Jun 15th, 2009
AT&T Asks For a Beating: iPhone Highlights Their Issues
I own AT&T stock, and I also own Apple stock, so full disclosure here. That said, I’ve not seen a company take quite a beating as they have in the technology blogs as AT&T has.
In May, while somewhat under the radar, there was some outrage about Sling Media’s iPhone client; Sling Media makes the Slingbox, which is a very interesting product which allows rebroadcasting video content over the Internet. There have been Sling clients for other phones before, but the one for the iPhone is decidedly different in that it only works over WiFi, not over the AT&T’s 3G phone network–in contrast to, for example, their clients for Windows Mobile, Symbian, BlackBerry, or the Palm OS (not the new Palm WebOS, mind you–the ancient Palm OS). Sling and Apple are basically not saying anything about the issue, which seems to point the finger squarely at AT&T, who issued an official statement that didn’t fly very well. Remember, this was not long after AT&T’s phone network limped badly in Austin, Texas at the South by Southwest (SXSW) new media conference (if you’re going to have your network fail, try not to do it with a group of rabid data users in the neighborhood).
However, those issues are somewhat forgotten in light of the triple trouble that AT&T encountered as Apple announced the iPhone 3G S with new features, and at least two of them–tethering (allowing use of the phone as a data modem on the wireless network) and multimedia messaging service (MMS, a kind of advanced text messaging with other media)–are not going to be available on the exclusive U.S. carrier of the iPhone.
Moreover, there have been many complaints about the upgrade fees for current iPhone customers. Some folks can get the new phone at the same price as a new customer, but others will have to pay a price considerably more; this is a way to reward customer loyalty?
AT&T is once again in the harsh light of negative publicity; it’s definitely a double edged sword. They get to enjoy the sales of the iPhone but they also get to have the scrutiny of people looking at every move they make, and when moves like this get made, they get the public criticism of the negatives of any such move.
As a stockholder, I hope AT&T gets their act together in regards to the iPhone. Soon. Or Apple may be looking for another phone partner in the United States (can anyone say Verizon?).
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