F. J. Taylor

AT&T Tops Verizon - But Which Customers Are More Satisfied?

I was a Verizon customer for many years - in fact, since the early '90s when they were Airtouch in our area. Great service, great staff - but they finally made one big mistake - turning down the iPhone.

I recently (reluctantly) switched to AT&T, and now have 2 of my 4 lines of service with them. I will soon be switching the remaining lines as the other contracts roll off. Why? Because of the iPhone, mainly, but the service and reception are excellent - in fact, locally better than Verizon. Dropped calls? So far, none.

Stockwatchah and RDiddy are wrong on several major counts.

First, iPhone is hardly AT&T's only choice - they have a large inventory of other phones - including the vaunted Blackberry - although iPhone is outselling them all by 25% or better... however, for those with slender budgets, or those who don't need or want much in a device, there are plenty of choices.

AT&T doesn't take a "$400 hit" on every iPhone - they subsidize about half the cost - we pay the rest. My 16 GB cost me $199 - plus a two year contract. Over the term of that contract, they make approx. $1400 per phone for the basic package, plus extra charges for features like texting. That is pretty good ROI.

More importantly, they have also gained MANY new customers they wouldn't have seen otherwise - like me and my entire family - my stepson was the first to get one of the first gen, then I did (after waiting a LONG time for various reasons), and I also got one for my stepdaughter. My wife is next. Meantime, my brother has bought one, and his company (Carhartt) supports them, so he is using it for his main phone and e-mail system when traveling.

As far as running out and buying something else - I didn't buy it because it was the latest "fad" - I have been asking Apple for a PDA / phone for years. Now they have exceeded even my expectations and their own usual brilliant design and execution, with the world's first true hand-held MID (Mobile Internet Device). It is as amazing as it looks, running a modified mobile version of the great OS X, instead of the Windows Mobile or one of those other laughably poor so-called "platforms." (Stockwatchah, like many others who obviously don't understand the device, seems unaware of the difference between a "smartphone" and a MID.)

It is simply the best phone I have ever used, bar none - and I will NEVER use another - unless Apple comes out with an even more amazing one. Everyone I know who owns one feels the same way - even my brother, who was a big Motorola and Windows user until last year. (He now has a desktop iMac as well.)

It also seems to be repeating the "halo effect" of the iPod - that is, it is drawing a lot of new users to Apple from Windows.

So I am rather dubious that their assumptions (most of which seem to be based on lack of knowledge of the product and / or the market) are useful in gauging either the iPhone or AT&T's market share. The ONLY area where AT&T is actually shining now is in wireless (where everything is headed anyway) - and that is driven primarily by iPhone sales.

(BTW, Verizon is still kicking itself over their remarkably stupid decision to turn down the iPhone, according to some insiders I know... Speaking just for myself, I am very sorry to have been forced from the Verizon fold - but they made the wrong move - and I have told them so.)

I imagine that if and when Apple opens up the opportunity, there will be a rush of other service providers to jump on. Apple has succeeded in not only producing the first true MID, and making it wildly successful, but in breaking the mold of the wireless service provider business model - where the SPs are calling the shots. Apple will probably provide the iPhone in future to those companies who agree to Apple's terms - a share of the proceeds - instead of joining Motorola and the rest in a race to the bottom to build cheaper and crappier throw-away handsets.

Under The Radar News - Friday

Eli, you always have things of interest, are a compendium of information and (mostly!) good ideas, and I love your columns. That said, you are way off the mark on iPhone vs. Google.

First, as Miner himself said; "That's for a device that doesn't even exist yet." He's right - it doesn't - and it may never exist. (Though I tend to think it will emerge eventually.)

I am a big believer in the Open Source movement - it has some remarkable people doing remarkable things that need to be done.

However, I don't see Android (if and when it emerges) as being even a match for iPhone, let alone a killer. The iPhone already has generated some self-proclaimed "iPhone killers" a la the iPod - but we see how far they went. (What's a "Zune" again...?)

Put simply, a hodge-podge of Open Source software for a mobile device is simply no match for the smooth, slick, well-integrated iPhone. This is all the more relevant because the Apple OS and Mac is once more a growing market share, thanks to iPod, iTunes - and especially thanks to Microsoft's Vista, which is driving even die-hard MS users away in droves - and into the arms of Apple. (I just helped yet another life-long Windows tech convert the other day!)

It's like the difference between Linux and OS X - both are Unix based, and have safer, faster, and more secure operation than Windows ever did or ever will. Both have nice GUIs (now that the interfaces on Linux have been substantially improved). But if you want to run a Unix based machine with the best GUI out there - you want a Mac!

Likewise, if you want a great mobile device designed for web-based work, and that also has a lot of terrific native software supported by the best support team out there, and that will seamlessly interface with the growing number of Macs - you get iPhone - this a no-brainer.

That said, I believe there will be a market for Android, and that it fills a much-needed gap. I also hope it spurs Apple into some much-needed reforms of the iPhone and their business model (such as being locked to one provider).

However, when I buy, it will be iPhone. (BTW, my stepson [another die-hard Windows convert!] just did - and he loves it!!!)

Apple's AT&T Deal Is Costly

I am as big an Apple fan and user as exists on the planet - even in the years they were in Coventry, I was a Mac booster. I have sold hundreds of people on them, and watched with pleasure as sales and shares eventually grew.

That said, I am not a Kool-Aid drinking Mac-aholic. Apple and Mr. Jobs have ALWAYS had a snooty attitude, control issues, and hubris that would make a Greek tragic hero blanch.

They are unapproachable as a firm, their attitude is "We know best." (even though nobody has a corner on the marketplace of ideas).

I have waited and asked for a product like the iPhone for 10 years or more, and now that they deliver it, they try to force me to join a network that I'd sooner stick pencils in my eyes than join again. (AT&T in the US, and other equally unacceptable non-choices overseas).

I posted words to this effect on the Apple website users forum, only to have it removed by the Apple equivalent of Big Brother.

I understand the above posters' points, but think the author had a few valid points as well - I am living proof, as I have sat on my hands to resist buying the product I have waited for so long until Apple either opens it up or signs on with a network I choose to do business with. (My choice is Verizon.)

Until then, there will be one iPhone unsold, no matter how many others they sell, locked or unlocked. And no, I refuse to buy a crippled unit that might well become a brick!

I also refuse to buy Leopard till they de-bug it. Even Rush Limbaugh (a long time Mac user, fan, and booster, who I have minus zero else in common with) has stated publicly his dissatisfaction with Leopard - but he will probably get more attention than I will!

I hope the other Apple users who posted here read this and think about what I am saying - I don't think even the long arm of Jobs can reach Alpha and take this post down!