iPhone Details: 5 Years on AT&T, Verizon's Answer?

[xfiftyfour]

Wow. Still, absolutely nothing to backup that most/all mac users are 'cult-like'.

Someone else mentioned unboxing pictures. Are you serious? People take pictures with their cars after they buy them all the time. Are Dodge drivers considered 'cult-like'.

There are 'fanboys' of every brand. Why is it that mac users are 'cult-like' while Sony or Windows users are just 'fanboys'. There's no good reason to use 'cult-like' other than that's what you heard through the media.

1. Please show me where I said that "most/all mac users are 'cult-like'. Oh, wait.. I didn't. I said there is a cult-like following - which there is.

2. Taking pictures WITH an item, and having unboxing ceremonies OF that item are two very different things. I take pictures of myself and my friends sitting on my couch, but that's very different from taking pictures of my latest Apple gadget coming out of every small detail of plastic from 20 different angles. But um.. good counter argument?

Ain't drinking this cool aid.

ANd for all you newbbage types... I've been on apple products when Super Steve was in the house. Wozinator ][+ 48k. all you is latecoming hacks

Little early to be hittin the shots, ain't it?

 

[bkvideography]

The "iPhone killers" will be rolling out for years to come. Just like the "iPod killers." Some might even be as thin and light as the iPhone (compared to the usual bricklike smartphones) but they won't have Apple ease-of-use, iTunes integration, or multitouch.

And they won't have Apple's mindshare. Every time one of them comes out, the articles and reviews will also mention iPhone. Free press for Apple every time a competitor is mentioned! Must be nice

I do want to see 3G speeds come to iPhone--and Apple has already announced that this is coming. I don't so much care about CDMA specifically though.

bingo.

 

[johnee]

The argument as presented was that GSM doesn't go through walls and CDMA does. I got 4 bars the second I walked outside my office building when I had Verizon. With Cingular I ALWAYS get 5 bars. I was just pointing out the fallacy involved in saying CDMA goes through walls on big buildings and GSM doesn't.

Just takes one fact to prove a theory false

i find that hard to believe as most big buildings have steel all throughout the building shell which stops most signals the farther in you get. 4 bars on verizon is indicative of a weak signal (they show a relatively high signal, but in fact it's actually much weaker) where as the att is a stronger signal cause it's closer. you might also have a picocell in/on your building

 

[MovieCutter]

Little early to be hittin the shots, ain't it?

Damn girl...you're vicious today...

 

[bigmc6000]

You can find whatever you want

i find that hard to believe as most big buildings have steel all throughout the building shell which stops most signals the farther in you get. 4 bars on verizon is indicative of a weak signal (they show a relatively high signal, but in fact it's actually much weaker) where as the att is a stronger signal cause it's closer. you might also have a picocell in/on your building

It's the same experience for all of my co-workers. I'm simply pointing out the CDMA vs GSM has absolutely NOTHING to do with your signal inside an office building... It's anecdotal at best.

 

[jettredmont]

What in the world did AT&T possibly do? I cannot, for the life of me, see any significant difference among the carriers.

Vastly off-topic here, but since you asked ... essentially one of their call-center call reps screwed over a family member by offering a deal which they could not stand behind (specifically "covering" the early-termination penalties on an existing ISP for switching to AT&T internet and long distance), and they never would compensate us in the least (the family member ended up having to pay a termination fee to both the old provider and AT&T, in addition to losing the grandfathered-in awesome long distance rates; the best "deal" we could get was that they were "forgiven" the cost of service during the time we were trying to get this cleared up).

We had the specific assurances written down, the caller's name, time and date; they claim there never was anyone of that name working at their call center and refused to identify who exactly put the "deal" through. Essentially, they stonewalled from the call center manager level. Over a friggin single customer contract! Extremely frustrating, highly time-consuming, cost us several hundred dollars (but not enough to go to court over), and unfortunately the worst our family can deal back at them is never, ever being AT&T customers. Cingular would have been fine to work with if they could have fixed the local service issues. AT&T is persona non grata in our house.

So now you know. IMHO, AT&T and anyone who intends to profit from that name is scum.

 

[xfiftyfour]

Damn girl...you're vicious today...

You love it.

 

[MovieCutter]

You love it.

you have no idea

 

[cubbie5150]

Ugh... I've been w/ Cingular for 2 years, and locally at least, their network has gotten worse over time (call quality & building penetration suck, indicating everything is on the 1900 band as opposed to 850). As far as people being concerned about lack of 3G in the iPhone, having 3G capability will only matter for people in certain parts of the country as 3G penetration has been lacking if my understanding is correct (forgive me if I'm wrong; I just don't have the time to keep up w/ Cingular's issues anymore). Only reason I'm still w/ Cingular is b/c I hate Verizon even more!!

 

[kingtj]

re: No CDMA version of iPhone?

Yeah... I have to agree there. I assumed Apple would spring a CDMA version of the iPhone on us after the first year or so, really. Then they could say "Well, the GSM version is *still* exclusive to Cingular/AT&T just like we promised at the start!" and still offer something other carriers could use. But I guess not.

