USA Today has a good article about the intense battles between US carriers over marketshare and mindshare, starting with AT&T’s upcoming “iWeapon”, the iPhone. A couple of tidbits—the multi-year contract between Apple and AT&T is for five years, which is a bit more than three times the current mobile handset replacement cycle. Perhaps more importantly, the article reports that “Apple is barred for that time from developing a version of the iPhone for CDMA wireless networks”. It’s clearly intended as a back-up to protect AT&T’s iPhone monopoly in the US (where the other carriers are CDMA (T-Mobile is GSM, thanks for the reminder Mark)) but there are other carriers around the world which use CDMA networks. Admittedly not many, most are GSM. Meanwhile, Verizon COO Denny Strigl was careful not to criticize the iPhone but rather AT&T’s network, and said that Verizon was working on “a very good response” to the iPhone, which will be revealed later this summer.

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AT&T spokesperson Mark Siegel is reported as describing the deal as a perfect marriage by AFP, which also includes an opposing opinion. “Apple has a history of leaving its partners bleeding or bloody in the dust,” analyst Rob Enderle told AFP…“You have the most power brand with the most powerful carrier. If it works out, you have a powerful partnership. But, this has all the earmarks of a really expensive divorce that will be historically memorable.”