AT&T CEO admits iPhone won't be exclusive forever
By Donald Melanson 
posted July 23rd 2009 4:48PM
posted July 23rd 2009 4:48PM
It may not be all that shocking from a common sense point of view, but AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson's statement that "there will be a day when you are not exclusive with the iPhone" is still quite a departure from anything he's said in the past and, given the stakes involved, pretty darn notable. That word came at Fortune's now happening Brainstorm: Tech conference, where Stephenson unsurprisingly didn't elaborate on any negotiations with Apple, and only went so far as to say that he thinks AT&T's partnership with Apple "works really, really well -- maybe as well as any strategic partnership we have." Of course, none of that means exclusivity is going away anytime soon, and you can pretty safely bet that AT&T will keep on pushing as long as it can.
As soon as it comes to Verizon I will get it. Until then, I will stick with my blackberry.
Does this mean that some day when I walk into an AT&T store they won't greet me with "Welcome to AT&T home of the iPhone" and won't try to shove one at me every 5 seconds? And maybe they'll try to actually get some decent WinMo phones? Or maybe some Androids?
I have an irrational dislike of Apple, and I don't want to pay for a data plan right now. I'd rather just use WiFi, and most of ATT's WinMo phones are crap, at least from what I can see.
Decent WinMo? Oxymoron. There's a reason AT&T's selection of WinMo phones is crap...
@Unix
Yeah, the reason is the ROMs. Flash a Fuze with DA_G, and rock out. I put Juicy 8 on my CDMA Touch Pro, and it smokes! Shitty stock ROMs and an admittedly ho-hum WM6.1 don't do these phones any good. However, fast, optimized custom ROMs and the much more finger-friendly WM6.5 make WinMo a contender.
This is great.
Maybe AT&T will start actually offering competitive pricing and service, and stop relying on the iphone to keep their business booming.
I'm waiting for it to hit sprint or verizon, ATT is too damn expensive and T-mobile is terrible.
iPhone on the Sprint Network ftw!
I would buy the HTC Hero or iPhone if they came out for Sprint. I will not use verizon or att for cell carriers again and tmobile has bad to no reception here.
That's not going to happen. Verizon has at least some chance of a future LTE iPhone being on their network. Sprint seem to want to stick with WiMAX. Since LTE has much more widespread international support, it would make little to no sense for Apple to gravitate away from it.
Give this man a cookie!
If they go with another carrier will it still work with the laptop i purchased a few months ago? I'm really worried about it becoming prematurely obsolete.
Good. Not that we all (us being Engadget readers and all) didn't know this to be true, it's nice to hear the head of AT&T acknowledge it. Too bad he's not scared enough about it to get on with fixing the miserable 3G and over-priced plans. I still don't understand why more people don't go with Sprint since they include messaging with their data plans.
Not to mention the better coverage and half as much data rate.
iPhone was exclusive on AT&T because it is the biggest GSM carrier in the US. It was not VZW because who in thier right mind would create a device they intend to distribute world wide with a CDMA radio. I will never use a CDMA service no matter what the device is.
If the iPhone is sold without a subsidy Americans will struggle with the concept of actually paying more than the cost of the device. That is why they changed the methods the subsidy methods the second time around.
The data plans are fairly cheap considering how much more data the iPhone uses compared to other data devices.
In the end none of this matters to me as I am hoping devices running Android (or whatever Linux based OSs come out) will eventually beat out apple in market share.
I think this iPhone horse has been beaten. Now that it can finally do some of the things other devices have been doing for the last 5 years it doesnt have anywhere else to go unless they can actually add some innovation. If no innovations are made on apples part and their touch screen is either matched our the patent expires they will just be left with the fanboys.
GSM 3G is CDMA. W-CDMA. Which is nice because CDMA doesn't go "dit dit dit dit" in nearby speakers like TDMA (GSM 2G) does.
3G GSM (W-CDMA) is NOT the same as CDMA2000 (aka regular old CDMA). Just because it has CDMA in the name, doesn't mean they are the same, or even related.
wouldn't it make more sense if there was also a cdma version businesswise?? I mean the 80 million verizon has and the 49 from sprint thats 129 million customers that have that option. Now with your lame gsm here in the states your signal bars disappear once you are in hospitals, buildings etc wow i hate gsm so much because you literally have to go outside the house to make a phone call and all that garble talk i always hear from att/tmobile customers when they are in stores like a costco or walmart or at school, libraries etc i seriously just hanged them up and txt them better because is so annoying to hear words cut out.
Other phone manufacturers make phones on both CDMA and GSM.
I have a Verizon CDMA Blackberry Curve, and my friend has a T-Mobile GSM Blackberry Curve. It's actually a good thing to have your phone available to everyone.
If it wasn't for the AT&T exclusivity contract... by this 3rd year we would have had an iPhone on EVERY carrier in America.
TOTAL PHONE DOMINATION
@Periks19
Number of subscribers doesn't matter much. You have to remember its alot harder to change phones on between contracts than just to renew a 2 year plan.
