Report: Apple Mulled Split with AT&T "at Least a Half a Dozen Times"
Report: Apple Mulled Split with AT&T "at Least a Half a Dozen Times"
Posted 07/20/2010 at 7:20am
| by Paul Lilly
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On hindsight, Apple may have regretted its decision to team up with AT&T and give the carrier exclusive rights to sell the iPhone for such a long period. According to Wired Magazine, Apple has seriously considered kicking AT&T to the curb "at least half a dozen times," with trouble between the two dating all the back to 2007, the year the original iPhone launched.
As the story goes, AT&T pleaded with Apple to limit iPhone users from running the YouTube app only on Wi-Fi to ease network congestion, a notion that Apple dismissed based on an unwillingness to hamstring its popular smartphone. And that's where it all began. Not long after, Wired says Steve Jobs tasked a team of investigators with looking into moving to Verizon.
While Jobs' team of investigators "took the job seriously," bringing the iPhone to Verizon just wasn't feasible at the time, which would have required "rebuid[ing] the iPhone from scratch." This in addition to the inevitable legal battle that would surely ensue with AT&T.
Here we are three years later and rumors abound that the iPhone is destined for Verizon, even though AT&T's exclusivity contract doesn't run out until sometime in 2012. But no matter what the legal challenges, Apple may decide to break free anyway. Apple and AT&T have disagreed on a number of fronts, from the issue of what to charge for tethering, to who's to blame for dropped calls.
Plenty more on this rocky relationship right here.
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avenger48
July 23, 2010 at 12:55pm
I've used AT&T (Originally Cingular) since '05. I never personally experienced dropped calls or bad coverage in my area, and was overall impressed with their devices and service. Emphasis on was. It seemed to me that AT&T went downhill drastically shortly after the release of the iPhone 3G. It seemed like they stopped caring.
I don't blame AT&T for the iPhone fiasco. At the time the original iPhone was released, they still fought hard to do the best they could for their customers. On the contrary, I think something much more devious happened. I think Apple gave AT&T a false confidence, which caused AT&T to stop caring. They stopped fighting to get the best phones (they might hurt iPhone sales), stopped building their network (It doesn't matter, we have the iPhone), and stopped caring about customer support (you won't leave us, we have the iPhone).
As an AT&T customer who doesn't want the iPhone, I feel alienated. Is it AT&T's fault? Yes, but that's not the whole of it. I think, if AT&T hadn't gotten the iPhone, they would be #1 still. I don't know if Verizon would have made the same mistakes, but I do believe that the iPhone was the kiss of death for AT&T.
Now, I don't know if an iPhone move to Verizon will help or hurt AT&T. That depends on AT&T, if they go back to caring again, then it may be a good thing, but if not, they will fail. It's as simple as that.
jlh304
July 20, 2010 at 11:14am
"rebuid[ing] the iPhone from scratch."
I wounder if this is true about bringing the phone over to Verizon. Blackberry has all of their phones across the different vendors. Some differences between the techs but would it really be a from scratch build?
Nycromes
July 21, 2010 at 2:59am
I keep reading that verizon has stringent handset requirements before they will allow it to be used on their network. There is some speculation that this may help Verizon give the image of the best network by limiting handset issues that cause dropped calls, etc.
/sarcasm Of course, to hear many tell it, the iPhone is the best phone out there, so I can't imagine what Verizon would want them to rebuild /sarcasm off.
nHeroGo
July 20, 2010 at 10:41am
5 years seem to be a long contract. 1-2 years would have been plenty, you would think.
I wonder how long contract Microsoft KIN had with Verizon; I guess two weeks.
Baer
July 20, 2010 at 9:50am
What worries me is that if all the Apple kiddies move to Verizon they will start burning bandwidth with their toys and screw up an excellent mobile phone company. Please, keep your iToys on AT&T and leave us happy Verizon users alone.
i7 920 DO @ 3.64, Asus Rampage II, Vertex 2 SSD boot and OS, 2 V-Raptors in RAID-0 programs, 1 Tb RE3 Data, GTX 285 OCE driving 2 24" Samsung 244T's, 12 Gb Dominator GT, 1 KW Corsair GTX, Asus Xonar D2X, Optical drives Etc.
nadako
July 20, 2010 at 4:00pm
Apple can keep its shitty network with its shitty products that they sell for a rediciouls amount of money. I dont know why someone would pay 30$ for a side bumper that looks like it cost 3$ to make. Plus verizon's speed is really good and i would hate to see it get drained by iphone users.
BuLLg0d
July 20, 2010 at 8:07am
It's funny, but I just always thought something like this was going on in the background that we didn't know about. Thanks for the read, I saw it on MSNBC as well.
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