Bottom line is this...
<snip>
Our balls are in your court, Apple.
No, I am absolutely not exaggerating, as I specifically said before. I do, in fact, know more than several dozen people with iPhones (I live in Silicon Valley and work at a major tech company, probably 50% of the people who work here have iPhones, as do many friends and casual acquaintances). And I do not need need to know their "intimate thoughts", I talk to people about their about phones and other gadgets all the time (at work, at parties and barbecues, on the train, in the coffee shop) and nearly to a "man" (or woman), they express overwhelming positivity towards the iPhone itself, and overwhelming negativity towards AT&T for very poor call quality and reliability.
Always. It's nearly as universal as people's dislike of members of Congress. It hasn't stopped a lot of people from buying iPhones (including myself), but it has stopped them from truly enjoying their purchase. It's annoying enough with personal calls, but it's embarrassing and frustrating in professional situations where your calls keep dropping out.
I wanted the iPhone but, I'm a Verizon customer and refuse to switch to AT&T. I'm tired of all the speculation and waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon.
I will stay with Verizon and keep my old fashioned flip phone. I am totally fine with that because I just now purchased the iPad 3G and will give AT&T $30 a month.
You say that as somebody who lives in SoCal, an area with good AT&T coverage.
That's so true... For AT&T customers w/ iPhone... verizon's network is better... for Verizon Customers w/ better network.... AT&T has iPhone.
Whoa hold on there man. AT&T has good coverage in Southern California? This is news to me. I've had an iPhone since day one. I had Verizon and a $50 Motorola phone before that.
I could get full signal strength in every single area that I currently cannot get any signal with AT&T.
There are places on AT&T's coverage map that show "best coverage" and, in the real world, there is NO coverage. None. The entire cities of Covina, Industry, El Monte, Duarte, and others come to mind. Downtown LA? Forget about it.
Apple should just buy up Sprint and T-Mobile, combine the companies, and create their own carrier. They have enough cash on hand.
I am using an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile right now, while not the best experience, it has the best family plans. Having this happen would actually be the best thing to happen, as long as the non iPhone T-Mobile users are allowed to continue using the new Apple network until their contract stops.
I am with you man! I have not problems with AT&T! At least the Iphone will be able to use both voice and data at the same time. This is not even possible on Verizon and Sprint.
If the iphone ever came to those carriers it would be a gimped phone!
Whoa hold on there man. AT&T has good coverage in Southern California? This is news to me. I've had an iPhone since day one. I had Verizon and a $50 Motorola phone before that.
I could get full signal strength in every single area that I currently cannot get any signal with AT&T.
There are places on AT&T's coverage map that show "best coverage" and, in the real world, there is NO coverage. None. The entire cities of Covina, Industry, El Monte, Duarte, and others come to mind. Downtown LA? Forget about it.
Theres so many spots on the 10, 605, 60, 210, 15, 215, 710, etc. freeways that show "best" coverage on AT&T's map and there really is none. Even along the northbound 15 to Vegas, where AT&T's map shows "best" the entire way, there are many many dead spots. Imagine breaking down in the middle of the desert with nothing but desert on either side of you for a hundred miles. Yeah, those are the spots where AT&T has no coverage but Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, even MetroPCS do have coverage.
.A Iphone HD will come out next month and everybody and their son will line up at the apple and AT&T stores and buy it. They will forget about the Android phones.....
You say that as somebody who lives in SoCal, an area with good AT&T coverage.
Nobody knows better than me that it's ALL ABOUT LOCATION.
Location, location, location.
You know that makes you a very weird dude right? People don't talk like that to everyone they meet. Since you don't think it is weird, take it from me, most of those people think you are weird and overly concerned about the well being about the phone service.
The reality is most people put very little thought into their current cell service or issues, and certainly don't have extended conversations about them. Well I guess they do with you because you are probably known as the "Guy who only likes to talk about cellphones", so people feel like they must talk to you about your cell phones because you are awkwardly and unusually interested in their cellphone habits.
Here is a tip.. When you say, "Oh yeah I had AT&T and it sucks." Just because the person across from you politely nods or says, "Oh yeah." doesn't mean they hate AT&T too or they are ready to chuck their phone for Verizon. It means they are being polite and indulging you.
Again it is not possible to have 48 personal relationships with people to the degree it would be necessary to have the information you claim to have without spending every waking minute doing it and/or being a social terrorist.
When do you have time for a professional situation? With this huge number of interpersonal relationships you have to maintain how do you have time to work?
Please if you take anything away from this let it be this:
Most people don't like to talk about their cell phone or give two flips about it beyond it can text and they can get calls. Any perception you have taken away from contact with people who you think you know better than you seem to actually do, is on you.
Just realize that you likely come across to most people as a little bit off and socially awkward given you seeming obsession with cellphones and talking about them. I have a couple of really close friends that I have had since high school. I don't even know what phone/service one of them has, and I know the other one just got an iPhone because he told me. I have had one for years and I think we talked about it one time. I knew he got an iPhone because he missed a text message I sent him and he said it was because he was getting used to the phone.
People don't obsess about their phones or spend detailed time talking about them. You claim 4 dozen people you know that are ready to switch to verizon right away.
That is ridiculous.
Remember that Apple went to Verizon a year before they signed with ATT.
Clearly Apple had no intention at the time of being a GSM-only vendor, and was willing to create a CDMA version, just like every other phone maker on the planet.
Being GSM-only is what happened _after_ they couldn't get Verizon to originally take their (undesigned when they first met) phone.
.
Seriously who cares?
You have only 2 choices currently. . .
1- Stay with your current phone/carrier
2- Come to AT&T like the rest of us.
It's really pointless when people rant/proclaim "Apple is losing out", there's so many other countries that sell the iPhone. Apple is doing fine.
Probably we'll see the iPhone on different carriers, in America, in the future. But as it stands Apple (and some of us) are happy with AT&T service.
I doubt the iPhone will be tremendously better on another carrier in America. I'm not saying Verizon is a sucky company I'm just saying it has flaws as well.
The Google Nexus One has radios for 3G on T-Mobile and AT&T. It was disabled in software originally and is now available. No reason Apple couldn't do the same, but I doubt it.
AT&T sucks and locked phones suck, AT&T sucks even more if you call them and ask them to unlock your phone. No problem with T-Mobile.
But I don't want a BlackBerry and neither does the poster whom I was responding.
Yes they did. Much better to be GSM for world wide use.However, like I said in my previous post, Apple made the right decision going GSM because they could hit the biggest markets worldwide without having to manufacture more than one device.
In case you don't know:This statement would hold water if it wasn't CURRENT AT&T CUSTOMERS doing most of the complaining about the service. So how exactly does "iPhone envy" (whatever that means) play into this?
Agree.It is extremely unlikely that Apple would leave AT&T. More likely, they would simply add more carriers.
Interesting. Thanks.
Snort.My receommendation is to move your balls, before they get crushed.
Who the hell wants a CDMA iPhone anyways, all my calls can go to voicemail while im streaming a podcast sweet!
Too bad about that whole "no simultaneous voice and data" thing.
This rumor is so tired.
It does not make sense to manufacture a verizon iPhone. The rest of the world uses GSM. It would need to be a custom design for one carrier. The unit would come at a production premium cost that Apple would not be able to pass off to the consumer. They would make less profit on the verizon model simply to make it available for that one carrier. What is the incentive?
Apple is with AT&T because they want to be. If they wanted to be on another carrier (ANY other carrier), they would be.
edit: I'm getting some hate so I'd like to explain. The cost is not minimal. Factories must be retooled when a product changes from version to version. A CDMA iPhone may cost just as much to manufacture on a unit by unit basis, however Apple is not making just one unit. If they make a CDMA version they must setup an additional factory to assemble it. If factory A outputs even the smallest margin more than factory B, it costs more to make phones in factory B. We are not talking about a small margin though, we are talking about carriers across the world vs an individual carrier.
Damn dumb move Apple. If this agreement is still standing, they have effectively shut themselves off from half of the market for 2 years longer than necessary. Good initially when there was no competition but bad now with the plethora of Android phones coming out.