About this clip last year , most every conversation I had with someone started to sound like this once they come up out where I solve for a support and what I did there .
Them : So you write about Apple products ?
Me : That ’s correct .
Them : That ’s cool … so what do you think about this iPhone that ’s get out ? How ’s that going to do ?
And that would be the point in the conversation where I ’d stroke my chin wisely and furrow my brow and say in even , measured tones that the iPhone looked like a hunky-dory merchandise , but I was n’t sure how it would quantify up to the successes Apple relish with the iMac or the iPod .
So yes — I’m the guy cable who betoken that the iPhone might not take off . You may now point in my counsel and giggle derisively . Or well still , invite me to your next company or social assembly and have me make spectacularly wrong prognosis for the amusement of your guests .
I bring this up not because I feast on humiliation , but rather because one of the reasons I render for my confessedly off - the - sucker forecasting struck me as somewhat relevant in light source of recent events . When asked why I was doubtful about the iPhone ’s prospects for success , I would explicate that Apple had enjoyed its gravid triumph when it had entire ascendency over a product . Unlike the iMac , the iPod , or any one of a numeral of other Apple offerings that the party designed , built , sold , and supported all by its lonesome , the iPhone postulate a partner — in the example of the U.S. market , AT&T. And while the two companies probably hammered out the who s , what s , where s , and how siemens of iPhone marketing , they still differ in how they return on those goal .
Or to put it another fashion , while Apple has a very specific idea of presenting a unified experience and message to its customer , AT&T may not have that same belief . And that can lead to a perplexing experience to the closing user .
I think we saw this in late weeks with a pair of bungled AT&T announcements regarding wireless connectivity and iPhone availability . AT&T ’s message to current iPhone user and potential client were confounding and puzzling . user were leave scratching their heads while executive Apple , presumptively , were leave shake theirs .
Let ’s undertake the wireless connectivity return first . chocolate retail merchant Starbucks is in the summons of switching the Wi - Fi pop the question at its stores to an AT&T - provided service . The Starbucks - AT&T deal was thought to offer some benefit to iPhone substance abuser — specifically , in the form of costless wireless access at Starbucks ’ stores . Indeed , my fellow Dan Moren was among the many iPhone users tosuccessfully log on to the networkat his local Starbucks . test out the connectivity at the start of this month , Dan run low to a Somerville , Mass. , Starbucks , fired up Safari on his iPhone , and was greeted with a login screen that let him online after he entered his 10 - figure phone number .
The free access last all of a weekend , as iPhone user started to report that they were now ineffective to connect with the AT&T connection at Starbucks — at least , not without a user ID and word . That was sure enough Dan ’s experience when he followed up on wireless connectivity a few day after his initial success at connecting .
Ah , but the situation aim mirky . That same calendar week , AT&T updated the entropy on its iPhone WWW page to state thataccess to AT&T Wi - Fi hotspots(such as the unity now appear at Starbucks ) were include in iPhone calling plan ; a few hours later , AT&T updated the page to remove references to the hotspot access . ( Our sister publicationComputerworldalso enshroud theappearanceanddisappearanceof the forebode feature film . )
So , if you ’re scoring along at home plate , first AT&T allowed iPhone exploiter to skip on the Wi - Fi hotspot at Starbucks emplacement until it did n’t , then it prognosticate you could though that was a mistake , and now it ’s saying that one day you should be able to , though it does n’t bonk when . Seems clear enough to me .
Compared to that morass of contradictions , AT&T ’s position on iPhone availableness is positively crystal clear . AsMacworldreported last calendar week , iPhones are in brusque provision , though some AT&T shop account still having 8 gibibyte and 16 GB models . We also confirmedreportsthat AT&T had put a one - iPhone - per - customer terminal point on purchases at its store .
And that was true … until AT&T rescinded its terminus ad quem after one day . The companyconfirmed to InformationWeekthat it was going back to its sometime policy of three iPhones per client after realizing that “ we have sufficient inventory to go back to our original insurance . ” And that keep to be AT&T ’s policy , at least as of the moment I ’m typing this sentence . Five minutes from now , who knows what the demarcation will be ?
These flip - washout are annoying , certainly , but are they having an appreciable effect on Apple ’s iPhone business ? It would be hard to make that controversy , view Apple has sell more than 5.7 million phones in a little less than a class and that it should meet its goal of selling 10 million — especially if the rumored 3 G iPhone becomes a reality fairly presently .
But I ca n’t opine that Apple , which place such a premium on delivering a well-defined , coherent subject matter to its customer , can be terribly proud of by this “ Yes ! No ! mayhap ! necessitate again later ! ” approach to public relation . And it ’s a bad sentence to have a displeased Apple , as the company moves away from its previous plan of attack of having an exclusive service provider in each country . After inking non - exclusive deals with Vodafone and Telecom Italia to offer iPhone service in Italy , Apple also went the non - exclusive route in Australia and India . If Apple has conclude that it does n’t need single partners in other land , it might achieve the same conclusion about the U.S.
For now , though , Apple and AT&T seem certain to be partners for the duration of whatever contract brought them together in the first position — five years , reportedly . After that , who knows ? sure , Apple realizes that a partnership is only as strong as its frail contact . And after the past couple weeks , one half of the Apple - AT&T relationship is looking fairly rickety indeed .
