iPhone 3G S AT&T Exclusive: Verizon anyone?
Filed under: Cell Phone Information, Cell Phones | By: Peter Chubb
Posted on: June 10, 2009 | 22 Comments
When Apple announced the new iPhone 3G S during its WWDC 2009 keynote on Monday, we was not prepared for the shock that AT&T and had in store for its customers. Since current AT&T customers learned that they would have to buy themselves out of their current contract, as well as pay the full price for the handset, customers have been very angry.
While studying the price plans, upgrade price and handset price, it seems that AT&T are now taking its exclusivity with the iPhone for granted. This is now leading for more calls for Apple to open the iPhone up to other carriers, and Verizon would be the first choice.
AT&T exclusive deal with the iPhone runs out in 2010, and if Apple wants to keep selling these handsets, then they had better start to listen to who pays their wages, and that is the customer.
This is the same story in the UK, O2 has the iPhone exclusive deal with Apple and they are also taking advantage of the deal. It seems that these companies know that they are the only choice to have an iPhone on contract.
The new Apple iPhone 3G S needs to open up on to other networks and end the monopoly that they have on us. When it comes to having a Smartphone as popular as the iPhone, we should have a choice who we would like to have our contract with, not just one who can seem to pluck any price out of the air.
Who would like to see the iPhone expanded with more networks?
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I really want the iphone, but have a Verizon family plan. I don’t want to break off for just one phone. Soooo, I am hoping that in 2010, Verizon will get the opportunity to sell the iphone. I know lots of people who would buy it…including me.
Yeah, me too.
me too!
Same here man!
I want one but i cant afford a $90 plan! I’ll so buy with EITHER Verizon or T-mobile
me 2
I absolutely agree, I have wanted the iphone ever since it came out, but am currently contracted with verizon and I absolutely love their service and am not willing on cancelling for the iphone, just have been waiting patiently hoping they have the opportunity one day to carry the iphone themselves, and I will continue to wait.
Yes Verizon would be great! Please!!!! However current iPhone users are having the cost of their phone subsidized by AT&T over their 2 year contract, so why all the whining? Wait a year till your contract is up. By then Apple will hopefully open the phone to other carries.
Kevin
Let’s not hope. We need to contact Verizon and Apple and let the voices be heard. The only thing either care about is the dollar. If it would be good for both then it should work. AT&T is horrible with the crippling of features, but Verizon was not much different when I was with them. Competition will keep a few more dollars in our pockets.. let the iPhone out of the cage!! I don’t care if Sprint gets it (not that I would use Sprint). When I look at my cell phone bill every month and realize how crappy cell coverage is I cringe. My landline and pay phones would be a ton cheaper.. but, alas we crave convenience. So, don’t know who the bottle neck is with …but, both Verizon and Apple need to hear the voices and get busy with some phones.
Just wanted to put in my desperate PLEA for the iPhone to go Verizon!!!
It blows my mind how people sign a 2-year contract and then bitch about how they need to honor it. And Verizon still has the most crippled, limited phones around. I can’t see them suddenly opening up their networks to the iPhone.
I have two issues with this story. First, I don’t understand why people are acting so surprised at the way AT&T is handling upgrades to the iPhone 3GS which is to say, the way they and any other cell provider handles in contract upgrades. Why should it be any different just because were referring to the messiah of “gadgets”. If you signed the contract, you knew or should have known the conditions of the contract so grow up and accept what you signed. My second issue is all the Verizon love. I live and primarily use my iPhone in Central VA where Verizon has great service, but the highest prices of any cell provider in this area. There are currently no cell providers in my area who offer 3G and Edge is slow but reliably works and AT&T’s customer service at least locally is great.
I guess my point is that stop expecting AT&T to change it’s policies just because it’s the iPhone.
I live in an area where no one provides a strong signal but I work in a city that is just the opposite. I love Verizon service for many reasons all based on AT&T and Sprint contracts I’ve had in the past. My contract with Verizon is up and I could jump to AT&T for it’s I-Phone exclusivity but I won’t. AT&T has always treated it’s cash cows as every monopoly has, poorly. Their safe position in the market made them last to inovate (example - DSL which had a connection in every home before cable was ever unrolled). I’ll wait and be happy knowing that I-Phone will come to Verizon. It is freeing to not be bound by a contract but it is frustrating that Apple choose this approach to getting it’s product to market.
It “seems” they know they have an exclusive contract? Wake up, of course they do! They are paying Apple huge subsidies per phone under the agreement, and they have to make money. People need to stop being so naive about what these companies “should” do to make things better for the customer. They will make things better for the customer when there is a good reason to do so. It’s pure economics, by which I mean not dollars and cents, but incentives: right now, there are really no incentives for them to behave otherwise, especially if the rumor of the iPhone soon becoming available on another carrier comes true. The companies with the exclusive contracts need to make as much money as possible off the iPhone now, and the device itself is attractive enough that they can do that. On another note, You say you “should have a choice who we would like to have our contract with”… you did have a choice: iPhone or not. To get it, you signed a binding contract agreeing to their terms. This was the price of admission you chose to pay, and At&T pays a lot for the exclusivity contract for the right to charge that price. You are free to leave at any time, under the terms of the same legally binding contract. You need to quit whining about being required to honor a contract you signed under your own free will.
You gotta ask… why would Apple NOT go to verizon?
I agree with the view that iphone should not be limited to one carrier. It is not because one carrier is better than others, but because lot of people like the phone and they need to have a choice in the matter. One carrier controlling the iphone or any other popular phone would behave in a monopolistic fashion and try to squeeze every dollar they can get. But again that wish is not good for a carrier. Every carrier is coming up with their own killer phone and hoping the business will come to them. If not them phones, then what’s the selling point? customer service?
I really hope the iPhone comes to Verizon Wireless, I have the Dare and I’m sick of Verizon’s crappy software on all the phones. I’ve been waiting for the iPhone or at least another cool phone like the Pre to come to Verizon.