[Macworld]

Post your comments for AT&T's many missed iPhone opportunities here

[KBeat]

Great article Jason. You summed up the situation nicely. Hopefully, by the time most of us 3G owners actually qualify for an upgrade, we'll be able to pick up a new iPhone 4G from another carrier.

[DragonMaster]

People need to suck it up and get away from AT$T until another carrier gets the iPhone. As long as there is only one game in town, we are screwed to dance to their tune. Once there is competition, they will be regretting the way they have screwed all the people who switched to them for a rationing of service where they paid for UNLINITED and get noting close to what they are paying for. BOYCOTT AT$T

[Worcester]

Maybe the current AT&T is still convinced that it's the Juggernaut of old? It is not. Apple is the 800lb gorilla here.
Nobody bought an iPhone because it came with AT&T. We went with the phone in spite of the company. The service itself is a complete afterthought. I honestly didn't think it mattered at all. I don't make that many calls.
Now, however, when the service provider starts to become a liability... and an expensive liability, I might add... other options start looking a lot brighter. Apple clearly knows this too.

[Damn_Its_Hot]

...given Apple’s attitude, the reaction from the crowd at WWDC, and the anger out on the Internet, something is obviously wrong. It makes me wonder if AT&T, as a company, is simply incapable of changing...the way things are looking right now, AT&T Wireless’s single greatest asset is poised to walk out the door and — as soon as the contracts lapse,,,
I think you hit it on the head. AT&T are not capable of thinking outside the box. I think Steve pushed Cingular into this when they were in different shape. Now they feel like fat cats – and Steve is probably the only one that can push, the way it needs to be pushed, but he has been out of pocket for a while.
jOhn

[draccy]

When Apple first announced its partnership with AT&T, I saw two very different worlds about to clash. The underlying philosophies of these two corporate entities are incompatible: after all, Apple's been masterful at generating fanboys and girls for years, while AT&T is one of those cell carriers that we all love to hate. There just doesn't seem to be a place in AT&T's structure, mission or philosophy to innovate a new kind of customer relationship.
AT&T's recent statement that their MMS delay is due to "internal systems upgrades" is the perfect example of that meaningless doublespeak we've come to expect from U.S. cell phone carriers. As far as I know, they haven't explained why tethering is delayed, but I expect it has to do with bandwidth usage and a belated scramble to piece together high-priced tethering plans.
If Apple had gone with, say, Verizon -- would they really have been any better at addressing the Apple/iPhone customer base? Would any U.S. cell carrier have been better? I have my doubts.

[mel5051]

AT&T won't be able to comply and when that happens Steve will void their contracts 'due to non-compliance' with them.

[gugy]

AT&T better get their act together soon, because once Apple's contract with them runs out, I would not be surprise to see Verizon joining the iPhone bandwagon.
I for one would highly consider Verizon, since their reception is much better where I live.
So time is ticking away for AT&T.

[vfx2k4]

AT&T sucks. Why did Apple throw this boat anchor around their iPhone?

[flybynight]

I think more carriers are going to run into this same problem. It used to be that you would get a free (or discounted) phone every 2 years and that was fine.. who wanted to change phones anyway? Getting a new phone every 2 years seemed like a great deal. But with technology today, and more people doing smartphones, be it the iPhone, Pre, Android or even a WinMobile device, they are all getting to be more like computers and computer technology changes more frequently than cell phone technology.

[Worcester]

Personally, I think Apple always knew what the iPhone would do to the cell phone world... and cell phone carriers. I suspect Jobs' plan all along was to create a popular product, then use the massive customer base against whatever "partner" was providing service to the phone.

I mean, what does a cell phone company cost these days? Apple has pretty deep pockets :)

[owmyheadhurts]

I think you're exactly right, Jason, about the iPhone user scaring AT&T with the probability of brining the network to it's knees with all their data usage. AT&T probably doesn't want to appear "weak" by saying that publicly.
How much does it take in time, resources, and money, etc. to expand the bandwidth of a cellular network? I don't know. I would guess that not many consumers do know. But you WOULD think that AT&T would have seen this coming a year and a half ago.

[TheBum]

I'm stuck with AT&T whether I like it or not. One of the phones on my family plan belongs to my mother-in-law (whom I actually like, BTW) and where she lives in a large but sparsely populated valley in WV, there is ZERO -- ZILCH, NADA, BUPKIS -- Verizon coverage.

[davebarnes]

AT&T is a phone company down deep. It is not in the corporate culture to be:
quick
responsive
innovative
customer focused
They just cannot do things quickly. They have meetings to plan to have meetings. Ask yourself this question: what type of company did Scott Adams work for when he created Dilbert?