Apple COO Discusses iPhone Exclusivity, SDK, and Unlocking

[Otaviano]

Yes, yes, Visual Voicemail is one of the major features.

The main point I was trying to make is that it's much easier to test an equation with few variables as possible. While Apple may be enjoying monthly revenue from AT&T customers I also believe that it was not the only factor leading them to want to stay with one carrier. Troubleshooting a brand new technology is much easier when you have fewer variables.

-Phillystax

My point in quoting your post was that it's the ONLY feature

 

[jragosta]

Get off it; offer both; a locked an unlocked version. They do that in most other countries; pay full price or get a locked phone for a cheaper price.

But if you're going to pay $1500 for the unlocked version, you might as well buy the locked version for $600 and pay $900 over the next two years. I just can't imagine many people who'd want to pay the full amount and then switch providers.

 

[yellow]

AT&T had the largest quarterly userbase growth of ANY US cell provider EVER. Why? iPhone.

The 2 largest mobile network ops in the US are AT&T with 70,100,000 GSM customers and Verizon, with 65,000,000 CDMA customers.

Like it or not, there's still plenty of CDMA customers in the US.

Like it or not, Apple is a US company. Naturally they're going to look at their home market first as the lion's share of all their sales figures come from there.

 

[Otaviano]

But if you're going to pay $1500 for the unlocked version, you might as well buy the locked version for $600 and pay $900 over the next two years. I just can't imagine many people who'd want to pay the full amount and then switch providers.

What cell phone costs 1500 dollars? A high-end Nokia with features and specs similar to the iPhone goes for about €600 unlocked. Costs a buck with contract.

It's rather easy to make it look like a good deal if you come up with some retarded astronomical number that has no bearing on reality.

 

[GSMiller]

If isn't married to one business model then why is AT&T the only GSM carrier in the United States to offer the iPhone? And why is it only offered by one GSM carrier in other markets? I call shenanigans!

 

[xUKHCx]

If isn't married to one business model then why is AT&T the only GSM carrier in the United States to offer the iPhone? And why is it only offered by one GSM carrier in other markets? I call shenanigans!

If you listen to the talk they state that the current releases have been done in such a way to test and learn the market. They will be entering other markets this year and we will see what happens.

 

[ironeddie]

I think the very fact that Apple, a very American centric company, chose to release the phone in the United States as a GSM phone goes a long way into saying what the real value of CDMA is.

You are forgetting that Verizon turned down the chance to offer the Iphone. Apple went to Verizon first. You underestimate CDMA, and your argument carries no weight.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-01-28-verizon-iphone_x.htm

 

[robcoles]

Wow. He answered a lot of questions differently than what you see most people from apple do. Bravo. Some good answers. When you think about it...selling the iPhone unlocked, people's phone bills would be crazzzzy with all the internet it uses. Not many contracts have unlimited data usage.

I think your right, there many who would have gotten or been mis-sold the "wrong" contract, with regard to the iphones data usage; They would have generated even more negative publicity than the internationally travelling early adopters did, when they go their first bill!
Even thinking of my own case, I was "sold" on the iphone from the convienence of merging two devices ( cell + ipod) into one, I would have probably selected a 20Mb/mnth or similar data plan, as I used to have with my old treo, as the iphone completely changed mobile interenet usage patterns.

 

[i.maverick]

okay.."limited by people's imagination".. so tat would mean that they're not gonna play favs with the SDK, or not keep it limited to certain developers.
lord o mighty!!
just 1 concern though.. the iphone(though not legally) and the ipod touch are in countries where there's no iTunes store present. so how do we get the apps.
shucks!

bah... the model
if they really wanted this carrier exclusivity they would have made it CDMA coz that would have required it. i think the unlocked phones were a part of their plan all along. maybe im BSing but thats the way it looks to me.
so as raymond would say..
BAL-LONEY!!

 

[jtm235711131719]

I dont see how visual vm is a blocker. Couldnt they just map the voicemail button to the carriers voicemail number if they dont handle visual voicemail instead of loading up the visual app?

Thinking along the same lines: Why couldn't they implement what YouMail is doing? Is it too wonky for Apple's tastes?

 

[seedster2]

His response to the locking issue was laughable.

1. Numerous manufacturers can successfully sell their devices to numerous carriers and offer unlimited data plans (e.g RIM BB I use it with my iphone now)
2. MR members should acknowledge Visual Voicemail couldnt be that significant because they chose to launch the iphone in Ireland without it ...
3. Apple makes money when people buy unlocked hardware because they can baulk on servicing the items.
4. Sales in Europe have suffered do to price gouging to regain the losses when they profit shared with apple. How does higher tarriff, longer contracts and data limitations help the customer again? Seems like Apple's influence ended at claiming the monthly cut of subscription.

 

[LiterallySimon]

CDMA users have money too, unlike a large percentage of the GSM market, which is in developing countries, that can only afford to buy the cheapest of phones (low-profit margins).

This is not only wrong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita) but also ignorant and just laughable. Most of the countries at the top are European and GSM users. You can compare them to the US or Canada, but to say people in Latin America or South Korea have more money is, again, laughable.

 

[joeshell383]

This is not only wrong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita) but also ignorant and just laughable. Most of the countries at the top are European and GSM users. You can compare them to the US or Canada, but to say people in Latin America or South Korea have more money is, again, laughable.

Your post is ignorant and laughable because you completely misread and failed to understand my post.

 

[winterspan]

Wow. He answered a lot of questions differently than what you see most people from apple do. Bravo. Some good answers. When you think about it...selling the iPhone unlocked, people's phone bills would be crazzzzy with all the internet it uses. Not many contracts have unlimited data usage.

Actually, All the carriers in the USA offer unlimited data plans. The only reason many people don't use them is because of the pathetic hardware up to now. I've had an unlimited plan with Verizon for a few years, and used it with many different winmo devices, all of them crap.
Unfortunately, like many, I am on a corporate account of a carrier other than AT&T, AND AT&T service is my area is total crap, not even covering 1/2 the state. For us, this one-carrier model is total ********.

I can't believe the COO says launching the iPhone on both GSM and CDMA would be "impractical". Every other manufacturer seems to do it just fine. For
god sakes, its only the radio module. It shouldn't be that much more engineering. Palm does it routinely...