Well Apple could be making more with iPhone in US.
They could be making more on a lot of things, but they chose the easiest way to be assured good profits. Ironically, with all the free thinking of the engineering departments, Apple can be very conservative and risk adverse on the business side.
Personally, I would switch back to Verizon in a heartbeat if they carried the iPhone. Verizon has always had lousy phones (largely because manufacturers gave lower priority to producing CDMA phones), but high quality service, at least for phone service. I never really used my Verizon phones much on the web because the experience was so bad.
Frankly, I never realized how good the Verizon service was until I switched to AT&T in order to use the iPhone. A dropped call on Verizon was a rarity - I'd guess less than 1% of calls were dropped or unable to be completed. I'd say at least 50% of my AT&T calls are dropped or unable to be completed. And I can't get a consistent signal in my apartment unless I move next to an open window. With Verizon there was no issue. The weird thing about the iPhone (and I can't tell whether it's a phone or AT&T issue) is that sitting in exactly the same spot, one second there's five bars and the next second there's no service.
When I'm in a busy area of the city, while the phone reads 3G, web access is incredibly slow. When I move to a more remote area of the city, 3G access is usually pretty good. According to the AT&T service charts, all of New York City has 3G service. But at Battery Park City for example, I get no 3G service.
Personally, I would switch back to Verizon in a heartbeat if they carried the iPhone. Verizon has always had lousy phones (largely because manufacturers gave lower priority to producing CDMA phones), but high quality service, at least for phone service. I never really used my Verizon phones much on the web because the experience was so bad.
Frankly, I never realized how good the Verizon service was until I switched to AT&T in order to use the iPhone. A dropped call on Verizon was a rarity - I'd guess less than 1% of calls were dropped or unable to be completed. I'd say at least 50% of my AT&T calls are dropped or unable to be completed. And I can't get a consistent signal in my apartment unless I move next to an open window. With Verizon there was no issue. The weird thing about the iPhone (and I can't tell whether it's a phone or AT&T issue) is that sitting in exactly the same spot, one second there's five bars and the next second there's no service.
When I'm in a busy area of the city, while the phone reads 3G, web access is incredibly slow. When I move to a more remote area of the city, 3G access is usually pretty good. According to the AT&T service charts, all of New York City has 3G service. But at Battery Park City for example, I get no 3G service.
While my experience with Verizon's network is similar to yours (in the DC area), their customer service sucked. We still use them for their FIOS service (and my wife still has a VZ phone), but for the first six months we had their FIOS service, (and all three services on one bill) they insisted on billing us for one additional box - even after "fixing" it each month!
I can't count how many times they have "mistakenly" billed us an additional penny or two - I'd like to see how much that nets them when a few million customers fail to complain and just pay that extra penny!
That said, ATT's network in the DC/Maryland area has improved 100% since last summer. I used to get dropped calls daily - the last one was months ago. Areas that used to be dead to 3G are now live, and I can now make calls inside Safeway that I could not when I first bought it. My phone hasn't reverted to Edge since last year, at least in this metro area.
An hour north in Frederick county is another story.
While my experience with Verizon's network is similar to yours (in the DC area), their customer service sucked. We still use them for their FIOS service (and my wife still has a VZ phone), but for the first six months we had their FIOS service, (and all three services on one bill) they insisted on billing us for one additional box - even after "fixing" it each month!
I can't count how many times they have "mistakenly" billed us an additional penny or two - I'd like to see how much that nets them when a few million customers fail to complain and just pay that extra penny!
The verizon math one is good since they obviously have no clue that their systems is billing people at the wrong rate and argue with the guy their math was correct.
Personally I can deal with some technical glitches since I know what it takes to make technology work, however, the quickest way to have me all over your case is messing with my money, or attempting to charge me for something I never got or wanted in the first place.
You may not like AT&T or some other companies services, but you should be more worried about companies who have track record of messing with your money. I can tell you I only give business to companies that when I have a problem do not argue with me about giving back my money.
PA and FCC has file numerous complaints against Verizon for their billing practices and it unclear Version has fix them. It is those low cost programmer they hire outside the US who were never educated on basic math I guess is the issue.
