AT&T Playing Hardball With Apple? 175
Ponca City, We Love You writes "There's some interesting speculation from Cringley on why AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson let drop that a new version of Apple's iPhone will be introduced in 2008. The announcement is sure to cut into Apple's Christmas sales and could also cost ATT a million new customers and at least $1 billion in market cap, says Cringley. 'It is no coincidence that Stephenson made his remarks in Silicon Valley, rather than in San Antonio or New York,' says Cringley. 'He came to the turf of his 'partner' and delivered a message that will hurt Apple as much as AT&T, a message that says AT&T doesn't really need Apple despite the iPhone's success.' What may be troubling the relationship between AT&T and Apple is the upcoming auction for 700-MHz wireless spectrum and AT&T's discovery that Apple may be joining Google in bidding."
Re:Pscht! (Score:2, Interesting)
Put a stop to this one early... (Score:5, Interesting)
Besides, the fact that a 3G phone is coming isn't even a secret. If you wanted an iPhone for Christmas, you wanted one, and despite knowing full well that another one was coming next year. Heck, I bought one in June, knowing full well that Apple could easily introduce a newer version in November. I'd even figured out who'd get the old one if it happened.
Net effect on Apple? Zip. [isights.org]
And Cringely was right about one thing. Google announced that they were bidding today [google.com]. But the press release also made another thing quite clear: their application does not include any partners.
So. No partners means no Apple partnership, which means that there was nothing for AT&T's CEO to find out. Which in turn means that his comments were relatively innocent, and not "a $1 billion message to Apple CEO Steve Jobs." By my watch, it took less than ten hours for Cringely's consipracy theory to be shot down. Could be a new record.
Of course, you could spin it that Jobs, quaking in his boots at all of the iPhone sales he's already lost, called up Schmidt, pulled out of a planned multi-billion dollar deal, and Google obligingly issued the press release to cover his tracks. Yeah, right.
That's exactly how SJ would handle it.
Re:I doubt it will affect apple's sales. (Score:1, Interesting)
The iPhone maybe perfect for the US, the market it was obviously designed for, but outside of the US it doesn't look anywhere near as shiny.
Re:Funny you should mention IBM... (Score:3, Interesting)
Jobs stated as much when he announced the Intel switch. It was all about performance per watt and the roadmap - why IBM doesn't want to compete on PPW is a mystery - it's just as applicable to the datacentre as it is to the notebook.
Re:Cringley (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically, they've got a contract with Apple; unless letting the cat out of the bag this way invalidates that contract, they continue to have their exclusive for the duration of that contract.
AT&T's interest in this deal is to rope in more subscribers. The people who wait a few months for the new iPhone are going to be signing up with AT&T. Granted they leave a few months of subscription fees on the table, but if they suspect Apple is going to knife them in the back, they'll make it up on the back end.
Who could Apple knife AT&T in the back? Possibly by creating a platform for wireless applications that was not a phone under the terms of their contract. A wireless platform plus a third party VoIP app would be as good as phone for many people.
Re:Funny you should mention IBM... (Score:2, Interesting)
EVERYONE READ THE ABOVE COMMENT (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple + Google Market Cap = 376.3 Bills... (Score:1, Interesting)
Wikipedia answers all (Score:2, Interesting)