Analyst says Apple will stick with iPhone AT&T exclusive
Most industry analysts have said that AT&T exclusive deal on the iPhone will end some time around the middle of this year, but at least one well-known financial firm’s analysts disagree.
Credit Suisse has issued an investor reports saying that it believes that Apple will be renewing its exclusive U.S. deal with AT&T before the deal expires, and that AT&T exclusivity on the iPhone will last another 12 to 18 months. Most financial and cell phone industry analysts have said just the opposite, feeling that we are very near the end of AT&T iPhone exclusivity, and that other cellular providers, especially Verizon, will be given a chance to get in on the iPhone bonanza when the current agreement between Apple and AT&T expires this summer.
Bucking the trend, although they acknowledge that a number of possibilities exist, the new analysis from Credit Suisse notes that there are a number of reasons for Apple extending their current policy into 2011, according to a report on Barrons. The meat of the report is the following excerpt: “Our framework determines the impact of each scenario on the carriers, Apple and the handset OEMs. We allocate probabilities to each scenario based on their impact on Apple/AT&T. Our approach yields a 75 percent probability that AT&T keeps exclusivity for another year.”
Many observers of the event at which the new iPad was introduced were surprised that Apple had negotiated an inexpensive data deal with AT&T on the iPad, a plan that will only cost $29.95 per month for unlimited data. There had been rumors and guesses before the event took place that Apple would use the iPad to implement a strategy of selling through other wireless carriers. That did not happen, of course, and there is little if any indication that Apple is ready to distance itself from AT&T despite the carrier’s well publicized problems in supporting the iPhone. The Apple – AT&T relationship just gets curiouser and curiouser.
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February 6th, 2010
Credit Suisse has issued an investor reports saying that it believes that Apple will be renewing its exclusive U.S. deal with AT&T before the deal expires, and that AT&T exclusivity on the iPhone will last another 12 to 18 months. …
February 6th, 2010
I sure hope they are WRONG ! !