Personally I can deal with some technical glitches since I know what it takes to make technology work, however, the quickest way to have me all over your case is messing with my money, or attempting to charge me for something I never got or wanted in the first place.
I concur. Furthermore I'd really like to see a demographic / usage sampling of those customers who were "very satisfied" with Verizon service. I had Verizon service for years and years. And I was quite satisfied with it -- for what I used of it, which was pretty much voice and SMS only.
I have switched to AT&T in order to get an iPhone. During the transition I noticed a couple of things. First of all, I think Verizon seems to target specifically towards those customers who use their mobile devices mostly AS A PHONE, not as a data / music / internet device. Their data services (from what I could tell of them) mostly sucked. Their web service was crappy, and they tend to cripple their devices to only use some horrible brand of proprietary shovelware they stick on there. If you don't believe me, try using their .mp3 service. I did, once, and never tried it again. When I had Verizon, I only ever used basic cheap phones, and I used them for voice / txt messaging ONLY. And they are extremely good for voice/SMS and this alone. Their coverage is truly unbeatable, so long as all you want to do is talk or txt. They don't really do the "smartphone" thing all that well is my impression.
The company I work for also uses Verizon (mfg. industry). I've noticed this same pattern / trend of usage in all my colleagues. They use the phones for voice/SMS only.
I do not have a company mobile so when my Verizon contract lapsed in October, I did a lot of research. Then I started dating a guy with an iPhone, got a chance to actually hold/handle/use one as it was supposed to be used, and within a week I was sold. I got rid of my Verizon RAZR (and I have used and loved Motorola devices my entire adult life) and sprung for my own iPhone.
The difference is astonishing. It has entirely changed the way I use my mobile device. I only used seven minutes of talk time on my bill last month (I do tend to SMS a fair bit, wish AT&T had a little better package rates but oh, well). However, my data use was HUGE. The unlimited dataplan is really where this thing shines. People who think this is "just a cell phone" or think they can compare apples to apples (heh) by showing bare statistics of Verizon vs. AT&T are missing the point. the iPhone is NOT a phone. It's a small handheld computer. There's a vast difference. Sure ok people complain about dropping from 3G to EDGE but even EDGE is far faster than the old x86 PCs I used to run dialup on (god does anyone here even remember CompuServe? :P) I've had exactly one call drop in six months, and it seems AT&T is really working to build up their network reliability -- something Verizon has been doing for almost a decade now. Give them time to connect up the infrastructure and then get back to me in 18 months and let's see how the coverage issue blends.
My boss HATES his (Verizon) blackberry and has had nothing but trouble with it. Last week while on business travel we both wound up using my iPhone for all sorts of stuff like finding the hotel, places to eat, taxi service, doing conversions, or just pulling up an article in an industry mag that featured our company to show the site president at dinner. He even passed some stuff through my webmail to my iPhone so we could access them because his BB wasn't synching properly.
So long digression but I think the whole "customer satisfaction" statistic leaves out some key stuff there. AT&T has been way more helpful in the realm of customer service and responsiveness when I emailed them or wanted information. Verizon was a nightmare to deal with in that regard. They're only good so long as you pay your monthly bill and just use your phone to talk on.
This explains why the exclusive deals in most countries are with the underdog carrier: they are more flexible and willing to invest.
Except that AT&T was the largest US carrier when they signed the iphone deal.
As for willingness to invest --- it's what items to invest. AT&T is spending billions on subsidizing the iphone. Verizon is spending billions on upgrading their networks. An the average American consumer has spoken --- they prefer their carrier to spending the money on network improvements.
As the article this thread is about makes clear, it's bringing in customers, and they're eager to extend their exclusivity deal.
Except that the article's PR "study" is absolutely wrong --- their "publicity" surveys quarter after quarter NEVER matches with ACTUAL subscriber growth as listed in the SEC filings of AT&T and Verizon.
The survey is on AT&T Wireless (not AT&T Wireless and Tracfone) --- so if you take out Tracfone's net subscriber additions quarter after quarter from AT&T's SEC filings --- AT&T Wireless has NEVER beaten Verizon Wireless in net subscriber growth since the iphone was launched. Verizon Wireless doesn't have much meaningful wholesale MVNO subscriber base.
