Rumor — AT&T Losing iPhone Exclusivity Next Week 353
MojoKid writes "An inside source over at HotHardware reports that AT&T will lose their iPhone exclusivity on 1/27, coincident with Apple's upcoming press event next week, though it's not yet clear what other carriers will be stepping in to pick up the iPhone. For anyone who has followed the saga, you may notice that you haven't seen AT&T fighting to extend their original exclusive agreement as of late. In fact, they have spent most of their time fighting Verizon's negative ad campaigns. This may not be all that surprising. Inside of AT&T, word is that the iPhone is causing more trouble than ever before. On some level, having the iPhone is hurting AT&T's image. Do you remember hearing about AT&T's 'horrible network' before the iPhone? The iPhone itself doesn't really handle the switch from 3G to EDGE very gracefully, so calls that are in-progress tend to fail whenever 3G connections aren't optimal and the phone attempts to step down to EDGE. It seems that AT&T may finally be tired of taking the heat."
Chant of the telcos (Score:4, Funny)
"iPhone, you phone, we all phone for iPhone"
Well, maybe before AT&T's woes.
About time... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Of course other countries have mobile networks that all use the same frequency and technology. Only here in the US are we blessed with 2 diggerent HSPA frequencies and CDMA networks. I suggest the CDMA networks change over all their towers and join the real world. ;)
Re: (Score:2)
I suggest the CDMA networks change over all their towers and join the real world. ;)
I'm going to address this on a serious note, as a lot of people do feel this way. CDMA is being replaced by LTE. LTE is the equivalent of HSPA from what I read. So, I guess you could say they are joining the real world.
That said, do you want everyone on the same technology or the companies trying out what they believe is the best technology and having the customers deciding which network they like the best? Seriously, I'm not sure of any better migration plans.
Disclaimer: I use my phone as a phone.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The real problem is that the folks at AT&T, Verizon, et al., are allowed to provide the cell service and own the infrastructure. In this part of the country there's more than enough towers to provide good service all over the place, however largely because the towers are owned by different networks there's no guarantee that the tower a block away is the one your phone is connecting to.
Actually, most of the towers aren't owned by the carriers but by a company that specializes in towers (Crown Castle and American Tower are teh two big players); who then leases space on the tower to the phone company for their antennas. So the lack of antennas is because companies don't rent space; not because a competitor owns the tower.
Re: (Score:2)
If the UK is anything to go by, it doesn't necessarily help much. O2 and Orange both sell the iPhone for virtually the same price on very similar contracts.
Knowing Apple, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they're responsible for this.
Verizon (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Verizon is going to get the ipad tablet not the iphone.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I can't see Apple going to the trouble to develop a CDMA iPhone when Verizon is already starting to deploy LTE. I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation iPhone is available on Verizon, but not next week.
Re: (Score:2)
It'll take years to roll out a stable LTE network that is as large as their 3G CDMA network. In iPhone time that is over 2 generations of iPhones that they'd lose sales on. Believe me, if there is a Verizon iPhone out within the next year it will either be CDMA only or both CDMA and GSM.
Re: (Score:2)
If Boost Mobile gets the iPhone, I'll buy one the day it comes out, or the day I get back from my vacation, whichever comes first. Contract? Do not want. Featureful smartphone on a $50/mo unlimited plan? Want very much.
Underlying technology. (Score:2, Interesting)
That's GSM's fault, not the phone's.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Funny how in the past couple of decades using Nokia GSM phones on a Finnish carrier, I've never experienced a single "dropped call". It's amazing this happens in the US.
Re:Underlying technology. (Score:4, Insightful)
No wonder, when the whole country population is about a half of NYC (5.5 vs 9 millions)
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe, but I do hear about this kind of stuff from all over the US. It's the some sort of data transmission per area measure that is relevant, and NYC is a bit of an extreme example... when one hits a relatively unprepared network (you guys did get on the bandwagon just in the past few years) with iPhone data transmission requirements, I guess you could assume problems.
It is, I would suppose, still fundamentally an iPhone issue though...
