Steve Jobs era un CEO caruia ii placea sa detina controlul asupra fiecarui aspect al business-ului facut de catre compania sa, iar acest lucru s-a reflectat in relatiile pe care acesta i-a avut cu partenerii companiei, unul dintre cei mai importanti dintrei ei fiind AT&T. CEO-ul Apple a dorit sa controleze de la bun inceput relatia dintre operator si compania sa, iar multumita celor de la AT&T iPhone-ul a devenit extrem de popular in SUA, insa totul s-ar fi putut schimba radical daca Steve Jobs si-ar fi indeplinit intentiile pe care si le-a exprimat in cateva randuri.
By 2010 many consumers in the United States were buying Android phones just so they didn’t have to have AT&T as a carrier. Jobs had been leaning on AT&T executives to speed up its network upgrades since the iPhone had launched in 2007. But he had limited leverage until the start of 2011, when the exclusivity period with AT&T expired and Verizon could also offer the iPhone. He’d considered dropping AT&T and switching to Verizon more than half a dozen times, but concluded the move was too risky.
In anul 2010, la 3 ani de la lansarea primului model al iPhone, existau foarte multi americani care evitau AT&T, si implicit iPhone-ul, din cauza problemelor de functionare pe care reteaua operatorului o avea. Desi Jobs a pus presiune pe conducerea operatorului sa-si imbunatateasca reteaua, procedura era de lunga durata, asa ca Jobs s-a gandit in repetate randuri sa renunte la AT&T in favoarea celor de la Verizon. Din fericire pentru AT&T, Apple nu a putut face acest lucru chiar atat de usor, compania americana reusind sa lanseze abia in anul 2011 un iPhone compatibil cu reteaua CDMA a Verizon, insa asta dupa ani de zile in care a pierdut multi clienti.
It would have required redesigning the iPhone, because Verizon phones used bigger cell radios than AT&T phones, and there was no additional room in the iPhone case. Verizon cell radios were well known to be battery hogs. Lastly, it wasn’t clear at the problem’s peak in 2009 that Verizon would be able to handle the iPhone traffic any better. “There were plenty of conversations along the lines of ‘Why are we sticking ourselves with this boat anchor,’ ” Bob Borchers said. “But every time we had that conversation, it always came down to the fact that the technology challenges were too high to warrant doing the work.”
Desi si-ar fi dorit sa “scape” de AT&T inca din anul 2009, cand problema ajunsese la apogeu, Apple nu a dorit sa colaboreze cu Verizon deoarece frecventele utilizate de catre operator fortau chip-urile baseband sa consume mai multa energie decat in mod normal. Mai mult decat atat, implementarea unor chip-uri compatibile cu aceste retele ar fi fortat Apple sa regandeasca design-ul iPhone-urilor sale, iar problemele tehnologice au amanat cu 2 ani lansarea unui iPhone CDMA pentru Verizon.