Of course AT&T was planning to upgrade its network to handle the increased demand, Rinne’s team told Apple executives, but that was going to take years. In the meantime, would Apple take measures to help throttle back the traffic? Perhaps Apple could restrict its YouTube app to run only over Wi-Fi. Maybe the iPhone could feature a smaller, lower-resolution videostream or cut off YouTube videos after one minute. Rinne, who had already met with Apple’s iPhone team at least half a dozen times, fully expected the company to play along. After all, manufacturers agreed to such restrictions all the time. It didn’t make sense to build phones and offer features that carriers couldn’t support.
…
They’d always end up saying, ‘We’re going to have to escalate this to senior AT&T executives,’ and we always said, ‘Fine, we’ll escalate it to Steve and see who wins.’ I think history has demonstrated how that turned out.”
That’s just a taste. It is an absolutely fascinating read.
The true cost to AT&T of this exhausting relationship will be debated for years.
If anything Apple has done AT&T a favour. They have been forced by the success of the iPhone, and the exclusivity deal they have with Apple to drag their network and their business strategies generally, kicking and screaming into the modern age. They still have a long way to go. But without Apple AT&T would have still been a crippled, lazy and rapidly becoming irrelevant, ageing giant.
When an AT&T representative suggested to one of Jobs’ deputies that the Apple CEO wear a suit to meet with AT&T’s board of directors, he was told, “We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.”
I’ve actually heard this story before, but I can’t remember the source. I presumed it was an urban myth. Even today, if it is a true account of a conversation, I have to wonder if the AT&T representative was making the suggestion for a bet, or had been set up.
[The Judge] dismissed other claims against Apple, among them allegations that the company broke laws when an update to the iPhone’s operating software caused some phones to stop working and deleted programs that users had purchased.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to keep Apple from selling locked iPhones in the U.S. and from determining what iPhone programs people can install. It also seeks damages to cover legal fees and other costs.
Wow. Surprise! Damages, legal fees and “other costs”.
Yesterday Apple and its carrier partners took pre-orders for more than 600,000 of Apple’s new iPhone 4. It was the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions.
We all knew AT&T would stuff up in some way. What was surprising was that Apple’s web sites were crippled. Even with that nice new shiny Data Center they have!
What is not even slightly surprising is that AT&T didn’t even test their pre-order system, prior to launch. If their data network is anything to go by then it shouldn’t surprise people that it all fell apart when put under a modicum of load.
Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration. We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again or visit an Apple or carrier store once the iPhone 4 is in stock.
When you consider that the pre-orders for the iPhone 4 on this first day, were 10 times higher than the sales of the iPhone 3GS on its first day, it’s perhaps easier to see how these problems might have occurred though – for anyone, I guess.
What is unclear to me right now is what kind of production capacity Apple actually have, and if perhaps they are now concerned about stocking stores with physical units for the launch day of the iPhone 4. Perhaps they’ve got that covered though, since they are now delaying ship dates for ongoing pre-orders.
AAPL is trading up at around $265.00 today. Surprise!
$300 before September is my current guess.
Another worry, of course, is how well both Apple’s and AT&T’s networks will hold up on launch day when all those happy iPhone 4 customers try to activate their shiny new iPhones…
Effective immediately, iPhone 3G 8GB is Out of Stock. Please refer all customers to iPhone 3GS 16 GB and 32 GB models.
FAQ:
Q: When will we receive inventory for iPhone 3G 8GB?
A: At this time, we do not know when more iPhone 3G 8GB will arrive.
Q: Are there any iPhone 3G 8 GB available in COR if my customer can purchase there?
A: Check with your local COR stores to see if they have any inventory available.
I would say that it is almost 100% certain that the 8GB iPod Touch will also be discontinued at WWDC, and the 16GB version, with OpenGL ES2.0 will become the new base model. Effectively making the entire iDevice range OpenGL ES2.0 compliant.
For new iPad customers, the $25 per month 2 GB plan will replace the existing $29.99 unlimited plan. iPad customers will continue to pre-pay for their wireless data plan and no contract is required. Existing iPad customers who have the $29.99 per month unlimited plan can keep that plan or switch to the new $25 per month plan with 2 GB of data.
They must be crapping themselves over the new iPhone, tethering and video calls!