Re:Underlying technology. (Score:5, Informative)
It is no wonder that Verizon has the best coverage in North America.
Of course you can make a reliable GSM network that covers a vast area and has high capacity. It just costs a lot of money.
Re:Underlying technology. (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Fair point; in particular price-wise, competition doesn't really work yet in the common market in Europe. Roaming charges can be surprisingly high. When it comes to both competition to push down prices and carrier co-operation in providing reliable infrastructure, I would say it would be probably pretty hard to replicate Europe-wide.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
15 years ago I drove through Austria, Switzerland and Italy. I drove through the Alps and made crystal clear calls to the US in deep canyons in the middle of nowhere and never dropped a call. It has nothing to do with the population of the country because it relates to the number and location of towers relative to the number of users. Europe has a higher density of cell phone users than the US, so they should in theory have more network problems, but they don't. Cell phone service just works. You don't get
Re: (Score:2)
It comes down to the simple fact that Americans want good cell phone coverage, but they don't want a tower in their neighborhood. It's a catch-22.
Re:Underlying technology. (Score:5, Interesting)
People don't want them here in Europe, either, at least on the countryside. People don't care about them in the cities, I think. At least I never heard somebody even talking about these towers here in Munich, except if the reception is bad.
There was a very funny story a few weeks back here in Germany (I'm citing off the top of my head, maybe I don't get it 100% correct, sorry for that): A company erected a new cell tower and people began to complain about health issues like headaches that they directly blamed to the tower. After a few weeks there was some kind of meeting between the people and company officials where the people demanded that the tower gets switched off immediately because of their health problems. Turned out the company switched the tower off three weeks before said meeting due to some technical problems :-) Fine example of a negative placebo, IMHO.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Heh, I am not looking for a "OMG Europe for teh win" pissing contest.. ;) It's just interesting that robustness of the cellphone network is something we take so totally for granted here, that it feels weird to read about "calls dropped" as some sort of real measure of network performance.
Finland's population density is also actually quite low anywhere north of Tampere -- you don't get 3G in the woods, but basic EDGE/GSM works pretty much always. The interesting measure is the people's data needs served per
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Not really. (Score:4, Informative)
Maybe due to the US-implementation of GSM, but GSM can handle this just fine.
You don't see this problem in Europe.
Re: (Score:2)
Specifically, the _AT&T_ implementation of GSM. Which sort of throws the problem right back to them.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
In what way is that "GSM"'s fault?
As far as I understand it, the older version of the EDGE protocol that's being used on many a tower doesn't include a procedure for passing in a call that was being handled by 3G, so it just drops.
ATT vs Verizon in NYC (ATT rocks for data) (Score:5, Informative)
I work in NYC and have the choice between Verizon and ATT for my "company" phone service. I use the data features fairly frequently and when our group of 40-50 folks sits down and chats (we're pretty equally divided between ATT and Verizon users) it seems to me that ATT data service is usually faster and more reliable. Of the people who are most vocal about their Verizon support there, they seem to be mostly voice users and only casual data users.
As far as the iPhone goes, I'd MUCH rather have a Nexus One if I was in the market for a fancy smart phone.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
As far as the iPhone goes, I'd MUCH rather have a Nexus One if I was in the market for a fancy smart phone.
What is it about the Nexus One that's got people so worked up? As best I can tell it's a great piece of hardware with a UI that's (admittedly by Android fans) only about 95% as good as the iPhone. It's manufactured by a company that doesn't really have any experience making phones, and could easily get out of the business, leaving you high and dry.
In any case, it's about 180 degrees out of sync from
Re:ATT vs Verizon in NYC (ATT rocks for data) (Score:4, Informative)
The Nexus One is manufactured by HTC, not Google - they have a lot of experience making OEM phones (many of the network-branded phones of the last 15 or so years were designed & built by them).
As for software, it's give and take - I like Android for the multiple concurrent apps (allows some very clever add-on features, such as automatically switching on your wifi when the cell identifier indicates you're in an area you normally use it), the widgets (especially calendar), the open app store (so emulators and alternate browsers are allowed) and the google integration & syncing. On the other hand, the app ecosystem isn't as good as the iPhone and the UI isn't always as fluid/good looking.