Notice that the real churn numbers from AT&T's and Verizon's SEC filings --- AT&T has never beaten Verizon in churn numbers either. So another item that this PR-seeking survey study cannot reconcile their own survey data quarter after quarter with ACTUAL SEC filing data.
Except that the article's PR "study" is absolutely wrong --- their "publicity" surveys quarter after quarter NEVER matches with ACTUAL subscriber growth as listed in the SEC filings of AT&T and Verizon.
The survey is on AT&T Wireless (not AT&T Wireless and Tracfone) --- so if you take out Tracfone's net subscriber additions quarter after quarter from AT&T's SEC filings --- AT&T Wireless has NEVER beaten Verizon Wireless in net subscriber growth since the iphone was launched. Verizon Wireless doesn't have much meaningful wholesale MVNO subscriber base.
Notice that the real churn numbers from AT&T's and Verizon's SEC filings --- AT&T has never beaten Verizon in churn numbers either. So another item that this PR-seeking survey study cannot reconcile their own survey data quarter after quarter with ACTUAL SEC filing data.
I will assume your correct, since I am not about to go dig through both companies 10Ks to see what they are reporting in the way of new of lost subscribers.
You are correct surveys are exactly wrong, anyone who knows anything about how they are done and statistics behind them knows one thing for sure they will be wrong. I will not go into all the assumption that are made when analyzing survey data but at most it can tell is a trend, and I would say from this data is Verizon is trending down and At&T is trending up from people perception, now can you correlate that to the iphone effect, you guess is as good as the people running the survey.
I will assume your correct, since I am not about to go dig through both companies 10Ks to see what they are reporting in the way of new of lost subscribers.
You are correct surveys are exactly wrong, anyone who knows anything about how they are done and statistics behind them knows one thing for sure they will be wrong. I will not go into all the assumption that are made when analyzing survey data but at most it can tell is a trend, and I would say from this data is Verizon is trending down and At&T is trending up from people perception, now can you correlate that to the iphone effect, you guess is as good as the people running the survey.
That's because the sampling data is skew --- ChangeWave only gets its data from its own "members".
Quote:
"The ChangeWave Alliance Research Network is a group of 20,000 highly qualified business, technology and medical professionals -- as well as early adopter consumers -- who work in leading companies of select industries. ChangeWave surveys its network members weekly on a range of business and consumer topics, and converts the information into a series of proprietary quantitative and qualitative reports."
Having the ability to do something doesn?t mean you should do it.
You wonder why Apple can?t make a CDMA-based iPhone, so I?ll ask you a silly question, ?Why can?t Apple make GSM-based iPhone?? Of course, they do make one, but they only sell it to a single carrier in every country that has laws that allow them to. They now have 88 countries on board, at least 3 more coming this summer which have a single carrier tied to them, and yet most of these countries are completely GSM-based. It?s obvious that Apple?s plans are more involved than just not wanting to make a CDMA-based iPhone, otherwise all these countries will multiple GSM-based carriers would all be selling the iPhone? but they aren?t.
And you don't think that could make as much money from being on all carriers instead of getting better deals with one? The reason the iPod became so successful and dominant in terms of market share is because it was made for not only Macs but Windows as well. As many other smartphones are beginning to catch up to the iPhone in terms of technology and offering their OS on multiple carriers, the iPhone will be at a disadvantage being tied to one carrier. The main reason why most people don't use the iPhone is because of the carrier.
Now it may very well be that does not extend it's contract with AT&T beyond next year, but it most likely will. Chances are that we will not see a multiple carrier iPhone in the US until AT&T until 2012.
And you don't think that could make as much money from being on all carriers instead of getting better deals with one? The reason the iPod became so successful and dominant in terms of market share is because it was made for not only Macs but Windows as well. As many other smartphones are beginning to catch up to the iPhone in terms of technology and offering their OS on multiple carriers, the iPhone will be at a disadvantage being tied to one carrier. The main reason why most people don't use the iPhone is because of the carrier.
