Leadpile’s Blog

iPhones and Blackberry’s are everywhere. It seems like you can not turn your head without seeing one or the other, but which is better? In most cases, when people are looking to purchase a new phone, they look at two main points; service and phone capabilities.
When the iPhone first came out there were thousands of people who switched from providers such as Verizon to AT&T, just because of the exclusive deal that AT&T has with Apple. Currently, you can not get the iPhone through anyone except for AT&T. I have yet to meet a single person who does not love their iPhone, but there is one huge problem – no service! Constantly AT&T users are complaining about this. I see people putting their phones only in certain parts of their house, because they know that is the only place they can get and take a call.
According to Brandweek.com, some AT&T users have had enough. Their quality score has dropped where Verizon has been staying steady. With Verizon offering great deals on their “app” friendly BlackBerry’s, there is no reason to suffer without service any longer! I agree that the iPhone couldn’t be more unique and user friendly, but what is the point of having a cool phone if you can’t even use it? For those of you who are just too brand loyal to give it up, that’s fine, but don’t go crying to the Verizon users when you are broke down on the side of the road in the middle of know where with no service and no way to get help.

Can business be TOO good for AT&T right now?  The exclusive deal AT&T has with Apple for its iPhone customers has brought many new consumers.  These customers now account for 7.5% of the AT&T subscriber base.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that these consumers use two to four times the data of other smart phone users, but are being charged the same ($30.00 monthly) as other users.  AT&T is in a difficult position, because they obviously want to hold onto as many customers as possible, but they need to add bandwidth to handle the added traffic.  Raising prices or limiting plans to the consumer does not seem an option, so the cost will be AT&T’s burden.  AT&T has some difficult decisions ahead, and the ending of their exclusive arrangement with Apple does not make things easier.

UPDATE:

AT&T angered more people this week when they announced that they would restrict the new SlingPlayer Mobile iPhone application to operating only on Wi-Fi.  The company said the app would take up too much bandwidth, but critics believe that restricting the app to Wi-Fi effectively diminishes the advantages and content of the application.  More challenges for AT&T brought on by the popularity of the iPhone and its applications.