[Image via Dvice]

According to a recent Engadget report, the original Apple / AT&T contract signed in 2007 was a for a five year period. Until now, the agreement between the two companies had but rumored to be 5 years but never independently confirmed. Citing an Apple Brief and a Court Order stemming from a class-action law suit, Engadget shows that the original agreement between the two IT giants was intended for five years. Therefore, their unique relationship would be exhausted as early as 2012.

Here are the telling quotes from Apple:

“The duration of the exclusive Apple-[AT&T] agreement was not ’secret’ either. The [plaintiff] quotes a May 21, 2007 USA Today article – published over a month before the iPhone’s release – stating, “AT&T has exclusive U.S. distribution rights for five years-an eternity in the go-go cellphone world.”
…
“[T]here was widespread disclosure of [AT&T's] five-year exclusivity and no suggestion by Apple or anyone else that iPhones would become unlocked after two years… Moreover, it is sheer speculation – and illogical – that failing to disclose the five-year exclusivity term would produce monopoly power…”

Of course this all happened in October of 2008, and as Engadget puts it, “Contracts can be canceled, amended, and breached in many ways, and AT&T’s spotty recent service history plus the explosion of the iPhone and the mobile market in general have given Apple any number of reasons to revisit the deal.” It’s not for sure if this contract still holds, but for now, as the AT&T/Apple contract nears its end, it will be interesting to watch just how the key players (Apple, Verizon, and AT&T) act.

[via Engadget]