Apple with "No Plans" to Change AT&T iPhone Exclusivity and Other Notes

Apple's Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer provided some insights behind Apple's iPhone strategy today during the Q2 financial results conference call.

When specifically asked about Apple's long term exclusivity with AT&T, Apple responded that they are very happy with AT&T and feel they have done a very good job promoting the iPhone. Despite some recent hope that Apple might expand the iPhone to other networks, Apple said that they have no plans to change the AT&T exclusivity at this time. Also mentioned was the fact that Verizon currently uses the CDMA network which is incompatible with the current iPhone. Apple stated they wanted the iPhone to be a global hardware device which requires the use of the GSM standard. This may confirm claims by Verizon's CEO that Apple may have never intended to launch a CDMA (Verizon) iPhone. This situation may change when Verizon upgrades their networks.

Another interesting statistic revealed was the total number of iPhones and iPod Touches has now reached 37 million units. Apple had sold 30 million as of December 2008.

Finally, Apple reiterated that they no plans to leave a "price umbrella" for competitors to sneak in. What this ultimately means remains unclear, though some had originally felt this could mean Apple will introduce lower priced models ("nano"). Apple also reiterated the importance of the App Store and their software-focused approach to the iPhone platform.