If the exclusive partnership was originally allowing Apple to secure its investment and enter in a new market without taking too much financial risks, it clearly now slows down mass availability of the iPhone to customers, and promote jailbreaking of such devices, as well as grey market. As most of the exclusive partnership will end by the end of the year, and starting January, we should might see the iPhone supported by all carriers and countries, except when there is some hardware compatibility between the device and the network.
Verizon, the US carrier suspected to offer the iPhone is a very near future, is using a rather specific protocol, known as CDMA2000, not supported by default by the iPhone. According to AppleInsider, this compatibility issue might be fixed by the end of Q3 2010 with the release of a new model. It will be an hybrid unit, able to adapt to all 3G protocols currently used worldwide. This should give Verizon the opportunity of add the iPhone to its catalog before waiting for the hypothetical 4G.
This could be a way for Apple to rebound and try to forget the business failure recorded in China where the company might only sold 5,000 units during the first week following its launch. those are truly disappointing figures. Not fully surprising neither, as chinese who could afford an iPhone before its availability, got it from the grey market and jailbreaked it, while most chinese can get access to counterfeited iPhone, at least in their design (y producing everything in China, companies should not be surprised to have counterfeited products to compete with their models in this country, and not the expected market share...).