Now it may very well be that does not extend it's contract with AT&T beyond next year, but it most likely will. Chances are that we will not see a multiple carrier iPhone in the US until AT&T until 2012.
Apples competitive advantage has little to nothing to do with which service provider they may or may not be tied too.
It comes down to the ecosystem they developed around the products. People are buying iphones and ipod not because who is selling them or who services they are attached too. It is about all the extras you get with the iphone and how easy it is for the end user to increase the capability of their investments. if you just spend $100s to $1000's buying stuff to supplement your iphone/ipod purchase like docks and stereos and adapters and the list goes on why would you go out and buy another product which would require you to trash you previous investments.
The only time that will happen is someone come up with a product which is far superior to the current solution and putting aside those previous expenditures is not a factor any more.
No smartphone on the market today can touch the ecosystem that exists around Apple solution.
Except that AT&T was the largest US carrier when they signed the iphone deal.
As for willingness to invest --- it's what items to invest. AT&T is spending billions on subsidizing the iphone. Verizon is spending billions on upgrading their networks. An the average American consumer has spoken --- they prefer their carrier to spending the money on network improvements.
That's why I very specifically said that "Apple signed most of those contracts knowing full well the popularity of the iPhone." The original USA contract is a different case, but once the original contract expired Apple was in the same position as in other countries. They knew exactly how popular their device was, and the contract will certainly reflect the opportunity that Apple knows it is giving up by not going with an open device.
People here apparently think that Apple would get the same amount of cash from ATT if they were not exclusive as they do now with exclusivity. They must think they're smarter than all the dummies who make the business decisions at Apple.
I can just see it - Steve Jobs walking around, bumping into walls and mumbling to himself. Poor idiot never figured out that if you have something which is hotly demanded, you can raise the price for it. Some of the really smart MBAs on this board should tell him!
Isn't the org. appl/att contract still in effect? If it works here, why change it elsewhere?
Comments
Well Apple could be making more with iPhone in US.
If they could, they would.
You are so kind to be thinking of Apple's shareholders' welfare.
Well Apple could be making more with iPhone in US.
And around we go
Well Apple could be making more with iPhone in US.
They could be making more on a lot of things, but they chose the easiest way to be assured good profits. Ironically, with all the free thinking of the engineering departments, Apple can be very conservative and risk adverse on the business side.
Frankly, I never realized how good the Verizon service was until I switched to AT&T in order to use the iPhone. A dropped call on Verizon was a rarity - I'd guess less than 1% of calls were dropped or unable to be completed. I'd say at least 50% of my AT&T calls are dropped or unable to be completed. And I can't get a consistent signal in my apartment unless I move next to an open window. With Verizon there was no issue. The weird thing about the iPhone (and I can't tell whether it's a phone or AT&T issue) is that sitting in exactly the same spot, one second there's five bars and the next second there's no service.
When I'm in a busy area of the city, while the phone reads 3G, web access is incredibly slow. When I move to a more remote area of the city, 3G access is usually pretty good. According to the AT&T service charts, all of New York City has 3G service. But at Battery Park City for example, I get no 3G service.
Personally, I would switch back to Verizon in a heartbeat if they carried the iPhone. Verizon has always had lousy phones (largely because manufacturers gave lower priority to producing CDMA phones), but high quality service, at least for phone service. I never really used my Verizon phones much on the web because the experience was so bad.
Frankly, I never realized how good the Verizon service was until I switched to AT&T in order to use the iPhone. A dropped call on Verizon was a rarity - I'd guess less than 1% of calls were dropped or unable to be completed. I'd say at least 50% of my AT&T calls are dropped or unable to be completed. And I can't get a consistent signal in my apartment unless I move next to an open window. With Verizon there was no issue. The weird thing about the iPhone (and I can't tell whether it's a phone or AT&T issue) is that sitting in exactly the same spot, one second there's five bars and the next second there's no service.
When I'm in a busy area of the city, while the phone reads 3G, web access is incredibly slow. When I move to a more remote area of the city, 3G access is usually pretty good. According to the AT&T service charts, all of New York City has 3G service. But at Battery Park City for example, I get no 3G service.
