Verizon COO: 'iWhatever'
What do you do when your main competitor is about to unleash the most hyped gadget ever to the cell phone-toting masses? Give said gadget a mocking nickname in a memo to employees. — The Thursday letter to Verizon Wireless employees from Chief Operating Officer Jack Plating …
Context & Ripple Effects
The 'iWhatever' memo lands nine days after Verizon's own CEO publicly argued there was no need for an iPhone killer, making this less a new strategy than a second, sharper note in the same campaign: talk down Apple's handset while insisting the network is the product.
The timing is deliberate — June 29 is iPhone launch day, and Verizon is answering it operationally, keeping stores open all day for 'test drive' sessions and stocking 18 multi-media music devices against Apple's single device. The same week, Verizon and AT&T were jointly pressing regulators to reject Google's push for mandatory resale of auctioned airwaves, so the carrier-controlled model is being defended on two fronts at once.
First-order effects
- Jack Plating's letter hands Verizon Wireless retail and support staff ready-made counter-messaging for the most hyped phone launch to date, aimed at keeping fence-sitters inside Verizon stores on the day foot traffic peaks elsewhere.
- The all-day store openings and 18-device music lineup put Verizon's alternative pitch — network reliability plus choice of handsets — directly in front of shoppers considering defecting to the iPhone.
Second-order effects
- Carriers without the iPhone are pushed into competing on network claims and device breadth rather than flagship hardware, raising the marketing stakes for every rival's summer lineup.
- The joint lobbying with AT&T against Google's airwave-resale proposal shows incumbents closing ranks on regulatory ground even as they fight each other on the handset shelf.
Third-order effects
- If device-driven demand keeps outrunning carrier-controlled lineups, the industry's gatekeeper model — where operators dictate which phones reach customers — faces pressure to loosen, though whether that comes through regulation or voluntary opening is unresolved.
The trend: US wireless is entering a power struggle between network-centric carriers and device makers able to pull customers across carrier lines, with Verizon's dismissive posture marking the incumbent defense.