Dear current iPhone 3G owners,
Get over yourselves.
No, not all of you, just the ones yesterday after the World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) who first vented your frustration regarding upgrading on Apple, then turned to focus it on AT&T. I guess it comes with the territory to be a bit delusional since Steve Jobs told a NY Times reporter that taking LSD was “one of the two or three most important things he has done in his life.”
As soon as your trip is over, continue reading…
Regarding Cell Phone Upgrades
For those who don’t know, I worked for AT&T Wireless/Cingular/AT&T Mobility for some time. Allow me to explain the cell phone pricing model in the US:
- Cell phone manufacturer makes phone. Their cost may be $200 (just an example).
- Cell phone manufacturer sells phone to carrier. If there’s an exclusivity deal, the carrier pays an even higher price. So in our example, the manufacturer may sell to the carrier for $275, since they are profiting off the hardware.
- Cell phone carrier prices the phone they bought from the manufacturer. In my example, the $275 phone may get marked up to $300 to cover shipping and a few minor other expenses. When I worked for AT&T, the largest markup I saw between our listed cost and the full retail price was $75.
- Carrier then creates subsidy pricing. Basically, you are getting a discount because you are signing a contract, preferably for them a 2 year contract. They take a loss on the device with the understanding they will profit off you during the course of your contract.
Wanting one really bad, thinking you’re important or “loving” a phone doesn’t really matter to them. If I love a house you have listed, shouldn’t you sell it to me for half price? I doubt it.
Regarding AT&T Complaints
You really just want to complain, don’t you? I’ve been an AT&T subscriber since long before I worked there. Although I left , they are the only carrier I see ever using. Why?
- GSM. AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM. So does the rest of the world. A lesson on economies of scale: If I make something I can sell to a billion people or to a thousand people, I’m going to make it for the billion because I can charge a lower per-unit cost and sell more volume and it will cost me less per unit to make. So for Apple to make the iPhone for CDMA, which is what Verizon and Sprint use would cost them even more. This is also why GSM providers typically have significantly better phones. Looking at phone selection from a global standpoint, GSM phones in the US are far behind what is available in the rest of the world (which means we always have more cool stuff coming) but CDMA phones are always cutting edge since we’re it.
- Coverage. AT&T works where I need it. I’ve kept calls from Sandy to Forest Grove with no drops and from Eugene to Seattle with no drops. It works at my house, it works on the coast, it works on the mountain. My Verizon work phone drops constantly and simply gets no coverage in quite a few places. And this is my second one, so it’s a service issue, not a device issue. It’s a wireless phone people! If it drops a call once in a while or doesn’t work on an island in the middle of nowhere, get over it!
- Battery life. My AT&T BlackBerry Pearl can go for a week without charging it. My Verizon BlackBerry Pearl might be able to make it a day. GSM if far more efficient for battery life. Remember how important battery life was to Apple in the first generation iPhone? Do you think they forgot that?
- International capabilities. Sure, I may only travel internationally once a year, but I want to know my phone will work without having to buy a certain model of phone. GSM allows this easily.
Being “Owed”
Yesterday on Twitter I saw so much “you totally deserve an early upgrade, you’re their biggest fan” crap it made me want to puke. Apple knows who their “biggest fans” are. They were invited to WWDC. They probably will get a promo device eventually. Maybe even a test model to blog about. YOU are not their biggest fan. And guess what? I’ve directly sold while working in wireless, indirectly sold through recommendations and personally bought a combined total over 200 BlackBerry’s and have never once been given one by RIM. I don’t expect it. They’re in the business of selling phones and because I actually am a huge fan of theirs, I don’t mind getting over myself and buying something of theirs I want.
So, if you really want a iPhone 3G S and aren’t eligible, cough up the dough and quit complaining. If you don’t want to pay that money, don’t. Your current phone is good enough. If AT&T is SO terrible to you and their coverage is so bad, go elsewhere, just know you aren’t getting an iPhone that way either. Because of these temper-tantrums following WWDC, when I see someone carrying an iPhone, I think “child”.
Yes, this was a little bit of a rant. It isn’t targeted at all iPhone owners by any stretch. This was for the people who are complaining like children about having to actually buy a toy they want. Heck, I’m even tempted to switch to an iPhone 3G S, but I’m not eligible, so I’ll either wait or cough up the dough without complaint.
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{ 7 comments }
BTW… AT&T did listen. http://www.facebook.com/ATT?v=app_7146470109
.-= Jeff “I am delusional” Turner´s last blog ..Video Hosting Sites =-.
I get everything you wrote, even before you wrote it, was still pissed, vented because I could and have now moved on, coughed up the dough and will happily await my next hit of LSD.
Jeff “I am delusional” Turner’s last blog post..Video Hosting Sites
I’m right there with you on the points you outlined, although I think there are some specific issues that AT&T rightly deserves to take flak on.
My biggest beef is backhaul bandwidth — just because AT&T has GSM on the tower doesn’t mean the tower can communicate with the Internet at a reasonable rate. With the flat rate data plans, they don’t have much incentive to upgrade, either. Frustrating.
That aside, I think the reason there are soooo many delusional iPhone owners is that Apple has very deliberately cultivated an emotional connection with it’s customers … and man, ain’t love a bitch? Especially when your suitor doesn’t return your calls?
RIM sells business-oriented devices and sells them as such; just the facts, ma’am. Blackberries are solid devices that stack up very well against the competition on a spreadsheet … but they don’t have the sex appeal.
Peat Bakke’s last blog post..Linkage Detail [Flickr]
Your comment about trying to sell to the larger population is what seems to give Apple the slip again. Microsoft beat Apple because Windows could go on any PC. It may well happen with Android vs iPhone.
Android is due to ship on a couple of other phones that use other companies, not just T-mobile. It will be interesting to see how that side plays out especially now that they are talking about netbooks being loaded with the Android platform.
I wish my G1 could go days without a recharge. Heavy use I get 6-8.
Mike Rohrig’s last blog post..In Short Sales The Patient Buyer Often Wins
I’m definitely interested in seeing all that Android has to offer. I think adding it to netbooks will just increase awareness and probably (hopefully) get more people interested in the phones as well. Then again, Symbian is the largest mobile OS in the world, but nobody wants to carry it in the US.
Towers are always an issue. I worked in Wilsonville for a while and AT&T had a tower on the old Dammasch State Mental Hospital, but had to move it. The problem was the fiber to the tower came from Verizon. They try to claim they’re different companies (wireless vs. wired), but they sure did a neat job of delaying running new fiber to the new tower site for MONTHS while I had to field all of the complaints from customers. That’s part of why I’m keeping an eye on what Google does with their “dark fiber”, Android and anything else wireless; they may have a true vertical integration.
They definitely have done a great job of building the emotional connection
Also true that BlackBerry’s might not be the sexiest (although I think my Bold is pretty hot), but when it comes to functionality, I keep humming the song “Everything you can do, I can do better”.
Just make sure you don’t take the brown stuff…
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