phone market, not just the smartphone segment, which is still a substantial minority of mobile phone sales. Yes, iphone is #2 in smart phone segment...

[Kwasiowusu]

@ servermaker , the iPhone is not even close to being the # 2 on the planet. Nokia sells vastly more smartphones than Apple does, having sold over 14 million Nokia smart phones in the last quarter alone.
http://www.exehome.com/?p=299
Of course in America, the Blackberry outsells the iPhone.:

http://blackberry.pdablast.com/articles/2008/6/200864-BlackBerry-gains-market-share.html

[bigmc6000]

Good grief, you're worse than any Apple fanboi I've ever seen - really - it's quite amazing. What you're missing here is the iPhone is just 1 single model and has been out for all of 1 year. Nokia is #1 in smartphone because of the definition of smartphone - there phones aren't even close to the Blackberrys but because they have a few features normal cell phones don't have they are considered smart phones. How about you chew on this - the iPhone is the highest selling model of any phone. Try to prove that one wrong...

[DrtyDogg]

@bigmc6000: According to NDP the iPhone wasn't even the top selling smartphone of 2007 in the U.S.(where well over half their phones where sold) 3rd place behind the Pearl #1 and Q #2. Good grief, you gulp down the kool-aid don't you.

[shai-tan]

"Before the iPhone, no phone company let you use WiFi with your phone"

uh, windows mobile based phones have had features like that many years ago

[johnqh]

I think money.com (or some other business related website) runs a 100 biggest business blunder every year.

Somehow I feel this story will be close to the top.

[Seaspray0]

It could be that he's jelous that apple gets millions in free advertising by all the media hype. That's something other companies do not get, including his... and he does have good reason to be jelous: all they hype adds up to millions in free advertising for apple.

[sscottemick]

Anything made by Apple has always tended to suck. How many of you are looking forward to the HTC Diamond? It should be coming out on Alltel sometime soon. In the mean time I use my truly unlimited tethering for $10 a month. You can't get that on AT&T or Verizon or Sprint. It is too bad that within the next year or two I will become a Verizon customer. I hope that Verizon wakes up and gets some PDA's that run Android. I've already downloaded the SDK to use with eclipse so I can develop my own apps.

That review at http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone was the funniest comment on here. It made me almost fall down and hurt myself laughing.

Scott Emick
Cleveland, Ohio

[RichardSrery]

The iPhone has become a pop culture iconic device. The assertions by Verizon's CEO are actually rather interesting if you look at them purely from a psychological perspective. I detect much concern on his part. The bottom line is Apple has introduced a very functional device that competes very nicely in the smart phone sector. I for one am glad that Verizon passed up the offer, since that would have meant opening up an account with Verizon when I currently am with AT&T.

In a previous post it was stated that comparing Verizon to Apple is not a real comparison, since Verizon is merely a phone service provider who happens to sell phones made by vendors, whereas Apple is an actual vendor a smart phone and not a service provider. What I think really differentiates Apple from Verizon is that Apple not only makes money from the sale of the phone and a small portion of the service contract, it also provides additional services such as the APP Store, and Mobile Me. These will bring a nice reliable revenue stream to Apple.

Finally, the comment made by the Verizon CEO where he says that he would simply wait for Jobs to retire is by far the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard a CEO make.

[Perry_Clease]

"That review at http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone was the funniest comment on here. It made me almost fall down and hurt myself laughing. "

That is theugliestpageintheuniverse he may not be getting an iphone, but he isn't "getting" design and readability either which may explain his stance on the iPhone.

Oh and the comment isn't "here," it is "there."