Retrevo editor, Andrew, thinks you should jailbreak an iPad. I disagree. Here’s why
What does your wireless carrier say about you?
Technological zealots, pundits, and old fashioned fanboys will argue which wireless carrier is the best for days on end. They all have reasons to switch and cannot fathom how anyone could betray their preferred carrier by using anything else. Nobody takes into account the most important factor when stating their case, which is - coverage maps. For the most part, all carriers are similarly, each with strong and weak areas. Beyond that, there seems to be some sociology behind the carriers people choose.
Verizon - the old standby. People with long standing accounts will typically have Verizon. Unlike its competitors it hasn’t been bought, sold, merged, or renamed. It uses a technology called CDMA that is very old, although it has been updated since it was first rolled out. The ancient CDMA in use means that Verizon has had a long, long time to perfect it, which accounts for the best coverage and higher stability. They aren’t known for innovation, but they always work. If you see someone carrying a flip phone, chances are it is Verizon. They also have the best prepaid phones and plans around; if that tells you anything. They are the government bond of carriers. Low risk, low return. Dependable, but boring.
AT&T - the careless thrill seeker. AT&T throws caution to the wind and tries new things. It’s the college frat guy that says, “It’ll be fine, just try it. And it it’s not, at least it’ll be fun to see what happens. We will deal with the consequences later.” They took to GSM like a kid with new rollerblades on Christmas and looked just about as steady in the beginning. They took Apple’s iPhone and made blind changes to their network to accommodate it when Verizon declined and AT&T signed an exclusivity contract in the process. It paid off overall as the phone revolutionized an industry and became supremely popular, but they pissed off a lot of customers along the way when the data consumption rates crippled their network. Tech geeks go nuts for AT&T (except the “damn the man” open sourcers). They are risky and can usually be seen uttering the famous last words “watch this shit” before they singe their eyebrows. High risk, high return.
Sprint - the one trick pony. They sell Blackberry to corporations - at least they did when that was what people wanted. Now they are desperately trying to find a new trick. RIM, the creator of Blackberry filed to innovate and put all their eggs in one basket which as Sprint corporate customers relying on their enterprise services. They tried to bolster their market by picking up the blue collar Nextel crowd, but that just fragmented their network across more than one technology. Now, are they CDMA, iDen, Wi-Max or some Frankenstein conglomerate of all of them? Now that the iPhone is flourishing in the enterprise, there’s nothing left. It’s no surprise that Sprint picked up the iPhone and advertises itself as the only carrier offering truly unlimited data. Of course, their network is too slow to worry about consumers’ data consumption making a dent anyway. Sprint is the guy that bet every last dollar on the .com bubble and now lives in his grandmother’s basement looking for a comeback. It’s customers are email hog, road warriors that care about nothing but spreadsheets and metrics and being able to get emails immediately. Physical keyboards, small screens and no apps make this smartphone like the person who sounded smart before they got caught for plagiarism. Never was smart, we just didn’t know any better in the beginning.
T-Mobile - the tagalong/sidekick (pun intended). T-Mobile has had more names than it has cellular towers over the years. It was the first to enter the “more than a phone” game with the Sidekick which quickly became the security blanket of connected celebrities everywhere. They are known of their cheap plans, lots of minutes, celebrity endorsements, being bought and sold, and the only of the majors without the iPhone. Even the reckless AT&T bailed out of buying them last week. They have nothing going for them. You I will often find their customers shouting about why they area the best and backing it up with reasoning like, “because they are and I pay less than you.” You get what you pay for and if one company is significantly less, it’s no pt because they are doing you a favor; you’re getting less. They were the first with GSM and stopped. They were the first with an Android phone when Google was still a mysterious search engine company that shocked world with rumors of a phone - anyone remember the MyTouch G1? T-Mobile is the kid on the playground that always looks slightly confused, slightly dirty and says things like, “Wait…what? I don’t get it” which often matches their customers.
Regional carriers - the local specialist. Even the majors had local and national plans and they were separate, once upon a time. Those were the days of roaming charges. Now, any plan worth its salt will be national. Of course, the business model still charges more and calls national roaming a feature. In reality, it’s the standard. So the regional guys are below standard but they come to you like a good natured neighbor who is here to help without all that fancy schmancy stuff the big guys have. You stay local? We have just the plan for you. You almost always pay less and keep your monthly bill down, but look at the cost per minute - its less efficient most of the time. They don’t often offer the latest and greatest hardware, features or speeds, but if you use a small amount of talk time or data and you do it all locally, they’ll be there. Also, they took a page out of the mortgage industry’s play book and waive (or manipulate, skew, or ignore altogether) the credit check. Their customers are the ones raving about their new smartphone that the AT&T geeks recycled 2 revisions ago. They scream about the awesome low price because they’ve never divided it by the number of minutes they actually get. They now get data, but aren’t concerned about speeds. Usually, their phones are in a case bought in a mall kiosk and it looks like a bedazzled threw up on it.
These are all general statements and mostly tongue in cheek. The customers are unfortunate collateral damage used to describe the one-dimensional nature if the carriers and how we can humanize the carriers to make consumers understand their vision. However, look more closely at the phone and owner. You’ll find that more often than not, I’m right (and I was very nice and polite with my word choice).
