Apple iPhone on AT&T for five years?
By Ryan Block 
posted May 22nd 2007 1:53PM
posted May 22nd 2007 1:53PM
There are carrier exclusivity agreements, and there are carrier exclusivity agreements -- and Apple's iPhone deal must have been pretty sweet for Cupertino to guarantee their new hotness to AT&T and AT&T alone for five friggin years. USA Today reports the supposed half-decade deal precludes Apple from developing a CDMA handset in that time (duh), meaning that if you live in the US and don't want to move to AT&T, it's going to be 2012 before you even have a chance at an iPhone. Better still, Today reports that Cingular's arch-nemesis Verizon is claiming to have an iPhone-killer in the wings. According to Denny Strigl, Verizon CEO, "We do have a very good response in the mill. You'll see that from us in the late summer." It's war, people, make no mistake about it.[Thanks, Eric]
You know, I was super excited when the ihpone was announced. But now, the more I seem to hear about it, the less it seems I want it. Like the fact I can't open work documents on it (Outlook, word, excel, powerpoint) for instance. Or that AT&T is the only carrier. The price.
I really wanted this when it was first announced... now I just don't think so
Five friggin years is a lustrum.
the only reason to do such a deal from Apple's side would be if - as rumor has it - they get to share mobile revenue with ATT.
which would be pretty insane and unprecedented for a hardware manufacturer. personally I think it's a pretty risky strategy though, especially if they do that in other parts of the world too.
@ nikster,
Yes, that is the only answer.
• AT&T and Apple have stated that the iPhone is *NOT* subsidized. This means Apple will get no direct, additional revenue from each sale of the iPhone.
• Apple recently announced that the iPhone and AppleTV revenue will speread-out over a 24 month time frame. The exact length of the required contract from purchasing the iPhone.
The only answer is that Apple is getting a portion of the subscription fees. What this also means is that Apple, unlike all other manufacturers, don't forget about the current customer immediately after the sale, but is dedicated to providing the most stable, most usable device possible with frequent software upgrades and additions, and with new unifying services between iPhone and AT&T.
This is how the iPhone is changing the game. It's in Apple's best interest to make the phone last as durable and consumer friendly as possible as the profit will come from the subscription, not the initial sale.
However, regardless of what carrier or manufacturer you choose, we will all benefit from the iPhone's emergence.
Jeff,
You're a "hardcore ipod guy" but you're apparently not a Mac guy. There's a difference. And while you'd like to tell yourself that the difference between a 'Vette and a Ferrari is some form of "compensation", it's not. I find it interesting that you are defending the ipod against what? Both Zune owners in the world? You say iPhone is a step backward, but how? You said the points have been gone over, and you won't repeat them, but to me that just sounds like you couldn't think of any at the time you wrote this. There is a fully functional video ipod, a pretty darn impressive phone, and an "internet device" which may have a somewhat limited usability, but still looks pretty freaking cool. But the biggest thing you're missing here is the thing that many others have mentioned. The iPhone will drive innovation! The established handset manufacturers collectively pooped their pants when Jobs pulled out the iPhone, there's no use in denial. Hopefully, they'll pick their jaws up off the ground in time to stay competitive.
When att gets service where i live in dc thats when ill get one, if att wants to really sell iphones they better beef up the coverage in big cities when i was nyc portland seattle boston & memphis cingular have very bad coverage if they upgrade there coverage ill be the first one to buy until then nope not at 599
I'm a Verizon customer with a full family share play (5) lines. I personally have NEVER been this excited about a cell phone....and God knows I've had just about everything under the sun...to include Blackberry/Microsoft, etc..
My country ass will be parked outside a Cingular or Apple store the night before.
The reason the iPhone won't be as good as everyone hopes is because they chose to pair up with AT&T then Cingular....I mean now they are going to be AT&T again. The company that has more complaints than any other and that drops more calls than any other. Verizon does not have to make a flashy phone because even the worst phones have a network that works to back the devices up. I think it is funny how Apple thinks they can just jump into cell phones they cannot even win in the personal computer market. Verizon uses Windows Media Player so the Zune would fit. I think the that LG is a more likely canidate since LG and Verizon have a great relationship and LG sells very very well for them. Can you say a variaton of the LG Prada that Apple copied in the first place. iTunes is the only good part of an iPod anyone who has one including myself knows they need to be reset nearly everyday because they lock up.
