However, in the end, only Apple’s name appears on the Verizon iPhone and Verizon doesn’t load any of it’s own apps. The booming success of the Apple-AT&T relationship seems to have influenced Verizon’s McAdam.
In addition to building cell towers on Apple’s campus for testing, the two companies reached an even more remarkable agreement: swapping information about each other’s plans. “We had to share with them where we were going with our network and they had to share with us what they were planning for devices,” Mr. McAdam said.
Most analysts believed that it was in the financial and strategic interests of the two companies to eventually work together, even as they argued over which company needed the other the most. Fortunately, the two companies found both common ground and the right two men to make it work.
In fact, this may have been one of the major, challenging assignments in Mr. Cook’s path to become future Apple CEO. He passed with flying colors.