Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg has sent the strongest hints yet that Verizon’s interest in going the extra mile to acquire the Apple iPhone is waning, and the company is increasingly unlikely to make major concessions to carry it.

Seidenberg’s comments came during last week’s Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference.

Verizon’s position as America’s leading wireless carrier does not appear to be threatened by AT&T’s exclusive American agreement with Apple.  While AT&T customers desperate for an alternative carrier may be fueling “wishful thinking”-rumors that Verizon is about the obtain the rights to sell the phone, there is no evidence any deal with Apple is imminent.

In fact, Seidenberg’s remarks were clearly interpreted by Wall Street that Verizon won’t jump through Apple’s hoops to win an agreement, especially as Android-based phones are nipping at the iPhone’s heels:

“We have worked hard at building a franchise out of Droid, which proves that if there is an acceptable alternative to the iPhone, and a great network, and a great distribution channel, the market will go there for it. We don’t feel like we have an iPhone deficit. We would love to carry it when we get there, but we have to earn it. We have to show all the suppliers that we have equal treatment, and we have a network for people to put all of their equipment on.  […]Hopefully, at some point Apple will get with the program.”

Apple’s reputation and market power are also on the line, and many analysts think the company’s terms and exclusive agreements are now doing more harm than good.  Earlier this month, Bernstein Research analysts Pierre Ferragu and Toni Sacconaghi concluded Apple must make the iPhone available to all carriers if it wants to compete with Android.

Google has tripled its growth to 200,000 activations per day in just seven months, and with Android being the dominant smartphone technology on major carriers like Verizon, O2 (UK), Vodafone (Germany), China Mobile and NTTDoCoMo (Japan), Android’s total installed base is expected to overtake the Apple iPhone within 15 months.

Apple’s reputation has also suffered from a year of missteps, ranging from the loss of a beta iPhone, “AntennaGate,” occasional outbursts from CEO Steve Jobs, and growing revelations of a new firmware issue that is dramatically stunting battery life on many iPhone and iPod units.