10-10-2011, 04:23 AM
Chakravartin wrote:
But they still have zero motivation to do so for the iPhone 4S.
Possibly not true for several reasons:
1. Being able to roam easily abroad has been a significant selling point for GSM carriers. I don't think they've exploited it well, but the difference is very important to a subset of the market. I am an example.
2. An acquaintance of mine is a senior executive at AT&T Mobility (not that that has done me any good as a customer). He has told me that international roaming is very profitable for AT&T.
3. A lot of companies are under tremendous pressure from their employees to use iPhones as company phones. For many companies international roaming is an important feature. Put these together, and you have major client demand for an iPhone that can be used in most countries. See also #2.
If the phone can do international roaming, why would Verizon deliberately leave that out? They would be as locked to Verizon GSM as AT&T phones are locked to AT&T. Perhaps that's not enough, but I bet it's a small fraction of customers who are willing to jailbreak and unlock. And then there are those 2 year contracts.
- W