While my experience with Verizon's network is similar to yours (in the DC area), their customer service sucked. We still use them for their FIOS service (and my wife still has a VZ phone), but for the first six months we had their FIOS service, (and all three services on one bill) they insisted on billing us for one additional box - even after "fixing" it each month!
I can't count how many times they have "mistakenly" billed us an additional penny or two - I'd like to see how much that nets them when a few million customers fail to complain and just pay that extra penny!
That said, ATT's network in the DC/Maryland area has improved 100% since last summer. I used to get dropped calls daily - the last one was months ago. Areas that used to be dead to 3G are now live, and I can now make calls inside Safeway that I could not when I first bought it. My phone hasn't reverted to Edge since last year, at least in this metro area.
An hour north in Frederick county is another story.
While my experience with Verizon's network is similar to yours (in the DC area), their customer service sucked. We still use them for their FIOS service (and my wife still has a VZ phone), but for the first six months we had their FIOS service, (and all three services on one bill) they insisted on billing us for one additional box - even after "fixing" it each month!
I can't count how many times they have "mistakenly" billed us an additional penny or two - I'd like to see how much that nets them when a few million customers fail to complain and just pay that extra penny!
This is standard operating procedure for Verizon
http://www22.verizon.com/Residential...bill/95880.htm
http://www.tampabay.com/features/con...icle972068.ece
http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/
The verizon math one is good since they obviously have no clue that their systems is billing people at the wrong rate and argue with the guy their math was correct.
http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2007...-customer.html
Personally I can deal with some technical glitches since I know what it takes to make technology work, however, the quickest way to have me all over your case is messing with my money, or attempting to charge me for something I never got or wanted in the first place.
You may not like AT&T or some other companies services, but you should be more worried about companies who have track record of messing with your money. I can tell you I only give business to companies that when I have a problem do not argue with me about giving back my money.
PA and FCC has file numerous complaints against Verizon for their billing practices and it unclear Version has fix them. It is those low cost programmer they hire outside the US who were never educated on basic math I guess is the issue.
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/comm...on/8694.htm#II
I wonder if those Verizon fan boys check their bills each month... probably not since money is not important to them.
Personally I can deal with some technical glitches since I know what it takes to make technology work, however, the quickest way to have me all over your case is messing with my money, or attempting to charge me for something I never got or wanted in the first place.
I concur. Furthermore I'd really like to see a demographic / usage sampling of those customers who were "very satisfied" with Verizon service. I had Verizon service for years and years. And I was quite satisfied with it -- for what I used of it, which was pretty much voice and SMS only.
I have switched to AT&T in order to get an iPhone. During the transition I noticed a couple of things. First of all, I think Verizon seems to target specifically towards those customers who use their mobile devices mostly AS A PHONE, not as a data / music / internet device. Their data services (from what I could tell of them) mostly sucked. Their web service was crappy, and they tend to cripple their devices to only use some horrible brand of proprietary shovelware they stick on there. If you don't believe me, try using their .mp3 service. I did, once, and never tried it again. When I had Verizon, I only ever used basic cheap phones, and I used them for voice / txt messaging ONLY. And they are extremely good for voice/SMS and this alone. Their coverage is truly unbeatable, so long as all you want to do is talk or txt. They don't really do the "smartphone" thing all that well is my impression.
The company I work for also uses Verizon (mfg. industry). I've noticed this same pattern / trend of usage in all my colleagues. They use the phones for voice/SMS only.
I do not have a company mobile so when my Verizon contract lapsed in October, I did a lot of research. Then I started dating a guy with an iPhone, got a chance to actually hold/handle/use one as it was supposed to be used, and within a week I was sold. I got rid of my Verizon RAZR (and I have used and loved Motorola devices my entire adult life) and sprung for my own iPhone.
