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June 30, 2007

I DID NOT wait in line yesterday for an iPhone…

I enjoyed watching how Apple leveraged their retail stores for the launch of the iPhone.

When I walked by an Apple Store in a mall close to my office earlier in the week to find out that they were not taking any pre-order requests and that the iPhone would be going on sale on June 29th 2007 at 6pm, I just smiled. Humm. 6pm on a Friday. I guess Apple was expecting me to take Friday off and spend it outside of their store waiting on line. Their strategy seemed to work. Yes, once again, Apple found a way to play into their own hype and get their target demographic to show up at their venues and wait in long lines for the privilege of being a customer.

Looking back at all of the media coverage of the people around the United States who in some cases spent days waiting in line to purchase an iPhone, maybe it was the right place to be if I wanted to generate some PR for myself. And it was interesting at times to watch some of the live Internet TV that was being broadcast from the line outside of the Apple store in Palo Alto.

The only reason why I choose NOT to wait in line for an iPhone is that as a person of many GSM devices, mostly Nokia Phones: N70, N73, N93, N95, E61, N80, N800, N80i as well as a Blackberry 8700, I’m happy to try out a new device by placing my SIM card into the device. All of the devices that I use are unlocked and I have the flexibility of using whatever SIM card I want to in these devices. And when I travel overseas I have the ability of placing a local SIM card in these devices and the phones just work…as they should.

So when I heard that in the United States, that in order to use an Apple iPhone I also had to be a subscriber to AT&T Wireless, I said No! It is not that T-Mobile has the best coverage (or the best service) but in principal, I am not in favor of any vendor whose device is locked into a certain service provider. What ever happened to my freedom of choice? I hope AT&T is paying Apple enough money to cover all of the sales they are losing from customers who have relationships on other carrier networks who would have also purchased the device if the AT&T phone service wasn’t a requirement.

Left unchallenged, if I lived in an area where AT&T’s U-Verse was available, how far away are we from seeing the day that AT&T tells their customers that you can only get their IPTV service if you use connect a [Dell computer] to your home network? It seems that one or more of the FCC’s “Internet Freedoms” are being broken here. And this isn’t a good thing.

I am looking forward to the immediate availability of Apple iPhones on the “grey market” where I can use my T-Mobile SIM Card. I heard that a short trip to London in the near future might serve my needs.

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Posted by jeff on June 30, 2007 06:59 AM | Permalink

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Comments

Posted by: injection molding at June 18, 2009 10:43 AM

I used to dislike the iPhone greatly... that is, until I got an iPod Touch and realized how great it would be if I had constant internet connectivity with the Touch. So I got an iPhone, and I, too, am one of those fans that stand crowded around tables at the Apple store...

Posted by: tv antenna at February 28, 2009 04:45 PM

The iPhone product family represents a new age of communications, an age that has voice applications at its core. The iPhone age is about more than just dialing the phone and waiting to see if someone on the other end answers. Devices in this new age do more than simply connect you to friends, loved ones, and colleagues. They can also deliver particular types of content tailored to meet your specific needs. http://www.zcheapstore.com

Posted by: Tomson at December 25, 2008 10:03 PM

Posted by: Ian Andrew Bell at July 3, 2007 11:47 PM

even Palm might update their stuff.

How far are we from AT&T say yon can only connect an iPhone to their network.

Posted by: null at July 2, 2007 03:31 PM

AT&T helped the NSA and is threatening to help the RIAA. There's already an Australian ISP wiping files to comply with copyright law.

Posted by: null at July 2, 2007 03:02 PM

I agree with all the points on Mr. Pulver's post and would add one further suggestion : In the UK, operators are obliged to provide the means to unlock the customer's mobile after 12 months of a contract have expired. This allows the user to go to another operator if they wish and get service if that is what they want.

Posted by: Tony Palik at July 2, 2007 12:20 PM

"how far away are we from seeing the day that AT&T tells their customers that you can only get their IPTV service if you use connect a [Dell computer] to your home network?"

Isn't this the other way around though - it's like buying a Dell and only being able to get net access via AT&T?

Posted by: Scot at July 2, 2007 09:49 AM

Hi,

I completely agree with your post. I think the only way to go is more uncoupling rather than less. This is a move by apple that might make some sense in terms of what AT&T is giving them in terms of promotion etc. but I can't see that, from a subscribers viewpoint, it makes any sense whatsoever.