Depending on your use case, I can see how Android could be far better suited.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I like Android for the multiple concurrent apps
Plus the ability to install an SSH client and do port forwarding with an RDP client allowing secure connections to a terminal server.
With abilities like that, I can't believe my whole family doesn't have one already.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Or, go look at a Nokia N900. I find it amazing how little press this wonderful mobile computer that has phone functions is getting. I have been a fone freak for years, the N900 is like the parting of the Red Sea in a CB DeMille movie.
Another niggle I have (Score:3, Insightful)
They're clearly absolutely rubbish at it - and I'd just wish they'd stop trying (or at least burn all their money trying).
In my mind Nokia should make phones - that's where their skill lay. I remember those god-awful early Samsungs and the other Korean phones made out of silver plastic. I remember the lousy interfaces on them (and Motorola phones). Nokias stood out then. Now
Re: (Score:2)
What is it about the iPhone that's got people so worked up? As best I can tell it's a great UI experience with crappy hardware that's got only about 75% of the functionality that any other phone has. It's manufactured by a company that doesn't really have any experience making phones, and could easily get out of the phone business, leaving you high and dry.
Verizon iPhone (Score:4, Interesting)
My AT&T contract is up on July 12th. I tell you, I am going to have a very difficult decision on that date if a Verizon version of the iPhone hasn't been announced or released by then. While I love my iPhone, the AT&T service is just not reliable at all in my experience in New Hampshire, especially if you get out of the major cities. You pretty much have to be in a deep cave to not have a Verizon cell phone signal here.
My thinking is if there is no sign of a Verizon version of the iPhone by July 12th when my contract is up, I may very well switch to a Nexus One or Droid. It is sure going to be tempting.
Re:Verizon iPhone (Score:4, Insightful)
"in a cave": true (Score:4, Interesting)
When you consider that the trees around us were covered in nearly a foot of ice and snow, and we were sleeping in a shelter with several feet of snow on top of it, we really were in a cave. Amazing.
Re: (Score:2)
AT&T Sucks (Score:5, Informative)
Re:AT&T Sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
I was there for the switch to 3G in OH and though the service is fast, the batteries don't last (heh); my phone(s) would be dead with very limited surfing.
The batteries don't last in a lot of EVDO phones either. That's the fault of stupid phone manufacturers who switched radio chipsets without bothering to improve battery capacity or power consumption in the rest of the phone.
The real problem seems to be that AT&T has very limited 3G coverage, while their EDGE network has very good coverage. Unfortunately, as you allude to, they had to degrade the EDGE network for the 3G iPhone. The 3G-EDGE failover problems actually have nothing to do with the iPhone and everything to do with GSM. This has never worked very well, not even in other dual band phones. EVDO to CDMA fails over pretty seamlessly, though in the very early days of EVDO back around 2005 or so, several phones (like the Moto Razr) had problems failing over as well.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Do you remember hearing about AT&T's 'horrible network' before the iPhone?
As a longtime AT&T customer, I've always had problems on AT&T's network, but they weren't terrible enough to warrant worrying about. GSM coverage over California started out pretty spotty outside of major population centers, with roaming charges (or no coverage) throughout large swaths of driving between the Silicon Valley and Los Angeles. When launched, their internet access services were just spotty and terrible.
Later
Re:AT&T Sucks compared to ... (Score:2)
"Regress towards the mean".
AT&T is in the mindshare chart because of the iPhone. I went from T-Mobile and zero service, to Sprint with terrible service, on a brick phone that did nothing interesting and still clunked the battery.
I wanted to be part of the GSM theme, even though I knew Verizon was reputed to be slightly better service in my area.
So I switched to AT&T and the iPhone. My service went from "Terrible" to "Yucky". I decided that my usage habits for phones were opposite than the desktop, s
Shiny overrode Technical (Score:5, Interesting)
The iPhone itself doesn't really handle the switch from 3G to EDGE very gracefully, so calls that are in-progress tend to fail whenever 3G connections aren't optimal and the phone attempts to step down to EDGE.
