WSJ Tick-Tock on Apple’s iPhone/Cingular Deal

By Paul Kedrosky · February 17, 2007 · ·

The weekend WSJ has a tick-tock on Apple’s deal for iPhone with Cingular. Some highlights:

  • Cingular’s CEO only saw the iPhone for the first time two weeks before launch, and Steve Jobs seemingly didn’t let him touch it
  • Only three Cingular execs ever saw iPhone before launch
  • Apple shares a portion of the monthly subscriber revenues
  • Steve repeatedly told Cingular execs during negotiations that they would never understand the Web and entertainment the way Apple did
  • Jobs first pitched iPhone to Cingular in early 2005
  • Jobs was adamant from the start that it be a touchscreen device
  • The Cingular deal was finalized in July of 2006
  • Cingular network engineers were only allowed to test a dummy phone, nothing like the real thing

Related posts:

  1. Tick-Tock on RIM Deal
  2. The Five Biggest Issues with iPhone
  3. The Trouble With Cingular
  4. Cisco Gets in the Best Quote on the iPhone
  5. Apple’s iPhone Messing with Mobile Market

Comments

  1. shandy1948 says:
    February 17, 2007 at 4:39 pm

    They may not have been cut in on the development of the handset, but this all looks like a very good deal from Cingular’s perspective – as they’re not having to subsidise the handset. There’s an intriguing article about the significance of the
    iPhone pricing structure here:
    http://www.robinontech.com/2007/02/12/the-iphones-real-significance/