Zach.Flauaus

My mind is blown.

Alright, stop us if you've heard this one before -- but seriously, we've noticed an uptick on the tip lines here at Engadget in the last couple weeks that's becoming difficult to ignore. It's one thing to say "hey, the iPhone is launching on Verizon," but we're noticing a particular confluence of facts that has us intrigued: it'll drop sometime in Summer, possibly in concert with the announcement that Verizon's first commercial LTE networks have gone live, and -- tread carefully here, because this is pretty difficult to believe and we don't want to get your hopes up only to have them smashed into a million pieces -- it'll supposedly even be a 4G launch device. We've gotten surprisingly specific details both from Verizon employees and tipsters whose companies are supposedly under NDA with Verizon to test enterprise deployments of the handset later this year, and they're all sending basically this same message. Read on!

Now, assuming there's even an iota of truth to this noise, we can say with some confidence that this thing won't be an LTE exclusive -- it obviously makes sense to include LTE as a publicity stunt (even if it's only used for data and not voice), but considering how limited Big Red's 4G footprint will be in the near term, there's little doubt that this would be a CDMA / LTE dual-mode deal capable of working anywhere in the carrier's network. Phones like the EVO 4G have certainly proven that there's interest in a high-end smartphone that's configured this way.

Thing is, this isn't how Apple typically works -- at all. Three generations of iPhone prove conclusively that Cupertino is all about stringing the world along with incremental handset upgrades that are just barely evolutionary enough to make you want to shell out the cash, and what we've seen of the fourth-generation model suggests that strategy isn't slowing down any time soon. Demand for a Verizon iPhone is high enough so that it seems Apple could easily get away with a considerably less revolutionary CDMA-only model in 2010, saving LTE for a year or two down the road when the network is bigger, silicon is more efficient, and heck, who knows, maybe carriers will have even figured out voice implementations by then. If there's any carrier in North America that could singlehandedly twist Apple's arm into fast-forwarding Apple's R&D roadmap, though, it'd have to be Verizon with its 90 million-plus subscriber headcount. We suppose anything's possible as long as enough backs get scratched, and CEO Ivan Seidenberg has always struck us as the type of exec that'd just love to give AT&T a very public "screw you."

Either way, it might just be a matter of Apple and Verizon agreeing on numbers. Both companies are known to be stubborn in negotiations, and we can see either of them walking away (just as Verizon famously did prior to the original iPhone launch) until the John Hancocks are on the dotted line. Stay tuned -- this should be an incredibly interesting Summer.

ARGH. STOP TOYING WITH MY EMOTIONS.

SO. DAMN. CATCHY.

Computerworld - AT&T and Apple probably have a quid pro quo in place that has extended the mobile carrier's exclusive deal with the iPhone in exchange for heavily-discounted data plan pricing for the iPad, an analyst said today.

"AT&T had to do something dramatic to get the iPad," said Brian Marshall, a Wall Street analyst at BroadPoint AmTech. AT&T's move was to discount their normal wireless data plans by 50% to iPad customers.

As part of the tit-for-tat, AT&T got what it wanted. "For that pricing [on the iPad], AT&T was able to negotiate a six-month extension on the iPhone exclusive," Marshall said.

Most analysts had expected the AT&T-Apple deal to expire this summer, three years after the two companies first partnered on the iPhone. At one time, Marshall was among those who figured that the expiration meant Verizon, the country's largest mobile provider, would also sell the iPhone this year.

Apple iPhone

• AT&T extends iPhone exclusive in quid pro quo, says analyst
• Antitrust move against Apple would 'sink,' says expert
• Lawyer confirms identity of 'lost' iPhone seller
• Apple slates WWDC for June 7-11, touts iPhone 4
• Calif. police seize computers in 'lost' iPhone case
• Why Apple won't own the touch PC market
• Report: Calif. police investigate 'lost' Apple iPhone caper
• Google dashes hopes of free iPhone turn-by-turn GPS
• Apple: iPhone OS supports open standards, Flash is closed
• Apple demands missing iPhone's return

He's changed his mind.

Marshall now believes that Verizon won't have the iPhone until the first quarter of 2011. He based his opinion on the failure of Verizon earlier this year to land an exclusive wireless deal with Apple for the latter's iPad media tablet, a move he said numerous sources had told him was a "certainty".

When that didn't happened -- something Marshall said "floored" him -- he began to think there had to be a reason why AT&T landed the iPad and offered such cut-rate deals on its data plans. Thus arose the idea that Apple and AT&T exchanged an extension on the iPhone for lower-priced 3G data plans on the iPad.

"And they're pre-paid," he noted, referring to AT&T's willingness to forgo contracts with iPad owners, something it's never done for the iPhone. AT&T offers two iPad data plans, a $15 per month plan for 250MB of data and an unlimited data plan for $30 per month.

Talk of Apple dumping its exclusive deal with AT&T this summer and adding one or more rivals to its U.S. partner list have circulated for some time, and continue to pop up now and again. Two months ago, for instance, rumors that Verizon would get the iPhone drove up the price of Verizon's stock.

AT&T and Apple did not immediately reply to requests seeking comment on a deal to extend their exclusive iPhone contract.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at

@gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed

. His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com.

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