If you are going to renew your plan, to most people, it wouldn't matter which carrier its on. (Unless there is no Sprint in their area).
Compare AT&T pre-iPhone to currently, lots of new subscribers.
Personally I don't like phones without sim cards, and smart phones that can't multitask.
I can't wait to hear Apple through AT&T under the bus when the iPhone hits Verizon.
I can hear the Jobs-Note now... The greatest phone ever... on the best network...
Of course I meant "throw" not "through". But, you guys knew that, didn't you?
Actually, no.
I imagined Apple under a bus yelling about AT&T. Weird.
SPRINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!4G WiMax+iPhone= ? Possibilities...
Eh... I'm gonna say 4G Wimax may go south on Sprint. LTE is going to be the new GSM/UMTS. Wouldn't it be great if every 4G carrier around the world used the same damn standard for once? I mean that's why unlocked phones never caught on, you only can take it between 2 national carriers, and on the 2 big CDMA carriers you can't take the damn devices overseas (unless you're in India or running dual-mode). A universal agreement on LTE would be so much better for the customers.. just not for carriers.
For all the posturing apple does about their products "just working" you'd think they'd be a little more active about getting rid of that "does everything but make calls" image the iPhone has thanks to AT&T's crappy network.
Yeah they better get right on that. It's not like the iPhone is selling well or anything. What fools Apple must be!
"Our partnership with Apple works really, really well -- because as long as people just want iPhones, we don't have to improve the quality of our service at all! People will keep paying for our crappy service because they have no choice - unless they want to be socially outcast capital-L Losers!"
Sprint+ 4g+iphone=win!
Maybe I'm in the minority but I love my at&t service here in the dallas area. I was with sprint for years until I switched a couple of years ago and I have no regrets about it. Maybe it's the DFW area but my friends that are on att also have no complaints about the service.
Yeah, same here. Coverage in the Dallas area is great!! Dallas (Addison) FTW
Im so sick of AT&T service! constantly dropping calls. I have to stay by the window to make a call. The network is overloaded with new customers mostly on iphones. Its bogging down the system's bandwidth, The iphone is getting the bad end on this exclusive! At&T is giving the iphone a bad name! I cant believe apple doesnt pull out of the contract.
Im sure AT&T gave apple an arm and a leg to have this contract. I dont get why apple would allow this to happen.. ohh yeah money.
No MMS! no tethering ... SHAME ON YOU AT&T and apple for allowing this to happen. Switching ASAP when iphone goes to Verizon
I don't see why AT&T couldn't keep the iPhone, it's private business and if they pay Apple they should be able to keep the iPhone.
And Congress has zero right to interfere on this issue since I don't think the big 4 took bailout money.
Where does it say that AT&T will lose the iPhone?
"iPhone won't be exclusive forever" just means that it wont be 100% AT&T.
When Apple announced the iPhone, they said there was a 5 year exclusivity agreement with AT&T. This is to expire in 2010.
So they know when the cut off for exclusivity is.
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090717/analyst-att-screwed-without-iphone-exclusivity/
Seems people always like the bash the leader or front runner. I hear all these claims how at&t has such a horrible service but yet be in line every year when the new iPhone comes out. I hear people complain about Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile each company has their pluses and minuses, and you can gripe about either one. Today it’s at&t and tomorrow it will be someone else.
You very rarely hear people complain about Verizon's network coverage or quality. What you do hear them complain about is their walled garden approach, locking down of phones, and installing the fugly Verizon skin on every damn dumbphone.
And don't forget the unforgiving overage charges. Rollover minutes is one of the few things I like about ATT.
i have a feeling if theres an iPhone made for verizon and verizon keeps it the same somewhat. They'll make it a lot more expensive "just because they can" Unlucky for me, i'll be a sucker and deal with it.
that guy has douche spelled all over his forehead
I think AT&T and iPhone don't work well, a lot of disconnections and worst no signal at all.
Andy
http://aclevertwist.com/blog
It's funny that AT&T has done nothing but bring DOWN the potential of the iPhone. Ask anyone who loves their iPhone what they like least about it, and most of them will tell you either the AT&T service, or something borked by AT&T (3GS tethering, MMS, etc, etc, etc). The 3G coverage blows, and the only alternative is TMo, whose 3G is even further back in the infantile stage.
Could you imagine if Apple had gotten the iPhone on VZW or Sprint initially? We'd have had dual-mode CDMA/UMTS devices at 3G speed, with MMS and all the goodies from the GET-GO. I'd bet the iPhone would be doing even BETTER than it already is, and this is coming from a WinMo die-hard (read: not a fanboy). I'll be so glad when AT&T gets the boot.
LTE (4G) will make sure we get at least Verizon as an option.
And that means my iPhone will work in most places outside of the US!
Kick your congressman in the ass to stop all exclusivity.
Apple...The new Microsoft.