Will Apple Stick With AT&T If It Courts The Google Phone?

The past few weeks (including today), we’ve been hearing rumors of a possible Google phone coming (mid-next year) to compete in the extremely crowded smartphone market. Along with that rumor, came that AT&T wants to be the exclusive data provider of the upcoming Google Phone. If those rumors hold true and AT&T hops in bed with Google, what does it mean for its exclusive rights to the iPhone?

On the surface, it doesn’t seem like AT&T and Apple are having any problems. I mean have you seen Apple’s latest commercials firing back at Verizon for the “Droid Does” commercials. Apple is defending AT&T like they’re best buds.

While Apple is defending AT&T, it doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Google, especially after Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, left Apple’s Board of Directors over the summer and Apple “rejected” the Google Voice app from Apple’s App Store. Since then, Google has been hell bent on competing against Apple in any way possible, even if it means directly competing against them in the hardware department.

If this new hardware were to include AT&T as the sole data provider, it would be tough for AT&T to handle considering Apple’s iPhone is already crippling their network. That means someone will have to be let go, and while AT&T needs Apple more than Apple needs AT&T, Google may be the savior for them with their open network and excellent Android software.

Of course, all this is speculation and nothing may happen. For all intents and purposes, AT&T may upgrade its network and will have the ability to handle both the iPhone and Google’s phone (gPhone or whatever it may be called), but, and it’s a big one, the chances of that happening are very unlikely since Google and Apple can’t even sit in the same room together without trying to out compete each other.

One thing is for sure, it does leave AT&T in a tough spot. While they’re trying to court, what could possibly be the next big thing, they may lose the one thing that made them relevant the past few years.

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