Re: [NTLK] too Quiet on the List(Pippin)

Hello,

--- On Sun, 1/11/09, Dennis B. Swaney <romad@aol.com> wrote:

> I'm tired of hearing about how Apple supposedly made a
> mistake going with AT&T.

I would say that answering that all depends on what one thinks of AT&T. There's no real "right" or "wrong" when it comes to spending one's own money: it's a matter of being able to agree with the business practices of a given firm enough to want to hand them your money.

And for some people at least, the AT&T name is not a harbinger of glad tidings.

> 1. Apple TRIED to make a deal with Verizon, but Verizon
> turned them down FLAT!

I'm not convinced that turning down Apple was necessarily a mistake on Verizon's part at the time.

Businesses like to make money, and my own understanding of what Apple offered Verizon at the time (as seen through the haze of retrospect) is that the terms of the agreement were so unfavorable that Verizon did indeed turn them down flat. Businesses that don't see any value in a given proposed agreement may very well reject it out of hand.

IIRC, Apple actually took the iPhone around to all three of the major carriers at the time; (Sprint being the third) only AT&T took them up on their offer. I suspect that may have had a lot to do with The Steve's business style: if you don't do things his way, you won't be doing them at all.

> Cingular (now AT&T) jumped at the chance to make a deal with
> Apple; they just demanded 5 year exclusivity.

It's all in the eye of the beholder, I suppose, but I myself wouldn't take a demand for five years exclusivity at all lightly.

From my admittedly worm's eye view, that tells me that AT&T didn't see themselves making money off the phone for quite some time. And Apple acquiescing to such terms may indicate that they didn't have a whole lot going on in terms of other deals...so they agreed to shackle themselves to AT&T for half a decade.

Speaking of shackling, the most accurate asessment of *all* cell phone contracts I have ever read went something like this: "A cell phone contract is an excuse for a provider to screw you and/or ignore you for two years." While the iPhone is at least a somewhat exciting product, it's just not exciting enough to make me want shackle myself to AT&T for two years, that's all.

Other folks feel differently and more power to them. And I freely admit that when the third generation iPhone rolls out, I'll take another look at it then to see if it's time to part with my money.

Best,

James Fraser

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Received on Sun Jan 11 21:48:28 2009