Verizon at work on iPhone competitor

USA Today originally revealed that Verizon passed on the opportunity to become the exclusive U.S. distributor for the iPhone because it didn’t agree to cede control over distribution, pricing, marketing and more. Now the national newspaper reports that AT&T’s fiercest rival is working with an unnamed manufacturer on “an answer to the iPhone” due in the late summer.

Denny Strigle, Verizon’s chief operating officer was the one who decided to pass on the iPhone deal and says he has no regrets about it. His opinion is that Verizon’s network is better than AT&T’s and a phone is only as good as the network it runs on.

“The issue is not the Apple-ness of the iPhone itself, but with the cellular network that it is running on,” Strigl says, picking his words carefully. “That will be the true test of the iPhone: What will the iPhone experience be?”

Of course, that doesn’t mean Verizon isn’t going to respond to the iPhone.

“We do have a very good response in the mill,” he says. “You’ll see that from us in the late summer.”

Considering that the strength of Apple is its tight integration of hardware and software, I’m left wondering what existing manufacturers handle both, much less with the same style and polish as Apple.

Strigle notes that “time will tell” if he made the right call. Well, yes, of course it will. Is there anything less obvious to say than that?

AT&T eager to wield its iWeapon

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