AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson announced next year’s 3G iPhone a few weeks before
this year’s iPhone’s likely biggest sales over the holidays:
So what’s up? Was it a simple slip? Or is the guy so out of touch with
reality that he doesn’t realize that with a few words he has probably
deferred — maybe forever — at least a million new customers worth to
Wall Street at least $1 billion in market cap for his company?
I don’t think Stephenson’s statement was by accident and I don’t think
he is out of touch with reality. I think, instead, he was sending a $1
billion message to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
—
When Networks Collide: AT&T suddenly doesn’t like Apple so much.
By Robert X. Cringely,
Pulpit,
PBS,
29 November 2007
Well, it could be either.
This is the same AT&T that couldn’t produce its own iPhone and
had to make a deal with Apple; AT&T could be so out of touch
that it doesn’t know what it’s doing in this announcement.
And maybe Stephenson resents that so much that he does want to
hurt Apple even if it hurts AT&T.
If he thinks he can get away with it, it amounts to the same as being
out of touch, because Apple could produce an unlocked iPhone and sell
it on all AT&T’s networks, especially if Stephenson gives Jobs
enough excuse to break Apple’s contract with AT&T.
Or, as Cringely points out, Apple could join Google in bidding for 700Mhz
spectrum, or enable its Apple computers for VoIP, or come up with something
else that isn’t covered by the existing contract.
Jobs and Apple know how to innovate.
Telcos don’t.
No wonder AT&T is scared.
-jsq
EFF mentions “unmetered” once regarding how the duopoly currently
says “unlimited” yet stifles BitTorrent or whatever else it thinks
is too much.