I am *very* happy I dumped Verizon last year and switched to US Cellular. It cuts my phone bills literally in HALF, even though I talk on it much more than I used to with Verizon. (You just can't beat FREE incoming calls, and unlimited usage of the built-in phone browser for $9.95 a month.)

Verizon has shown time and time again that they really don't understand the typical home or small business customer. They won't offer rate plans that allow for high monthly usage. (If you exceed the 1200 minutes per month or whatever their biggest plan is, you're still stuck paying somewhere around 10 cents per minute for each one that goes over!) They charge some of the highest rates in the industry for downloading data on their network too. They have an above-average selection of phones to choose from - but not often much support when you have problems with them down the road. (I had a couple of "smartphones" with Verizon before, and was treated like a 2nd. class citizen all the time. Their stores didn't ever have accessories in stock for them. They couldn't swap broken phones in-store... Had to mail them off all the time. Not much technical knowledge on them either. Not good all around.)

It's really no loss that THEY don't have the iPhone. They'd screw it up anyway.

No CDMA version for 5 years? That pretty much discounts me getting an iPhone for 5 years. GSM is garbage in this country, anyone living in a city will tell you that. Ya know, areas with buildings where the GSM reception drops my an order of magnitude when you step inside? Yeah.

 

[bigjohn]

Ask yourselves who wants a Razr - 1.5 years later...

 

[MagicUK]

Another Perspective

Okay, I have donned the FLAME proof jacket for this one, but here goes.

On the plus side, and based on a conversation I had today (so not my original thought but I do agree with it), how many other phones have attracted this much attention prior to launch. Forget the politics for a moment and consider the big players. They announce, release, and sell but name another phone where people are knocking at the door in the same way.

On the flip side, and i'll follow my legal training on this one (I might not believe in what you say, but i'll defend to the death your right to say it) there is a world outside of the US. Europe and Asia are huge markets and in my opinion where need to do the most work. America may fall in love with the iPhone, but the iPhone like most products needs volume to suceed.

European customers et al have different views and values compared to our US counterparts but wil, once again in my opinion, make or break the iPhone.

You need to understand that we are not aliens, we just have different needs, requirements, and values. We will not sign up to a 2 year contract, we prefer to own rather than rent, and the personal rights we demand are a lot higher.

All that said I can't wait to see it, but I may well hang on (as I did with the iPod) but it does look Gooooooooooood!

 

[KingofAwesome]

Would this prevent Apple from making a 3G version for European market? They said it would be available here in Q4 but an Iphone without 3G wouldn't make it far here.

They have an exclusive arrangement in the US. Apple has no such limitations with carriers in other countries. You'll be safe.

I have to agree... on one hand, I'm upset that the iPhone isn't going to be on Verizon's network, since they have an amazingly reliable and fast network; yet I'm totally relieved that the iPhone's not going with Verizon since they feel the need to cripple everything that comes with a phone... they disable bluetooth unless you pay for it, their menus are horrible, everything has that horrible red color scheme... basically it slows down every phone they sell...

I'm excited to see how Apple and AT&T work together... I'm hoping there won't be any extraneous AT&T branding on the iPhone. Imagine a phone sold the same way it was produced... it may actually work fast and efficiently!

I totally agree with you... I'm leaving Verizon ASAP because I can't actually do anything with the pictures I took on my cameraphone. They've disabled so many features that the pictures are stuck on the camera. I've spoken to several tech support people about this and they've all said I'm stuck. I'd strongly recommend everyone staying away from getting a phone with a camera through Verizon.

The copy products never succeed, never have never will. The phone manufacturers had 10+ years to develop something as attractive as the iPhone, but they were too clueless to get it. Instead they flooded the market by just squeezing out one mediocre device after the other sporting only marginal improvements. After I saw the Keynote by Jobs I can't look at other phones the same way again, they all look and feel like children's toys to me.

Now let's be fair here, there have been a lot of changes in the past ten years of cell phones. Smaller sizes, polyphonic ringtones, caller ID, text messaging, better network coverage, number portability, color screens, pictures, video, email, syncing with computers, corporate network capabilities (such as Exchange support), instant messaging, java, bluetooth technology (headsets as well as syncing)... and I'm probably missing some other improvements over the past ten years. The iPhone may very well be superior to any other phone out there right now, but that doesn't mean the industry hasn't dramatically improved in the past ten years.

 

[cloudnine]

You are kidding right? When you have people posting pictures of unboxing ceremonies....Seriously dude. Dense as a neutron star.

nerd.

 

[tristan]

Is this exclusivity good business strategy? What exactly is Apple getting by only selling to one cell phone company for five years? I don't see the benefit.

Also, they picked the wrong company. AT&T is hated, and this hatred runs much deeper than Apple/Microsoft. I'm not talking about their bad cell phone service five years ago - I'm talking about an arrogant, aggressive company in the early 1990s that treated the Internet and all of the associated technology like it was a joke.

