[credo]

        >>Verizon and Apple are both in strong positions they might want  each other, but neither yet needs the other.

I think he is mistaken on this. imo Apple needs to break out of its exclusive-tieup with AT&T and Apple needs this more than Verizon.

Being locked to AT&T has greatly reduced Apple's market share and it is the only reason why more US customers are now buying Android phones than iPhones.

Verizon will continue to be the #1 US carrier without the iPhone. However, if Apple continues its exclusive arrangement with AT&T for a very long period, Android will continue to gain new-smartphone market share at Apple's expense. That will also mean that more developers will migrate to Android. All of this will hurt Apple in the long run.