Apple iPhone center stage in 'AT&T Mobility' brand

With the Cingular brand in the midst of transitioning to the newold new AT&T brand, will Apple's iPhone cement AT&T's mobile brand again? While were just now weaning ourselves from the term "Cingular," we're ready (sigh, we guess) to start seeing AT&T re-emerge as the mobile phone brand of the telecom behemoth. But wait -- AT&T wants to call its mobile brand "AT&T Mobility" now. With brands like AT&T Wireless and Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems being bones in AT&T's closet, we were wondering when the term "mobile" in some form would return. Well, lookie -- here it is, and the iPhone will ring in the new brand like a new year in Times Square (or so AT&T believes). With all this branding and re-branding and merger activity, no wonder customers are confused. We were at first also, but we've written it on the virtual chalkboard over 100 times now, heh, so we're used to it. Cingular as a brand has so many billions of dollars in consumer sentiment and investment that it won't die easily. But the hope is that the impending release of the iPhone will help get the "AT&T Mobility" branding underway more than it has been thus far. Some customers, though, are already yawning.