Despite the fact that Verizon has recently been involved in advertising campaigns for phones that clearly target the Apple iPhone, Verizon’s chief executive Ivan Seidenberg recently told the analysts that the carrier is still open to the option of selling the iPhone, and it is up to Apple to take the final decision!

Incidentally, it was Verizon that was originally offered the iPhone partnership when the now-extremely-popular smartphone was launched in 2007, and it was only after Verizon took a pass that the exclusivity deal with AT&T was finalized.

About the prospects, if any, of an Apple-Verizon partnership for the iPhone, Seidenberg said: “This is a decision that is exclusively in Apple’s court. We obviously would be interested at any point in the future they thought it would make sense for them to have us as a partner.”

 Noting the tremendous success of the iPhone, Seidenberg said: “We have to sit back and give them credit for that,” and added: Our view is to broaden the base of choice for customers, and hopefully along the way, Apple, as well as others, will decide to jump on the bandwagon.”

However, there doesn’t appear to be even a distant hope of Apple-Verizon coming together amicably - the earliest-possible teaming up may be for an iPhone or iPhone-type device after Verizon’s LTE 4th generation wireless network has had a substantial track-run!