>There were similar articles when Apple launched the iPhone exclusively on AT&T. We can clearly see now that a) Apple had no interest in controlling the network

>There were similar articles when Apple launched the iPhone exclusively on AT&T. We can clearly see now that a) Apple had no interest in controlling the network provider (many people thought they would eventually launch their own MVNO or even network) I helped cover AAPL at a large investment bank. I can confirm the above; we thought that if there was any company with the a) financial resources to build its own network (an MVNO is much cheaper, of course), and b) brand presence/credibility to immediately gain market traction, it was Apple.