AT&T Activates 2.7 Million iPhones in Q1 2010 as Growth Slows

[firewood]

For all those "Apple wouldn't go out of their way to build a special Iphone just for a few million crowd," here's a few thought: I believe a carrier in china received custom iPhones without wifi installed. But of course Apple won't customize for a carrier. So when I read about that it was a fluke correct?

It's a whole lot easier to rip out or disable a wifi radio chip in a working design than to switch and certify a completely different radio system, antenna, baseband controller CPU, cell tower protocol drivers, and etc.

 

[samab]

Apples numbers were high because they count all phones sold. AT&T is only accounting for new activations. I would surmise that a good portion of iPhones sold were most likely repeat buyers who upgraded. This wouldn't be a NEW activation for AT&T.

AT&T stated that they had 2.7 million iphone activations --- of which 1/3 of them are from new subscribers.

 

[eye]

Everyone gets into ATT bashing or defending, forgetting the most important thing about ATT exclusivity:

You are paying more on your ATT plan for your iPhone than you would for the same service for another phone. There is no competition so ATT has us all locked into a crappy contract. If it opens up to Verizon, there'll be a reason for both to offer better plans for the iPhone. Better prices, choice of carrier, same great phone. Why would anyone not want that?

 

[munstedt]

This makes a little more sense about the iPhone sales, but with WWDC so close it seems like a really bad decision to buy an iPhone now.

 

[WildCowboy]

Apples numbers were high because they count all phones sold. AT&T is only accounting for new activations. I would surmise that a good portion of iPhones sold were most likely repeat buyers who upgraded. This wouldn't be a NEW activation for AT&T.

On the contrary, AT&T's numbers even include old iPhones that become re-activated on their network. For example, if you buy a new 3GS and pass on your old original iPhone to someone else, that'll count as two new activations by AT&T's metric.

AT&T has been careful to lay that out in the past, and it's one of the major reasons why you can't say that AT&T activated 2.7 million out of the 8.75 million iPhones Apple sold last quarter.

 

[isomorphic]

You are paying more on your ATT plan for your iPhone than you would for the same service for another phone. There is no competition so ATT has us all locked into a crappy contract. If it opens up to Verizon, there'll be a reason for both to offer better plans for the iPhone. Better prices, choice of carrier, same great phone. Why would anyone not want that?

T-Mobile's rates for the G1 (Android smartphone) are superior to the iPhone on AT&T, especially when you factor incidentals like text.

When you look at T-Mobile's contract-free family plans, they absolutely blow AT&T out of the water. They even have some limited data family plans--something I haven't seen anywhere else.

Can you tell I really want the iPhone on T-Mobile? Still don't think it will happen, though.

 

[xtwentyseven]

I'm with you.

T-Mobile's rates for the G1 (Android smartphone) are superior to the iPhone on AT&T, especially when you factor incidentals like text.

When you look at T-Mobile's contract-free family plans, they absolutely blow AT&T out of the water. They even have some limited data family plans--something I haven't seen anywhere else.

Can you tell I really want the iPhone on T-Mobile? Still don't think it will happen, though.

It REALLY needs to go to T-Mobile. I couldn't care less if it goes to Verizon, but I don't think it will until LTE is well established. But I would settle for an EDGE only T-Mobile version, just for the plan prices. I would of course prefer 3G, but I'll take what I can get.

Does anyone know how big a change it would be to change the frequency to work with T-Mobile's 3G? Would it be hard, or a simple task?

 

[Zc456]

With the 4th gen iPhone coming out, I'm not surprised the growth would slow down.

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

Despite that fact that the company has seen increased unit sales and market share in countries where it had moved to a multi-carrier model, however, it is not convinced that that dynamic would play out everywhere.

Why? I can't think of a single situation where more exposure on more carriers, would not result in even more sales. There are a lot of people who will never change their carrier because they are happy with the service they have or it is the only one that works well in their location. Selling your phone on these other carriers is the ONLY way to reach such people.

To do anything else is shooting yourself in the foot and limits the sales you could have. It also hands these customers over to competitors like Google. To counter the Android threat, the best strategy for Apple at this point would be to get their phone on as many carriers as possible.

 

[Warbrain]

It REALLY needs to go to T-Mobile. I couldn't care less if it goes to Verizon, but I don't think it will until LTE is well established. But I would settle for an EDGE only T-Mobile version, just for the plan prices. I would of course prefer 3G, but I'll take what I can get.

Does anyone know how big a change it would be to change the frequency to work with T-Mobile's 3G? Would it be hard, or a simple task?

Would likely require a whole new radio in the device.

 

[Freshmixture]

It seems real simple to me that the AT&T's exclusive deal with Apple won't be extended. That would be a financial suicide if they did.

Apple has to expand to other carriers in the US to deal with the Android phone onslaught which is on every carrier in this country and is gonna surpass the iPhone any second.

To be honest, Apple has gotta act this year because the Android product is coming on that strong. It's a battle of numbers, and going with Verizon will be the smartest way to get back on top soonest.

Until then, I'll deal with my Blackberry on Verizon, and I'll sit on this fence over here and wait until my contract ends in April 2011 and then go wherever the iPhone is.....preferably on Verizon.......

 

[Queso]

This is what you get for

a) being on different standards to the rest of the world, and
b) having multiple competing technical standards within your own country

Instead of lobbying Apple to produce a CDMA phone you should be lobbying your phone companies to adopt international standards. Not only will it make the iPhone available to you on more networks, it will also help you use the same handset when you travel outside the USA.

And whilst you're at it, move to metric. It's the 21st Century people

 

[WolfXL]

Everyone gets into ATT bashing or defending, forgetting the most important thing about ATT exclusivity:

You are paying more on your ATT plan for your iPhone than you would for the same service for another phone. There is no competition so ATT has us all locked into a crappy contract. If it opens up to Verizon, there'll be a reason for both to offer better plans for the iPhone. Better prices, choice of carrier, same great phone. Why would anyone not want that?

Really?

Verizon -
Unlimited Talk & Text -$89.99
Unlimited Data Package-$29.99
Total -$119.98

ATT
Nation Unlimited Talk - $69.99
Unlimited Iphone Messaging - $20.00
Data Plan for Iphone - $30.00
Total - $119.99

So...I'm paying $0.01 a month for my Iphone use...and that's a lot?