Daring Fireball posted a tremendous article about how Verizon, AT&T, and Apple benefit if the rumors about an iPhone Lite and iPad media tablet on Verizon are true-ish (Gruber also looks at Apple’s iPod strategy mapped to the iPhone — go read it now, I’ll wait). What struck me, however, was how Verizon, AT&T, and Apple benefit from the rumors themselves rather than the actual devices and/or their eventual carriers, if any. Apple is, according to a separate rumor, negotiating with AT&T to increase the length of their iPhone exclusivity agreement . AT&T’s last earning report showed just how important the iPhone was to their revenues, especially their new customer acquisition and premium service charges. This puts them at a distinct disadvantage with Apple, who could theoretically — if inconveniently — re-engineer the iPhone to work on any of the big 4 US carriers (CDMA for Verizon or Sprint, different GSM bands for T-Mobile). Rumors that Verizon is already talking to Apple, then, pushes AT&T over edge of disadvantage cliff.

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Read more from the original source:
Who Really Benefits from iPhone on Verizon Rumors?