I heard that in Europe they would have a wider range of operators to choose from - but even just limiting it to a selection of operators is too limited...

/L

Posted by: Linus Kendall at July 2, 2007 07:11 AM

YES,
Great post Jeff. As always excellent insights.
Finally someone that understands some of the basics in mobile telephony and the foundation of GSM.
Furthermore hiding shortcomings with hype can never be promoted.

Posted by: Daniel Glifberg at June 30, 2007 04:34 PM

Most people's primary concern with cell phones has nothing to do with how 'free' they are to use it with other carriers. Nearly all phones are carrier locked these days (in the US), unless you want to pay a premium for an unlocked phone.

T-Mobile customer care has hung up on me for using 'non-approved' devices when I'm calling about voicemail problems, so I'm not sure that freedom of handset choice has ever really existed. The iPhone really puts more power in the user's hands. From activation to WiFi to features that are totally independant of the wireless carrier, iPhone has more features that don't depend on a half-baked implementation on the wireless carriers side. This is also the first phone I've purchased that didn't involve hours of involvement with the wireless carriers customer care.

Admittedly, I'm a pretty big Apple fan, but having used the iPhone -- it actually deserves quite a bit of the hype.

Posted by: John at June 30, 2007 12:22 PM

I agree with you but also people are not saying enough that this phone is not a 3G phone.

Posted by: Jon at June 30, 2007 11:30 AM

The curse of AT&T, eh? I see the boards are full of people cursing Cingular...

Posted by: Guy Kewney, Newswireless.net at June 30, 2007 10:50 AM

Jeff - I agree with you in every respect. An unlocked iPhone would have already been in my hands. And waiting in line is so... I don't know, unnecessary. Being the first kid on my block with a bright shiny object has long since lost its cachet - I have plenty of them already.

I've learned that buying version one-point-oh from just about any company, but especially Apple, is a mistake. Having owned just about very Mac they've ever made, I've learned that a bit of patience is always rewarded as they shake out the bugs which are an inevitable by-product of the way they guard their new releases and do limited external product testing.

I'm sure it is a sweet device and that I will enjoy having one. But I can wait. Let me know if you do make a trip to London. I'll send you the $$ to pick one up for me as well!

Posted by: Marc Orchant at June 30, 2007 10:13 AM

Jeff,

From what I've been hearing, the iPhone doesn't actually *take* a SIM card!

I've been thru a similar loop with my T-Mobile (UK) Sidekick II - it's impossible to get it unlocked (altho' you can take the sim card out of it, you can't use it with anyone other than T-Mobile)

Personally, I'm going to wait until the OpenMoko (http://openmoko.org/) ships ...

Kind regs
Stew

Posted by: stewart 'stewbagz' mercer at June 30, 2007 10:08 AM

Oh, almost forgot ...on another note. I used your FreeWorldDialup.com service several years ago when in Buenos Aires to call my wife. We had voicepulse.com for home service which had no peering agreement, but we also have sipgate.de on another adapter. I was able to call our Sipgate German number from Buenos Aires using FWD via the peering agreement between two. This enabled me to avoid any high phone bills from the hotel I was staying. So thank you! :-) - Timothy McDoniel

Posted by: Timothy McDoniel at June 30, 2007 09:59 AM

Several reasons for me.

Although I like gadgets, I'm not mobile enough to justify the cost. Currently I work full time from home, so I'm nearly always by my computer. For the few times I peer out into the outside world, I have my cellphone with WAP if I start getting Internet withdrawals while waiting in line or something.

AT&T's EDGE is too slow. I have a national plan with SUNCOM, because the 1st AT&T couldn't transfer their NC customers over to Cingular due to some Federal regulation, so we went to SUNCOM. And of course we're on GSM EDGE as well, and it's slow, even for simple WAP browsing.

So if I've heard right (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), I believe this first release of the Apple Iphone is on a slow EDGE network, is locked to the AT&T network and it's roaming partners, and even has a battery that's non-changeable.

I'm sure it's cool and sleek, but at this point it's basically a social status symbol of one's economic status.

The primary advantage of this product is to spur competitors (including Microsoft and RIM) to come out with even better products.

Thank you,

Timothy McDoniel

Posted by: Timothy McDoniel at June 30, 2007 09:54 AM

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