On condition of much better terms from Apple than they originally offered a few years back. Right now, Verizon(and everyone else) are cruising happily with Android, so Apple can't impose their onerous terms on anybody anymore.
“How much was “an arm and a leg” exactly? The phone sold unsubsidized out the gate if I remember right”
Read my post # 48.
Yeah, no one picked up the iPhone when exclusivity ended in Europe....
Your post #48 is wrong. Original iPhone owners BOUGHT their iPhones outright and AT&T did not pay Apple any subsidy for them at all. AT&T and Apple renegotiated their agreement to make the iPhone a subsidized phone long before the Android phones were ever announced or released... at AT&T's request.