Most Likely to Take Over the World

Monday, June 7 at 10am PST, all Apple nerds, geeks, and fangirls (myself included) will collectively hold their breath as Steve Jobs takes to the state in San Fransisco to deliver the keynote address at this year’s World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC). Now, with a past year of ups and downs, concerns and doubts plaguing everyone’s favorite fan of Rory Cochrane’s wardrobe in Empire Records, this in itself is a Big, Fucking Deal. But, the rumor mill is making things especially interesting.

For years now, almost since the birth of the iPhone, there have been rumors that an iPhone on Verizon was on the horizon, that the exclusivity with AT&T was merely momentary. Every year, we –the Mac Addicts with a love of Apple products and a hatred for AT&T, especially after the NSA wire tapping scandal– have waited with baited breath for an announcement, and every year, the announcement of an iPhone for Verizon — or any other non-Evil Empire carrier — has eluded us.

But for some reason, people began early with rumors of this year being The Year!

And then there was a lawsuit in California against Apple, revealing an exclusivity contract between Apple & AT&T, signed in 2007, that would run for five years, making the iPhone only available to we the faithful few in 2012.

Perhaps it is this event, I began to believe, that the Mayans were predicting with that calendar of theirs.

But the rumors were persistent. I’d point out the exclusivity contract. I’d point out that Verizon is developing a new network (set to go live in 2012, by the way) that will match the European standards of it’s parent company, Vodaphone. I’d point out that creating a phone that will only work on a network for two years before you’d need to develop another one made little sense, especially since the first version of anything is a bit buggy, therefore leaving Apple fixing the kinks in the first Verizon version only to launch a new one with new, fun bugs.

But the rumors kept coming, fueled last week by an announcement that AT&T would be raising the price of their Early Termination Fee from $175 to $325. I tried to downplay this rumor by suggesting that this gave more proof for a 2012 date than a 2010 date. New customers would be effected, and if they announce a new iPhone for new networks now, no one will be signing up with AT&T for the new phone with the new contract. The new contract, if anything, could be strategically put into effect to run out a month or two before the 2012 release date of the Verizon phone, thus forcing early adopters to pony up more dough to leave AT&T’s clutches.

But then….

Today, MacLife announced they’ve heard a rumor from a reputable source who works for Sprint that both Sprint and Verizon will get the iPhone this summer. This rumor comes straight on the heels of word spreading that Steve Jobs (or an assistant using his iPhone) has been emailing everyone asking him about WWDC since the Friday announcement, telling them that “You won’t be disappointed.” when asked about any big announcements at the WWDC.

Sounds like a man drumming up a lot of anticipation for something fabulous, and this is not a man known to underwhelm.

Right now, I’m booking off for June 7th, 2010; I’m not sure that the announcement will be an iPhone free from AT&T; I’m not even suggesting it will be. However, for all this hype, I want to see exactly what is going on — and since I’ll be in NYC for Internet Week at the time, I’ll at least be satisfied by the crestfallen look on the faces of the Hopeful when there is no freedom for the iPhone.

Possibly Related Posts: