It just seems to me like Apple is totally shooting themselves in the foot by only being with one carrier. I know a minimum of 4 people, myself included, who would've bought iPhones if it wasn't tied exclusively to AT&T.
This isn't about AT&T being a lousy company with high prices and poor customer service (which is all true)... this is about NOT BEING ABLE TO GET RECEPTION WHERE WE LIVE. In the middle of a gigantic metropolis area known as Los Angeles.
One of my friends actually went out and bought the frickin' iPhone, only to find out that she has ZERO AT&T RECEPTION anywhere inside her lovely 5-bedroom mansion right in the Los Feliz area near Western and Hollywood Blvd. This is by no means the boondocks... she is literally 2 minutes from downtown Hollywood. She could only get reception by standing all the way out in the back of her yard, all the way behind the pool. Thinking that maybe it was the iPhone, she bought a Blackberry from AT&T instead. Same exact problem. She switched back to T-Mobile, which gives her perfect reception. Meanwhile, my Sprint phone worked perfectly as well.
Another one of my friends lives up in the Hollywood Hills, one of the wealthiest and most populated areas of Los Angeles. It is widely known throughout Los Angeles that AT&T does not have ANY reception up in this area, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people -- and wealthy influential ones at that. She actually BOUGHT the frickin' iPhone too, and resorted to using a landline from her home when she was home. She would just keep checking her iPhone voicemail from a landline a dozen times per night to see if she missed any calls. Finally, after 3 months of that nonsense, she went back to Sprint. We talked about the possibility of her auto-forwarding her calls from her cell phone to her landline, but she nixed that idea because she just knew that she would forget to UN-forward it every morning when she left the house. In any case, no matter what the solution, it would've been a nightmare. And it was a nightmare.
Another one of my friends also lives up in a different part of the Hollywood Hills, and has been clinging onto her Sprint Treo 650 for years. She has been dying to get the iPhone, and always tests her friends' iPhones when they come up to visit her. ZERO BARS. So now she's forced into getting the Palm Pre when it comes out next month.
AT&T simply has horrible coverage in Los Angeles, and I'm sure that this is the same in many other places as well.
It is absolutely ridiculous and ludicrous that Apple would be shooting themselves in the foot like this.
There are EAGER CUSTOMERS who WANT TO BUY THE FRICKIN' IPHONE, BUT THEY CANNOT DO SO BECAUSE IT IS NOT AVAILABLE ON THE CARRIER WHICH WORKS WHERE THEY LIVE. And so, these customers end up signing 2-year contracts with other providers and then get hooked on a Blackberry or whatever other phone they end up getting.
Apple, open up your phone to other carriers, just like RIM has done! It's no surprise that RIM has a greater marketshare than Apple! Their phones are available on EVERY SINGLE CARRIER EVERYWHERE!
