The widely accepted rumor is that AT&T has a 5 year exclusive contract for all phones that Apple makes. Many people think this is a ridiculous agreement for Apple to have entered in. In 5 years, the iPhone will be 8 times as powerful as it is now*. While that is not technically an eternity, that is an eternity in technology.
While I am willing to accept that there may be a 5 year exclusivity agreement, I think that there HAS to me more to the deal. There has to be a clause in that agreement that dissolves the exclusivity if a certain milestone is met. If nothing else, there has to be some point that is considered “market saturation” for an AT&T and Apple agreement.
So what is it? How many phones (and service contacts) must AT&T sell before they allow Apple to start selling phones through other services in the US? Sure, maybe AT&T will get all phones first, but there is just no way that Apple really thinks they will only sell phones in the US through AT&T for the next 5 years**.
* Moore’s law states that processing power doubles every 18 months. 54 months = 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 times the processing power.
** maybe it is just wishful thinking since I won’t be switching to AT&T any time soon.
