(Newser) – Competition from Google's Droid platform may stall the Verizon-Apple marriage, meaning the iPhone will wind up branching out to T-Mobile first. With AT&T's exclusive deal near an end, furious speculation about which provider will be the next to offer Apple's signature device has focused on Verizon. But two industry analysts are predicting that Verizon, No. 1 in US subscribers with 71 million, will lose out to No. 4 T-Mobile. A big reason: technology



AT&T and T-Mobile use the same network technology, which is not compatible with the CDMA system Verizon employs, notes Fox News. Verizon and Google have been waging war on AT&T and Apple, but Verizon's huge subscriber base—about twice the size of T-Mobile's—will likely prove irresistible Apple in the long run, reports TheStreet.com. Meanwhile, T-Mobile's desperation means Apple can probably make a favorable deal.

(Read more iPhone stories.)

