Blog

Are you waiting for the much rumored Verizon iPhone? Well, you better get used to waiting. Because according to Engadget, Apple has confirmed in court documents that AT&T has exclusive rights to the iPhone until 2012.

At least that is what the original contract between AT&T and Apple stated. However, it is unclear if the contract is still valid. Not only are there plenty of ways for such a contract to be amended or terminated, but the contract also might be voided as the result of an ongoing class action law suit in the state of California. The lawsuit claims that Apple and AT&T were exerting a monopoly over iPhone service by claiming that consumers were only required to sign up for a two year service contract, when in reality the iPhone owner was forced into renewing their contract with AT&T once their initial two years was up in order to keep the iPhone functional.

I don’t see Apple fighting very hard in this case. The best thing that could happen to the iPhone would be a change in carriers. The service or lack thereof provided by AT&T is the single greatest flaw that the iPhone has. As Jon Stewart so elegantly stated when he blasted Apple and the related police raid of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s house, “...If you want to break down someone’s door, why don’t you start with AT&T, for God’s sake? They make your amazing phone unusable as a phone!”