Given that carriers test phones on networks, it would not be the least surprising to learn that AT&T technical staff evaluated the iPhone (or already had experience with the 'modem' it uses), told management about the problems, and management decided what was more important was the couple of years of revenue from people who wanted iPhones regardless of the network.
I've been a customer of AT&T since the "AT&T wireless" days (pre AT&T, pre "cingular", etc.) and I can count the number of dropped calls on one hand. I currently have an original iPhone, jailbroken/unlocked, on a very old AT&T Wireless account. $30/month for a regional plan = awesome (as is having one device to surf the web where I can get Wifi, play games, listen to music, and make phone calls.)
Living in New England, I also haven't heard many complaints from 3G iPhone users. Seems to be mostly NYC where people are screaming (yes kids, NY and NYC are not "New England.")
Re: (Score:2)
I've been a customer of AT&T since the "AT&T wireless" days (pre AT&T, pre "cingular", etc.) and I can count the number of dropped calls on one hand. I currently have an original iPhone, jailbroken/unlocked, on a very old AT&T Wireless account. $30/month for a regional plan = awesome (as is having one device to surf the web where I can get Wifi, play games, listen to music, and make phone calls.)
Your wireless account has nothing to do with network quality. Secondly, you have illegally voided your contract, ruling you out from any legitimate apples to apples comparison.
Living in New England, I also haven't heard many complaints from 3G iPhone users. Seems to be mostly NYC where people are screaming (yes kids, NY and NYC are not "New England.")
So you're saying that between New England and NYC, your user report has been that
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's nice.
I also live in "New England" and travel around the region for work. I can't begin to list all the dropped calls I've had in the last week alone, even around the Boston area. There's still huge sections of VT/NH/ME that have zero ATT coverage at all, nevermind 3g. At this point I really don't care who is at fault, I'm just done with the iPhone/ATT.
Re:Shiny overrode Technical (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, if we're going based on anecdotal evidence, I've been an AT&T customer since they merged with Cingular, and while I can't remember how the network was when I was living in New England, since I moved to Chicago, I haven't had a call over 20 minutes that didn't get dropped at least once. I don't have an iPhone, just a regular non-smartphone, so it's not just NY and it's not just iPhones.
(as for why I am still a customer when they suck so hard if I don't have an iPhone, a family member gets a discounted family plan through work, and everybody else in the family has an iPhone, but I would change carriers if there were not extenuating circumstances.)
AT&T is awful in Central NH (Score:3, Informative)
I have an iPhone and it's OK in the Boston area, but I'm fairly often in central New Hampshire, and AT&T sucks big time. A few months ago, I had to take my wife to the emergency room, and wait for several hours. Inside the Laconia hospital, my iPhone signal was zero, zippo, nada. My wife's Verizon phone had a 4-bar signal strength. While both AT&T and Verizon have dead zones, AT&T's seem to be much more prevalent.
I laugh when I see AT&T's claims of having the "fastest" network. It's
I'm sure Verizon will welcome all of AT&T's us (Score:2, Interesting)
AT&T hates the iPhone now? Why?
Perhaps because they know Apple does not intend to renew its contract with AT&T?
Uh, excuse me? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because they are the only company to carry it, and it's such a data hog, it's largely to blame for AT&T's network troubles. We don't remember hearing about AT&T's "horrible network" before the iPhone--do you?
Doesn't matter. AT&T made an agreement with Apple, they made contracts with users - really one sided contracts - to handle this. To blame a product and consumers for AT&T's short sightedness, mismanagement, and desire to squeeze every last penny out of their subscribers and their system is ridiculous.
AT&T got the business and they didn't live up to their end of the bargain.
Period.
Re:Uh, excuse me? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's also not a problem with either the iPhone or the users. The phone works just fine on other carriers' networks in other countries.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Not true. At least in Finland (Sonera's network) iPhone is a total fail when it comes to being a phone. You get dropped from the network daily even in central Helsinki. I've never before had such problems and I've been a cell user since 97.
Re:Uh, excuse me? (Score:4, Interesting)
Here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada I have zero network (Rogers wireless) connection problems with my iPhone, however when I took that same phone to Houston, Texas, U.S.A. (with data roaming turned off) it connected to the AT&T network for roaming and my phone calls were routinely disconnected at random. Sometimes I would be only able to say hello and speak a few words before the call would be lost and I needed to redial. This pissed me off something fierce. I'm not surprised people are not happy with the AT&T network in the U.S.A.
Sigh (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
They can get more page views by publishing the rumor now and the real story then... assuming there is a story, of course.
Re:Sigh (Score:5, Interesting)
By next week many people may have signed up with AT&T whom, had they known, would have waited to check for better deals / a preferred carrier.
Don't hold your breath though. The situation in the UK after the iPhone recently became non-exclusive is a bunch of remarkably similar deals [moneysavingexpert.com], the only notable exception being that Tesco offers a 12 month contract.
Re: (Score:2)
So why didn't you wait till next week to publish a verified fact?
Unlocked iPhone.... (Score:2)
Verified (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Verified (Score:4, Funny)
Sweetheart, you're not supposed to talk about it. I could lose my job.
Re:Verified (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, well alright then, there you have it: "deadend44's fiance" verified it, folks.
3G on T-Mobile? (Score:2)
In theory, you could take an AT&T iPhone to T-mobile, as they are also based on GSM, but I remember a couple weeks ago when the Nexus One launched, people pointing out that AT&T and T-Mo use different frequency bands for their 3G service, and so the Nexus One could only be used on AT&T with the slower 2G data channel. I'm guessing the same issue would be in play here, going the other way? That is, you could use an iPhone on T-Mo, but you'd not be able to get 3G data speeds?
Re: (Score:2)
Correct.
So even if AT&T loses their exclusivity, there won't be a big shift in the market so long as there's only a GSM phone. It won't work on T-Mobile's 3G network, so a T-Mobile iPhone would be very unattractive for most users.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Droid vs iPhone (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Droid vs iPhone (Score:4, Interesting)
Sounds really nerdy but I have a friend who works for a bank and he also has a droid, before he got it if he was in his server room on the phone I could hear the noise from all the servers and other equipment...Not with his droid, it sounded DEAD quiet.
May be it has this this chip [audience.com] which is doing wonders on Google's Nexus One.
Hmmm.... (Score:3, Insightful)
The iPhone is fine, so fine it's sold 10 million units. It works just fine.
Before the iPhone we had the choice between crap and crappy and a decent RIM device. Please don't tell me about your Treo.
After the iPhone we have a few choices of very good, very smart devices.
The post is a rumor which doesn't suit
I can't wait for the announcement to see what new device or new services are potentially opened up. I don't care to prognosticate but it'd be nice to have open carrier choices among all handsets -- but this has never really been the case. Thanks to innovation and a little more pressure from Google openly stating this as their goal it may happen. Just like DRM and iTunes where so many needed to blame Apple, call the service shit, call the device shit, it's happening with ATT, carrier lock-in, and the iPhone.
Troll bait hoo-ha-ha!
Re: (Score:2)
The Xbox 360 sold over 30 million units.
While i never had any problems with mine, would you look at me in the eyes and say that "The Xbox 360 works fine"?
Yup, thought so.
You know what would really be worthwhile? (Score:2)
Apple should start selling iPhones optionally unlocked, at a higher price if need be. People will STILL queue up to buy it, that's how popular it has become. Those who may have shunned it because of AT&T and who also couldn't be bothered with the jailbreak hassles would return to buy it.
And they have no hope in hell of significantly penetrating other more open markets(like mine, India where we've long since been accustomed to buying our phones at full price independent of any operator restrictions) unle
iPhone Users are Heavy Data Users (Score:4, Insightful)
I have wondered if ATT is a victim of their own success with 3G congestion. They largely sold the iPhone on the merits of all the cool data features and these users consume a lot of wireless data. 3G networks aren't designed to handle many concurrent heavy users. So I wonder, if Verizon gets the iPhone and folks make the switch, will the situation just naturally improve for ATT? Will Verizon suddenly feel the pain of all those heavy users?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
try finding iphone on att site (Score:2, Interesting)
My contract is set to renew, and I wanted to get a new iphone 3gs, and the ATT site doesn't even offer the iphone as an option.
I suspect that not only did they lose exclusivity, they may not even be worthy of distributing iphones anymore.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:try finding iphone on att site (Score:4, Interesting)
Are you just trolling? It's right on their front page as the 5th flash advertisement. If you click on it it goes to:
http://www.att.com/wireless/iphone/ [att.com]
They also have a "quick link" in their menu right to the iPhone 3Gs page.
OT: iPhone now or wait? (Score:2)
I have the option to switch from my blackberry to the iphone... the only thing holding me back is whether or not a new one will be announced next week... Would you buy now or wait? If the rumors are true, OLED, 5MP camera, flash but the ship date wasn't until June would you wait or just get it now?
I can't imagine why anyone would think (Score:2)
> The iPhone itself doesn't really handle the switch from 3G to EDGE very gracefully, so calls that are in-progress tend to fail whenever 3G connections aren't optimal and the phone attempts to step down to EDGE.
since the voice and data decks are separate; the voice isn't *going* over the data connection, so a roam there shouldn't affect a voice call.
Now, that doesn't mean that it's not having *other* problems roaming from cell to cell; I just don't expect that to be the cause.
So in other words... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you actually tried both?
Android's fine for geeks who don't like fuild usability, but it'll take another generation or two for Android to catch up.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Have you tried the HTC phones with the sense UI (which, by the way, has multitouch)?
Serious question.
It is absolutely brilliant. I was certain that it would be some trashy vendor attempt at being unique, to be quickly disabled, however it is actually extremely decent.
The "Android is a geek's phone" meme is baseless. It is only true from the perspective of "if by geek we mean people who aren't just mindlessly following the crowd".
Re:Who cares? (Score:4, Interesting)
Was thinking the same.
This bit from the post: he iPhone itself doesn't really handle the switch from 3G to EDGE very gracefully, so calls that are in-progress tend to fail whenever 3G connections aren't optimal and the phone attempts to step down to EDGE. It seems that AT&T may finally be tired of taking the heat.
That is enough for me to delay my purchase until I see something really good.
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Informative)
I have never, ever had this problem on my iPhone, and I live in an area of the UK with mixed 3G and Edge/2G coverage - my house is in an area with no 3G, and driving a couple of miles down the road gets you into the 3G zone due to the town nearby. I have never had an issue with dropped calls due to going in and out of 3G coverage.
Whether this is due to the network (I am on O2 in the UK), or the phone I am not certain.
Put it this way, that sentence makes an assertion about what the iPhone does when it tried to fall back to Edge. My own experience is different. The truth is therefore likely somewhere in between, and the call issue may just be related to AT&T and may affect android phones in the same way.
I also think that the "who cares?" post is a little bit naive - clearly a lot of people *do* care, since they are selling iPhones hand over fist. I welcome the introduction of the Android phones - more competition will drive the market (hopefully) to be better for all consumers, but outside of the most hardcore of geeks who have some sort of axe to grind about Apple, the iPhone is still a long way from a "who cares?" device. Proponents of Android that treat the competition that way would do well to be careful (and vice versa - Droid-based phones are going to offer some serious competition to iPhone).
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I should say that since I have owned the phone I have never experienced the call dropping, regardless of whether I start in a 3G area, or an Edge one or vice versa. The fact that I live right on the fringe of a 3G area would suggest that I'd be constantly plagued by the problem if it happened. I think it is an issue with At&T if the problem is so apparent in the US, or a bad interaction between AT&T and the iPhone if it only occurs on the iPhone there - it really doesn't seem to be an issue in the U
Re:Who cares? Makes no sence at all!! (Score:5, Insightful)
....The iPhone itself doesn't really handle the switch from 3G to EDGE very gracefully, so calls that are in-progress tend to fail whenever 3G connections aren't optimal and the phone attempts to step down to EDGE..
Seriously, this makes no sense at all.
Your voice connection is not over IP, thus EDGE has nothing to go with it. InterRat handovers (3G - 2G) are not an easy thing to do. All phones implement this in more or less the same way. That way would be what the core spec says!
EDGE is only for data. Just like GPRS.
Re:Who cares? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You're forgetting the price (Score:5, Informative)
To get the iPhone, I would need to sign up for a VERY expensive and long term contract. There is no way I'm spending a thousand dollars a year for a friggin phone. To get the Nexus One I can buy a prepaid sim from T-mobile and pay $100/year, using WiFi for network connectivity. This price advantage alone is enough to give the Nexus One an enormously larger market than the iPhone.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Who modded this flaimbait? From ATT's own website [att.com], only the very cheapest plan (maximum 15-minutes-per-day average) is under $1000 / year, not counting the upfront price and miscellaneous ripoff fees I'm sure they add to the monthly bill. Overtime on that plan is 45 cents per minute (vs tracfone minutes at 20 cents per minute with no plan aft
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Interesting)
Man you are dumb.
For one the market share for iPhones is still much much larger then all the Android based phones out there. It is second only to RIM Blackberries.
Most mobile application/web development is primarily tested for the iPhone So right now iPhone as more apps.
The iPhone is the standard that all the other phones need to set the bar against.
It isn't about features or technology it is about mindset. Right now the iPhone is still the winner (next year who knows bur right now they are the winner)
AT&T got a lot of new customers just because people wanted the phone... For the most case this is opposite... People search for the plan they want and get the phone. If AT&T looses iPhone exclusivity it would really heart them. Well lets go with the other ones instead they may have better coverage or faster network. Spring G4 iPhone would be cool. Perhaps Verizon my have a cheaper Service. Perhaps t-mobile will allow tethering.
Android is still second fiddle... I for one like to see it grow and give apple a good run for its money however you have to be an idiot to think the iPhone is irrelevant.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It isn't about features or technology it is about mindset.
Oh how right you are about that. However, the point you bring up in you post directly runs opposite of the point that you are trying to make.
The biggest thing about cell phones is that most people change out phones every two to three years. The iPhone is no different. I've seen many of friends ditch the iPhone after their contract was up. It's no different than when I ditched my LG last year as soon as my contract was up. People's "mindset" as you would call it is to junk the phone they've got every
Re: (Score:2)
Another point which I rarely hear about in discussions of the iPhone is how it is fundamentally marketed differently. We have had an iPhone for many years now. It hasn't been the exact same hardware this whole time, but it has been an "iPhone" the whole time. Now think about other mobile phones. Ask someone what phone they have and it is either "LG", "Motorola", etc. Mobile phone models change so often than no one can remember what model they have currently, because there is a good chance that you can'
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The whole point of this is not everyone wants to pay $500 for some phone. It wasn't that long ago that even low end phones would have been several hundred dollars without a contract that is how we got into this.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Informative)
No one in the US (except for TMobile customers?) gets a discount on the actual service if they buy their phone outright. From recent postings on other cell phone threads - and my own personal experience with ATT - once your "contract" is up, where the subsidy should disappear... it doesn't. We get to pay the same rates as if we were still subsidizing a phone.
Re:Who cares? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I'm pretty sure you didn't quite understand it correctly then.
No, I understand it completely. The OP stated that "no matter how you swing it, it is cheaper to buy your phone outright". He is wrong.
When the original iPhone was launched, the data plan was $20/month. When the 3G launched, it jumped to $30/month. No change when the 3GS hit the shelves.
That's because the data service is different. 2G/EDGE was $20/month, 3G is $30/month.
I've been paying $15/month for unlimited data on AT&T for years now.
Grandfathered? On a smart phone? On an iPhone?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The iPhone launched in the UK as exclusive to the O2 network. In the last few months it's become available on two of the other four biggest networks Vodafone and Orange (who have announced that they will merge with the other big four, T-Mobile). The pricing and plan are practically identical.
So buy a second hand phone on ebay, unlock it and stick a PAYG SIM in it (or whatever contract works for you)...