With All Eyes on Verizon, Could T-Mobile Sneak into iPhone Candidacy?
In case you've been living in a cave these past few years, Apple's iPhone is all the rage and the source of dispute over exclusivity between many of the nation's top wireless carriers. Verizon, for example, is counting down the days until AT&T's exclusivity to carry the model expires.
In a statement to investors, analyst Shaw Wu said a check with Apple suppliers has suggested that AT&T will indeed lose its lock as the exclusive U.S. carrier of the Apple iPhone no later than the first half of 2011.
One of the reasons he is optimistic about T-Mobile's chances of becoming the next candidate is due to its GSM wireless standard, which is the same as AT&T's network, so there would be no need to convert the iPhone to run on its system.
"While the general consensus is around Verizon, which we believe will happen eventually, we continue to believe that T-Mobile is the most likely candidate," Wu said.