Woo Hooo,
I just love a good manufactures war!!!
I've said it before - I'll say it again.
Given what Apple has said about limiting 3rd Party development to being contractors to Apple and limiting the number of applications on the iPhone - the iPhone is not really a smartphone. It's an organiser... and a media player... and a web browser. A LOT of other phones out there do these things.
I'll agree that Apple has, once again, nailed a certain 'look', but that's not enough to make this into a wunderkinder phone.
To be a proper smartphone, there has to be a way to write NEW applications or applets. Symbian phones can do this. PalmOS phones like the Treo can do this. Windows Mobile (aka PocketPC/Smartphone) phones most certainly can. The iPhone (so far) cannot.
The fact that someone will hack it to make it open is irrelevent. Most commercial developers aren't going to create applications for a platform you have to hack to open.
As for the iPhone killer - guys - helloooooo? We already HAVE cell phones. Apple didn't invent this category... it's not even that likely they'll pwn it once they get there. Lest we forget, Apple tried this with the PDA market (The Newton wasn't the first - HP and others were there first) and they tanked because they thought they new what people needed. Apple tried this with the gaming industry - anyone remember the Pippin? They tried it with the iPod and there, they did it, but mostly because hard drive MP3 players were still fairly uncommon. They also pulled off a good PR campaign and got people to buy it because it was 'cool', not because it was 'great'.
But cellphones are a different universe. There are DOZENS and DOZENS of players in this market and it's already pretty saturated. Apple doesn't really bring that much new to the table other than multitouch, which is cool no argument - but think about how you use a phone and you'll see the problem almost immediately. Using multitouch while holding it is going to be weird. Most of the time, you'll be using it with a finger or a stylus - just like everyone else's PDA phones.
Will the iPhone be a success? Well, as some people have noted, depends on how you define success. It'll sell. There'll be an initial burst of sales from the Mac faithful and the iPod fashion fanatics. Once that's met, the sales will slow down. A lot. Then it'll get kind of steady and stay around the same rate until the next hot phone comes out.
See, the one big flaw in all this is - most people like to change their phones regularly to match the current trends. Most people I know change their phones about every other year. Some more often than that. There's also alternating style... one year it's flipphones - the next it's candybars. Apple currently has only one design - and it's a largish candybar.
Meanwhile, the Windows Mobile phones out there can be bundled with a new shell that makes them operate almost like an iPhone (except multitouch, since Apple owns the patent on that one) - and allows customers to modify and add things to it.
I don't think it's at all obvious that the iPhone is going to be a runaway hit.
And that's not even taking into consideration that it's only available from one phone company.
Touchscreen controls with the standard Verizon Wireless interface. I can't wait.
I see a switch to AT&T in my future.
The iPhone is so simple, any music, video, podcast files whatever you want, just plug it in and bam it is there. I don't think it will be killed easily. I'm thankfull that the iPhone is not carried by Verizon though. Because if it was, there would be some form of the Verizon logo, or text on every screen, menu and about six times on the exterrior body. The only reason I am switching is because my contract with Sprint is up in July so the change of carriers would be natural. I still hate AT&T and think they are evil and will take every opportunity I can to bash them if somebody asks about an iPhone.
5 years- lol! it will be obsolete in a year!
It won't matter. Just stick with your current cell carrier. It's only a matter of time before AT&T will buy them and you won't have to change a thing to get an iPhone.
Apple has an exclusive five-year contract with AT&T Apples cannot release any cellphone device on any other carrier =/= (not equal to) AT&T cannot unlock the phone for us.
The iphone killer definitely refers to the PRADA phone by LG that Verizon is carrying.
http://www.pradaphonebylg.com/lgpradaphone/lgpradaphone.html
Check it out.
As long as the touchscreen function makes it to the ipod and competitors, let technology be a driver so that us, the consumer can rip the advantages of new gizmos in relative short period of time at the cost of manufacturers/providers raging competition war. It only means cheaper prices in the long run, well, hopefully the short run if VRZN comes out with their product Q3 !
