Bloomberg reports of some interesting details behind the Apple / Verizon deal that made possible for the two companies to announce the iPhone 4 on Verizon starting February 10. The Verizon iPhone, as you may know, was one of the most anticipated devices in the United States because of the 4-year long AT&T exclusivity and the reported poor performances of the carrier in some areas.
First off, about the lack of Verizon branding on the CDMA iPhone 4, it looks like Verizon simply had to get along with it as Apple never puts logos on their devices and they really wanted to have the device in their portfolio anyway.
To reach a deal, Apple and Verizon had to reconcile different approaches to branding. Verizon puts its stamp on other manufacturers’ devices, including phones from Research In Motion Ltd. and Motorola. By contrast, only Apple’s name appears on the iPhone.
“They don’t put a lot of logos on their phones,” McAdam said in the interview. “So that wasn’t a major issue for us.”
Watching the success of the AT&T-Apple partnership may have led Verizon to accept a similar deal, said Jean-Louis Gassee, a former Apple executive who is now a venture capitalist at Allegis Capital in Palo Alto, California.