Might Verizon Still Get the iPhone?

Given the direct knocks on the Apple iPhone in Verizon's latest "Droid Does" marketing campaign, there has been speculation that Verizon has given up on any plans it might have had for offering the iPhone on the Verizon network.

But Verizon chairman and CEO Ivan G. Seidenberg surprised observers by saying Verizon has not given up hope of offering Apple's iPhone.

"This is a decision that is exclusively in Apple's court," Seidenberg said on Verizon's third quarter 2009 earnings call. "We obviously would be interested in any point in the future they thought it would make sense for them to have us as a partner."

"We have expanded our base of other devices," explained Seidenberg. "So our view is to broaden the base of choice for customers and hopefully along the way, Apple as well as others will decide to jump on the bandwagon."

Although AT&T's exclusive deal to offer the iPhone in the US is thought to be nearing an end, Verizon Wireless, which uses the CDMA air interface, is viewed by some an unlikely candidate to offer the iPhone, which currently is designed to run on GSM networks.

AT&T's iPhone exclusive is seen as a key factor in differing net new subscriber performance in the third quarter. Verizon Wireless added 1.2 million new mobile customers during the quarter to reach 89 million in total, while AT&T had earlier reported growth of two million net new subscribers, to reach 81.6 million total subs.

AT&T said it activated 3.2 million iPhones in the third quarter of 2009, the company's largest quarterly total to date.