We still remember, and as far as I know, there hasn't been an apology.

 

[jettredmont]

The argument as presented was that GSM doesn't go through walls and CDMA does. I got 4 bars the second I walked outside my office building when I had Verizon. With Cingular I ALWAYS get 5 bars. I was just pointing out the fallacy involved in saying CDMA goes through walls on big buildings and GSM doesn't.

Just takes one fact to prove a theory false

So far as I understand, there's nothing in GSM or CDMA which would make either one more likely to transmit through walls. It's all about the strength of the signal and the frequency being used locally in your area (meaning, which company got the rights to the "good" frequencies where you are). So, it is expected that in one place, a concrete building would show good GSM coverage and no CDMA coverage, and in another area an identical building would show good CDMA and no GSM.

 

[jhedges3]

ack ack

No CDMA version for 5 years? That pretty much discounts me getting an iPhone for 5 years. GSM is garbage in this country, anyone living in a city will tell you that. Ya know, areas with buildings where the GSM reception drops my an order of magnitude when you step inside? Yeah.

I couldn't agree more. I had a nice phone and GSM here in New York for one year. Never in all my years with CDMA have a had to stand by windows, etc. I couldn't stand it and cursed the phone and longed to have my CDMA back.

The data support this.

I think the five year is a mistake. Apple, interface, wifi, I'm pretty sure that the sum of those factors does not outweigh the overall suckage that accompanies GSM.

Guess I'll by my time by staying with VZ month to month, hopefully on something new from RIM. If an iPhone with 3G appears at some point and it seems worth it I'll make the move.

It's like asking me whether I'd rather have a fifth floor walk-up with a view of the neighboring brick wall in Alphabet City (VZ) or whether I'd rather have one with a few more square feet, an elevator, and a crew of upstanding, hard-working, Spanish-speaking doormen in Long Island City (AT&T, no offense to those who call the LIC home).

 

[inkswamp]

Given Apple's cultlike following, however, Verizon isn't taking any chances.

It is unFREAKIN-believable to me that USA Today would let something like that slide through in an article. I studied journalism in college and our prof used to bring in USA Today from time-to-time as a "what not to do" example for the class. Their standards have always been pretty low but this is hard to believe.

First off, Apple doesn't have a "cultlike" following any more than Microsoft or Linux or Sony or Nintendo or any other company or OS does. I'd like to see some studies on the subject before USA Today starts kicking around vaguely insulting phrases like that. The assumption is that all Apple products succeed because of its cult. They need only look at the Cube and the Pippin and a variety of other products left by the side of the road to die to see that the asumption is wrong. When Apple screws up, nobody buys.

Secondly, what the writer is probably refering to anyway is the sales of the iPod. Given that the iPod dominates its market so completely, it's a little hard to say that's just the result of a cult following. Fanboys alone don't get you to +70% of the market.

F___ USA Today! It's a worthless, badly edited rag anyway. Always has been and clearly always will be.

 

[elppa]

They need only look at the Cube… When Apple screws up, nobody buys.

Actually I believe the cube still made Apple money. Just not as much as they were expected to make. It was only unsuccessful relative to the success of other products at the time.

 

[gugy]

man, I am in a conundrum,
I have Verizon service and it's Ok, but I know where I live Cingular(AT&T) is sucks.
So is either I go with a suck service and get the iPhone or wait for the 6G iPod and stays with Verizon and have a Ok reception and move on.

Hard decision!

 

[johnpaul191]

Maybe they can put little feet on the bottom of the phone so that it can stand upright, and it become the missing <$1000 tower in Apple's Mac line up.

I really hope that it does live up to the hype about it being easy to use to MAKE CALLS -- not full of gadgets and useless crap that I'll never use.

um, if that's all you need/want then i would not buy one. there have been persistent rumors that eventually there will be an iPhone Nano or something. obviously the first one will be the flagship model, but maybe down the road there will be a model closer to a standard phone.

 

[Cooknn]

I'm with T-Mobile so I'll just sit and wait for the Euro release and hope they get it. And hope it works on the US network

 

[nxent]

It is unFREAKIN-believable to me that USA
First off, Apple doesn't have a "cultlike" following any more than Microsoft or Linux or Sony or Nintendo or any other company or OS does.
F___ USA Today! It's a worthless, badly edited rag anyway. Always has been and clearly always will be.

eh, i'd have to disagree,, you bad mouth microsoft or sony at a compusa and most people will agree, you badmouth linux some folks will say 'eh,,,in your opinion...', you bad mouth apple in an apple store, you're more likely to get your throat slit. ok, maybe not quite, but you get the point. having a 'cultlike' following isn't necessarily bad, it just means that customers look beyond the product and agree with the company's design/product philosophy.

 

[twoodcc]

So, anyone scared?

i'm not. i don't like verizon anyway. looking forward to getting me an iPhone

 

[agreenster]

Although

I can't help but wonder if this is a case of counting chickens before they hatch....

What if, after all this hype, the iPhone sucks?