Amid iPhone-to-Verizon rumors, Apple, Verizon spar over video, music, and retail sales

Apple and Verizon have reportedly butted heads over a number of parts of the negotiation to bring the iPhone to Verizon, including where to sell the actual phone and whether to allow Verizon’s streaming video and music sales service, V Cast, on the iPhone.

Verizon did not want to give up providing access to its proprietary streaming video and music marketplace, V Cast, for iPhone users and made that clear early in talks, leading to some tension in the negotiations, the Wall Street Journal reported. Apple and Verizon also argued over whether to allow the phones to be sold by Verizon’s retail partners, like Best Buy and Infinitel, the report states.

The new information came from an update to a Wall Street Journal report yesterday that said that iPhone coming to Verizon was very likely, based on information from individuals briefed by Apple. The Verizon iPhone would be configured for Verizon’s CDMA network technology with a chip manufactured by Qualcomm, and arrive sometime early next year, according to rumors that have circulated for about as long as AT&T has had the iPhone.

AT&T has had an exclusive agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone, which as been a boon for the cell provider as it has attracted around 24 percent of all smartphone subscribers with the iPhone as of August, according to data from comScore.  Meanwhile, Verizon has pushed its lineup of smartphones powered by Google’s Android operating system to make do without the iPhone — like those manufactured by Motorola and HTC. But Android has been catching up with Apple as of late, with about 20 percent of smartphone users on Android phones as of August, according to comScore.

Frustration has grown over AT&T’s network performance in major cities like San Francisco and New York, where the large number of iPhone users can sometimes slow down the network significantly. A report by Credit Suisse suggested around 1.4 million iPhone users on AT&T would jump ship to Verizon if it carried the iPhone.

Apple originally selected AT&T as a carrier to work with the more widely used GSM network technology, compared to Verizon’s CDMA technology which does not allow Web access and calling at the same time. Apple toyed with the idea of letting Verizon iPhone users roam on GSM networks, but ultimately decided to stick with a CDMA-enabled phone, according to the report.

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