The difference is astonishing. It has entirely changed the way I use my mobile device. I only used seven minutes of talk time on my bill last month (I do tend to SMS a fair bit, wish AT&T had a little better package rates but oh, well). However, my data use was HUGE. The unlimited dataplan is really where this thing shines. People who think this is "just a cell phone" or think they can compare apples to apples (heh) by showing bare statistics of Verizon vs. AT&T are missing the point. the iPhone is NOT a phone. It's a small handheld computer. There's a vast difference. Sure ok people complain about dropping from 3G to EDGE but even EDGE is far faster than the old x86 PCs I used to run dialup on (god does anyone here even remember CompuServe? :P) I've had exactly one call drop in six months, and it seems AT&T is really working to build up their network reliability -- something Verizon has been doing for almost a decade now. Give them time to connect up the infrastructure and then get back to me in 18 months and let's see how the coverage issue blends.
My boss HATES his (Verizon) blackberry and has had nothing but trouble with it. Last week while on business travel we both wound up using my iPhone for all sorts of stuff like finding the hotel, places to eat, taxi service, doing conversions, or just pulling up an article in an industry mag that featured our company to show the site president at dinner. He even passed some stuff through my webmail to my iPhone so we could access them because his BB wasn't synching properly.
So long digression but I think the whole "customer satisfaction" statistic leaves out some key stuff there. AT&T has been way more helpful in the realm of customer service and responsiveness when I emailed them or wanted information. Verizon was a nightmare to deal with in that regard. They're only good so long as you pay your monthly bill and just use your phone to talk on.
This explains why the exclusive deals in most countries are with the underdog carrier: they are more flexible and willing to invest.
Except that AT&T was the largest US carrier when they signed the iphone deal.
As for willingness to invest --- it's what items to invest. AT&T is spending billions on subsidizing the iphone. Verizon is spending billions on upgrading their networks. An the average American consumer has spoken --- they prefer their carrier to spending the money on network improvements.
As the article this thread is about makes clear, it's bringing in customers, and they're eager to extend their exclusivity deal.
Except that the article's PR "study" is absolutely wrong --- their "publicity" surveys quarter after quarter NEVER matches with ACTUAL subscriber growth as listed in the SEC filings of AT&T and Verizon.
The survey is on AT&T Wireless (not AT&T Wireless and Tracfone) --- so if you take out Tracfone's net subscriber additions quarter after quarter from AT&T's SEC filings --- AT&T Wireless has NEVER beaten Verizon Wireless in net subscriber growth since the iphone was launched. Verizon Wireless doesn't have much meaningful wholesale MVNO subscriber base.
Notice that the real churn numbers from AT&T's and Verizon's SEC filings --- AT&T has never beaten Verizon in churn numbers either. So another item that this PR-seeking survey study cannot reconcile their own survey data quarter after quarter with ACTUAL SEC filing data.
Except that the article's PR "study" is absolutely wrong --- their "publicity" surveys quarter after quarter NEVER matches with ACTUAL subscriber growth as listed in the SEC filings of AT&T and Verizon.
The survey is on AT&T Wireless (not AT&T Wireless and Tracfone) --- so if you take out Tracfone's net subscriber additions quarter after quarter from AT&T's SEC filings --- AT&T Wireless has NEVER beaten Verizon Wireless in net subscriber growth since the iphone was launched. Verizon Wireless doesn't have much meaningful wholesale MVNO subscriber base.
Notice that the real churn numbers from AT&T's and Verizon's SEC filings --- AT&T has never beaten Verizon in churn numbers either. So another item that this PR-seeking survey study cannot reconcile their own survey data quarter after quarter with ACTUAL SEC filing data.
I will assume your correct, since I am not about to go dig through both companies 10Ks to see what they are reporting in the way of new of lost subscribers.
You are correct surveys are exactly wrong, anyone who knows anything about how they are done and statistics behind them knows one thing for sure they will be wrong. I will not go into all the assumption that are made when analyzing survey data but at most it can tell is a trend, and I would say from this data is Verizon is trending down and At&T is trending up from people perception, now can you correlate that to the iphone effect, you guess is as good as the people running the survey.
I will assume your correct, since I am not about to go dig through both companies 10Ks to see what they are reporting in the way of new of lost subscribers.