But not so much that they can’t make a fast buck out of it…
Smartphone customers – including iPhone customers – who choose the DataPro plan have the option to add tethering for an additional $20 per month. Tethering lets customers use their smartphones as a modem to provide a broadband connection for laptop computers, netbooks or other computing devices. Tethering for iPhones will be available when Apple releases iPhone OS 4 this summer.
So let’s get this straight…
Everything is capped, and controlled. Totally negating the one objection AT&T, or any service provider always trots out about tethering; a fear of excessive bandwidth usage by devices connected to your iPhone.
So basically, if you want to use your limited bandwidth allocation, which you have paid for in full (whether you use it or not), in a slightly different way, they tax you on it any which way they can.
Expect video calls to suck bandwidth, and suck in terms of quality too.
Nice.
UPDATE : AT&T has rushed a message out via Facebook to let users of existing “unlimited” packages know that they can keep them if they wish.
I wonder if people with the 2GB packages will get decent video quality, over the crippled video quality of the “unlimited” package?
And I also have to wonder how long people with “unlimited” packages will get to keep them.
Not sure if anyone [..] has noticed this same thing, but my Upgrade Eligibility date on my AT&T account switched from 11/21 to 6/21 in the last day or so. I bought a 3GS on launch day last year, and my upgrade date read 11/21 since then. A few other folks in my office have noticed the same changes happening to their accounts as well.
And now AT&T seem to be doing everything they can to conclusively spill the beans on when the new iPhone will be launched. Remember that last month they blocked staff holidays in June; something they only do for iPhone launches.
However, it is worth noting…
June 21st is a Monday, whereas Apple has launched every single previous iPhone on a Friday.
Apple’s got two venues from which they could announce the fourth gen iPhone: WWDC (where they’ve announced every other iPhone), which begins on June 7th this year, or the Yerba Buena Arts Center, which Apple has purportedly locked down for June 22nd (one day after the upgrade eligibility date).
All this is speculation for now. Apple won’t respond to these claims. We’ll likely learn much more on June 7, when Apple is expected to talk more about the iPhone at its already sold-out Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
That’s all that Jonny needed to write really.
The rest is the same speculation we get every time a new iPhone announcement is due.
I talked about this yesterday. And wondered aloud then exactly how AT&T would shaft people…
Reports have started to surface that the iPad 3G automatically switches to lower-res versions of media and furthermore blocks some websites out completely. For starters YouTube which plays in all its HD glory on the iPad Wi-Fi switches to a much lower resolution on the new iPad 3G model. ABC on the other hand may consider YouTube lucky as their ABC player simply won’t work over the AT&T 3G network that comes with the iPad 3G.
There are now reports that Netflix and [even] iTunes store previews have been downsampled considerably as well.
Expect the same from other mobile networks around the globe.
I am curious to know how much of this is AT&T acting alone, or is collusion between Apple and the oh so “popular” American telecoms giant!
UPDATE : Apparently skype is also hobbled on 3G. As in, it doesn’t work.
Here is a video where an apparently slightly stoned guy attempts to show the difference in video quality. It’s painful to watch (my apologies for that), but if you are desperate…
Computer World are asking if the 3G data packages for the iPad will “crash” AT&T…
If AT&T can’t handle tethering, how will it cope with unlimited 3G data plans for the newest iPad?
Probably not very well at all.
AT&T, and other networks around the globe, will bemoan the iPad’s data usage, and probably use it as an excuse to try and capitalise on it in some financial way later on. Like selling unlimited packages that are not actually unlimited in the sense of the meaning of the word as found in the dictionary. Something that all network providers, whichever country you live in, have been doing unchecked for quite some time.
But before that they’ll simply provide a shoddy service to users. To “prove” their point.
AT&T are just like any other greedy myopic corporation. They want the customers, and they don’t see any further than the $$ signs floating in-front of their eyes when they eagerly sign a contract with anything that might bring them some more revenue.
These are the same companies that are making thousands of dollars per MB from all of us for sending text messages. And have no problem providing less for more in that situation.
In fact I am sure when they look at the text message revenue model, they genuinely feel that they are being cheated when they have to provide mobile internet at what we consider a realistic price.
Just as more traditional landline telcos see it as daylight robbery when we have the cheek to use the internet (a network they don’t actually provide, but still charge us to access) to make phone calls using services like skype.
I am curious though, has anyone checked the small print in these packages from AT&T?
Do they have an asterisk by the word “unlimited” anywhere?