Bring it on, i'll wait 'till version 2, as i'm tired of buying the latest gadgets to be a test clone and let my wallet take a hit everytime...
Is anyone else bothered by this? Cingular/ATT is the same company who consistantly receives some of the worst consumer scores for coverage?
Thanks for picking a winner Apple! Who cares if the phone will work when you want it to, we already have your $600 and service charges for two years
It can't be a new machine if it is a PowerBook. A new one would be a MacBook. If he is rebooting to configure the network then he just doesnt understand the tools. In the Windows world you have to reboot for way too many things. It is getting better but windows has a long way to catch up to UNIX as far as stability and configuration changes vs reboots.
It is fine that you are happy with windows. More power to you. I on the other hand like many people are tired of the agravation involved with windows. it is just NOT stable. Any app can cause your machine to lock up or freeze. With a unix system that rarely happens... You have an app that is not behaving you can kill it with out taking down the system. Yes you can do that MOST of the time with windows but you can't be sure that you have gotten ALL of the processes involved with that app.
IMO Unix (which includes MAC OS X) is a far superior OS. This comes from constant experience with many OS's including windows, Linux, and many UNIX variants. From your post it would seem that you ONLY use windows.
I don't only use MAC OS X. Each of the OS's that I use or are exposed to has their own niche.
I say use what you like. If you are sick of the BSOD (blue screen of death) try a MAC.
Let me clarify this: I am a UNIX admin for Intel. Hell, I supported the dev team that work on the Apple-Intel project. I currently support 100 Red Hat IBM systems, 4 Solaris 8 & 9 systems, and a couple of SuSE servers (testbeds for a RH-> SuSE upgrade). And any one of those system can have issues. I currently have OSX running on a T42P and Ubuntu 7.04 running on a R50P. Each has it's own share of issues. Please don't presume that OSX is this end-all, be-all OS. It works, just like BSD, HP-UX, AIX, and many of the other OS's I have supported in my last 12 years of IT work. But it has just as many issues (and LESS APPLICATION support) then Windows XP. (Vista is a different animal entirely...) I'm not saying it is not a decent product, I am saying I can do more just as much ( in most cases more) with Win XP than OSX (especially game support). Don't even try to tell OSX has even close to the same amount of gaming capabilites....
And I apologize for confusing the powerbook with the macbook. And it is a the same macbook that the dev team had to replace the motherboard on to get working yesterday....
Mkay, for all you folks who've posted comments to the effect of "name one thing the iPhone will do that my [insert PDA phone of choice here] can't?", and ignoring all other advancements (ie: multitouch), how about this: free push e-mail. Let me say this again: FREE push e-mail. That means, that popular service from a certain Toronto-based company that goes for a MINIMUM of $20/month as a bolt-on to your voice plan is FREE with an iPhone. After two years, that's a $240 savings. And that's just one feature.
There's a reason RIM's stock dropped $6 the day of the Macworld keynote.
iPhone should be really good, to justify price tag of $600. Look at this baby Meizu miniOne : gizmodo.com/gadgets/like-the-iphone/meizu-minione-specs-revealed-its-actually-got-some-juice-261388.php around $450 for 16Gb and Windows 6.0. http:// And even if Verizon would sell iPhone? To pay $600 and to be tied up to Verizon's CDMA? Hell with Verizon, hell with iPhone.
Wait till the second gen, there will be some great new features. Also the reason at&t "locked down" apple for 5 years is that apple raped at&t ont his deal. They get a precentage of everyone of the new contracts that get the iphone. on top of that the phone new, brings a net revenue of over 300 dollars per phone. Obviously if there arent some crazy rebates.
If I were Steve Jobs, I wouldn't mind selling out the exclusivity to Cingular/At&T for 5 years.
After all, what'd stop him for releasing an upgraded version of the iPhone (just like the misc iPod versions) - maybe one with video conf calling features and 3G or WiFi - and sign another 'exclusive' deal with another carrier anywhere in the world, and/or sell the unlocked version at the Apple stores...