You are correct surveys are exactly wrong, anyone who knows anything about how they are done and statistics behind them knows one thing for sure they will be wrong. I will not go into all the assumption that are made when analyzing survey data but at most it can tell is a trend, and I would say from this data is Verizon is trending down and At&T is trending up from people perception, now can you correlate that to the iphone effect, you guess is as good as the people running the survey.
That's because the sampling data is skew --- ChangeWave only gets its data from its own "members".
Quote:
"The ChangeWave Alliance Research Network is a group of 20,000 highly qualified business, technology and medical professionals -- as well as early adopter consumers -- who work in leading companies of select industries. ChangeWave surveys its network members weekly on a range of business and consumer topics, and converts the information into a series of proprietary quantitative and qualitative reports."
Having the ability to do something doesn?t mean you should do it.
You wonder why Apple can?t make a CDMA-based iPhone, so I?ll ask you a silly question, ?Why can?t Apple make GSM-based iPhone?? Of course, they do make one, but they only sell it to a single carrier in every country that has laws that allow them to. They now have 88 countries on board, at least 3 more coming this summer which have a single carrier tied to them, and yet most of these countries are completely GSM-based. It?s obvious that Apple?s plans are more involved than just not wanting to make a CDMA-based iPhone, otherwise all these countries will multiple GSM-based carriers would all be selling the iPhone? but they aren?t.
And you don't think that could make as much money from being on all carriers instead of getting better deals with one? The reason the iPod became so successful and dominant in terms of market share is because it was made for not only Macs but Windows as well. As many other smartphones are beginning to catch up to the iPhone in terms of technology and offering their OS on multiple carriers, the iPhone will be at a disadvantage being tied to one carrier. The main reason why most people don't use the iPhone is because of the carrier.
Now it may very well be that does not extend it's contract with AT&T beyond next year, but it most likely will. Chances are that we will not see a multiple carrier iPhone in the US until AT&T until 2012.
And you don't think that could make as much money from being on all carriers instead of getting better deals with one? The reason the iPod became so successful and dominant in terms of market share is because it was made for not only Macs but Windows as well. As many other smartphones are beginning to catch up to the iPhone in terms of technology and offering their OS on multiple carriers, the iPhone will be at a disadvantage being tied to one carrier. The main reason why most people don't use the iPhone is because of the carrier.
Now it may very well be that does not extend it's contract with AT&T beyond next year, but it most likely will. Chances are that we will not see a multiple carrier iPhone in the US until AT&T until 2012.
Apples competitive advantage has little to nothing to do with which service provider they may or may not be tied too.
It comes down to the ecosystem they developed around the products. People are buying iphones and ipod not because who is selling them or who services they are attached too. It is about all the extras you get with the iphone and how easy it is for the end user to increase the capability of their investments. if you just spend $100s to $1000's buying stuff to supplement your iphone/ipod purchase like docks and stereos and adapters and the list goes on why would you go out and buy another product which would require you to trash you previous investments.
The only time that will happen is someone come up with a product which is far superior to the current solution and putting aside those previous expenditures is not a factor any more.
No smartphone on the market today can touch the ecosystem that exists around Apple solution.
Except that AT&T was the largest US carrier when they signed the iphone deal.
As for willingness to invest --- it's what items to invest. AT&T is spending billions on subsidizing the iphone. Verizon is spending billions on upgrading their networks. An the average American consumer has spoken --- they prefer their carrier to spending the money on network improvements.
Too bad they can't do both.
That's why I very specifically said that "Apple signed most of those contracts knowing full well the popularity of the iPhone." The original USA contract is a different case, but once the original contract expired Apple was in the same position as in other countries. They knew exactly how popular their device was, and the contract will certainly reflect the opportunity that Apple knows it is giving up by not going with an open device.
People here apparently think that Apple would get the same amount of cash from ATT if they were not exclusive as they do now with exclusivity. They must think they're smarter than all the dummies who make the business decisions at Apple.
I can just see it - Steve Jobs walking around, bumping into walls and mumbling to himself. Poor idiot never figured out that if you have something which is hotly demanded, you can raise the price for it. Some of the really smart MBAs on this board should tell him!
Isn't the org. appl/att contract still in effect? If it works here, why change it elsewhere?