The day you have been waiting for - Apple iPhone comes to Verizon
Verizon dropped a bomb today, but it was a bomb everyone was expecting. Apple and Verizon have finally partnered and the iPhone will be available to Verizon customers on February 10th. Naturally, my phone has not stopped ringing and everyone wants to know what I think. I have many, many thoughts on this topic.
First, I was a little surprised to see that this partnership happened with a CDMA version of the phone while Verizon touts the forthcoming 4G LTE network. Then again there are carriers in South Korea that still use CDMA which opens other markets for a phone with that technology. Japan is also all CDMA. Also, LTE is just coming around now and won’t be outside of major cities for a while. Then there’s the fact that LTE chipsets still have battery drain issues and are physically larger. Still, it’s a little strange to see an innovator like Apple investing in a dying technology. That can only mean that LTE is still a bit of a far away pipe dream.
Note: There is one tremendous downside. CDMA, unlike GSM, does not allow simultaneously voice and data. That means you cannot surf the web while on the phone. Dan Dee and Tim Cook have already spoken about users putting emphasis on certain things and “tradeoffs.” Definite drawback.
People are asking me how I feel about this move, as if I should be betrayed that my beloved iPhone has moved to Verizon. It is not sleeping with the enemy. It isn’t like Derek Jeter plays for the Boston Red Sox now. I’m actually very happy about this.
I love my iPhone. I loved the 2G, 3G, 3GS and now my 4. They keep getting better. i’ll never go anywhere else. Should I move to an area where AT&T’s coverage is subpar, I can still have an iPhone. Ubiquity of iPhone ownership just went up.
There are many more users that will be holding this device now. That means more ideas, more developers, more feedback, more user interaction, more needs to be met and more use cases. Apple makes great products that their customers will love. When you up your set of data point by an order of magnitude, you can really gain vision for the future iterations to make customers happy.
The most important issue is that the iPhone is the most innovative and important development in the mobile space… ever. People who were die hard Verizon supporters actually left Verizon and moved to AT&T just to get an iPhone. Those people will, more than likely, go back to Verizon. That means that when AT&T’s customer base shrinks, the available bandwidth for the remaining customers will go up. The increases the value of the experience.
When the iPhone launched in 2007 and more specifically iPhone 3G in 2008, AT&T’s network was immediately crippled by the data consumption. Everyone complained that the network couldn’t handle it and AT&T was miserable. That was not the case. There was an unprecedented level of usage that no carrier would have been ready for. Verizon was able to look at this empirical data and prepare for it in a way that AT&T was never able to. We will see that iPhone will soar on Verizon just as it will on AT&T with the lightened load. Remember, AT&T launched the iPhone 2G on an EDGE network while 3G was already around.
This was a long time coming. Verizon passed on the iPhone initially and took the time to get their network ready. A phone like this deserves to be everywhere. I think this is a major blow to RIM and Google, but more on that later. Today was a definite game changer as the mobile landscape was redefined in just 42 short minutes.
I, however, will be staying on AT&T. I have been with them for over 10 years and, despite some hiccups, have had a good experience. Make no mistake though, I’ll always have an iPhone so if or when Verizon suits my needs better, I’ll make the move.
The phone will be available for pre-order on February 3rd and will arrive or be ready for in-store purchase on February 10th. The 16gb will be $199 and the 32gb will be $299.
Congratulations to Apple, Verizon and the many Verizon customers who now have the availability of the #1 mobile phone on their choice network. It is an amazing day in technology.
Verizon loses 3G; AT&T defends itself
Verizon had a national and global data outage last night. All 3G service went dead for at least 6 hours. Verizon simple acknowledged the issue and its resolution without going into detail as to what caused it directly or the factors surrounding it. Speculation says this is alongside the upgrade procedures to the 4G LTE network. The outage is not what is really important. The timing is what seems more relevant. Just days ago Glenn Lurie who is AT&T’s head of emerging devices sat with Walk Mossberg on the stage for All Things Digital’s D: Dive Into Mobile conference. When asked about the possibility of a Verizon iPhone (which we all know will happen at some point), he said “We’re not concerned about it at all.” AT&T has come under fire about the quality and stability of its network over the last 3 years. Users have cited experiences where the network could not keep up with their demands. AT&T has experienced a 5,000% growth in data consumption since the arrival of the iPhone. Verizon, like any other carrier, has not experience this explosive growth. AT&T, as a brand, has suffered as users remain frustrated, however the exclusive ownership of the iPhone all this time gives them an edge. Lurie’s most important quote was “We’ve managed a massive amount of data on our network for several years. Many of our competitors have not.” I’ve seen AT&T’s issues since day 1 of iPhone in 2007. I had an iPhone 2G that day and each successor on launch day. It has changed the way we do business and AT&T has struggled under the weight of the success of this device. Every day, I try to keep in mind that they had no roadmap for success. They could not possible expect the response to be as great as it was. For a company flying blind, in uncharted waters under unprecedented strain, I feel they have adjusted well. With $18billion invested into their network this year and last year, it’s obvious they are working at it. I hope Verizon users do not go through what AT&T users have, but I won’t fault Verizon if it happens. This is a major time for wireless technology and growing pains are to be expected. They are signs of amazing advancements. Keep all of this in perspective before you scream about a dropped call on AT&T’s network, if you can.
