Slashdot Mirror
Apple Can't Afford iPhone's Carrier Exclusivity
WirePosted writes with an ITWire article about the problems that Apple's AT&T exclusivity deal could pose in the coming years. Initially the company needed AT&T's commitment to the project, to ensure features like visual voicemail would work. With the iPhone a hit even at its current high price that no longer seems to be the case. Can Apple afford to stick to an exclusive carrier in the future? If for no other reason than consumer choice? "iPhones are being sold unlocked in the markets of Asia where you can't get them with a carrier plan, but they're also being bought and unlocked in the US and Europe. The message is that many and probably most iPhone buyers would like to be given a choice of carrier when they buy their iPhone. Some would be prepared to pay more as they do with other smartphones and buy their iPhone unattached to any subsidized carrier contract. The point is many consumers feel no loyalty to carriers and resent being forced to choose one."
It's not just visual voicemail, people. Jeez, if I had a dime for every time I heard that used as the only putative reason that Apple is tied to AT&T...
It's also having structured, simple unlimited data plans, which is really what makes the iPhone shine.
It's about doing things like setting your voicemail greeting all through a GUI on the phone, without having to call into some number and follow prompts. (Simple? Sure. Not a big deal? Sure. But still, one little detail among many.)
It's being able to walk out of a retailer with the iPhone sealed in a box (which itself probably has more attention to design than most handsets do), and then the ability to seamlessly activate via iTunes, with a simple selection of choices, in the comfort of one's own home in a fashion fully supported by Apple and the carrier.
It's about expanding the iTunes/iPod/iPhone/iTunes Store ecosystem with a carefully planned strategy.
It's the user experience from end-to-end (peoples' own individual gripes with AT&T or any other carrier aside).
That's the issue, and all of those things take a lot of backend work and cooperation between Apple and the carrier. It's not just a handset; it's a complete end-user experience from purchase, to activation, to use.
And yes, some customers might not "care" about all of these things. The power users, the hackers, the cutting edge geeks. But normal customers are a much larger target, and those are the people reading reviews, and those are the people who will drive to Apple's goal of 10 million iPhones. With wildly varying user experience and differences from carrier to carrier, how will the iPhone be viewed in the eyes of the iPod-buying populace?
And remember, contrary to the article's assertion, since owning an iPhone isn't mandatory, and we presumably have free will, no one is "forced" to do anything.
What about this is so difficult to comprehend?
That, and the fact that AT&T may be giving Apple as much as $200 per activated iPhone, and then 3%/month for existing customers and a staggering 9%/month for new customers on top of it, so that the end-user cost when people buy one in a store is manageable? Yeah, the iPhone might not be "subsidized" in wireless industry parlance, but you bet your ass it's "subsidized".
There's more going on here than "evil Apple" wanting "lock in". Like all products with Apple, it's about more than just buying a commodity...it's getting a pleasant experience along with it, from end-to-end. (Yeah, yeah, insert a billion gripes about how the iPhone sucks for one reason or another here. Go tell that to Google's CEO, who says the iPhone is the first of an entire new generation of products. Yes, this platform really is that special, no matter how much you, personally, might hate Apple, the iPhone, or both.)
Apple has also shown it does these sorts of things -- and going into the mobile handset business is a HUGE foray -- in baby steps. Is it any surprise that the stage we're at now has carrier exclusivity for a variety of reasons, even beyond what I've already articulated above? Just because YOU don't like it or some IT rag pundit waxes philosophic about it doesn't mean it's not the right business decision for Apple at the present juncture. It doesn't matter how many people buy iPhones to unlock them. There is a vibrant unlocking and hacking community for just about any desirable phone, including ones not available in particular markets, etc.
It may be that someday, Apple really can't "afford" carrier exclusivity. And you know what? I'd imagine we'll see a change, then, won't we?
My current carrier doesn't provide many services you can get in other areas, such as video transfer and texting outside the local area. I'm not talking about extra-cost, they simply don't offer it.
On top of all this, cell service is expensive. With these things in mind, I can't imagine how "loyalty" is supposed to even come into the equation. As far as I'm concerned, I'm just looking at which side of the ship to jump off of, knowing that the next ship over isn't likely to be any better anyway.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Apple designed a phone that is very good, and found a carrier that was desperate to play ball and risk a new world order. Apple exclusivity, therefore, serves that new world order. When Apple does not have to cripple a phone in order to insure that the carrier will make enough money. The phone is as Apple wants it for it's customers that are willing to pay for good hardware, not for the carrier customers who largely want believe they are getting a good deal by paying for 'services' throughout a long contract.
And this is where Apple may have blundered, at least in the US. The two year contract. We don't want it, we don't need it. Apple could charge half of what it made with the two year extension, $60, and still likely come out ahead in the long run.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Why can't we have all phones free as in freedom? When I buy a computer I can hook it up to any TCP/IP network and access the internet. Some I pay for and some I don't. When I buy a land line phone, it isn't locked into any phone company. I can plug it into any jack and it works. All I want from my cell provider is a data pipe to get to the internet or the voice network. Period.