“It’s becoming clearer by the quarter that most wireless operators simply don’t have a phone or user experience that can compete with the iPhone. The financial results reported by the top three U.S. carriers this past week offered the latest evidence, with AT&T being the exception: AT&T continued to grow at a rapid pace—but mostly due to new customers coming on board because of the iPhone,” Tricia Duryee reports for mocoNews.net.
“T-Mobile USA, in particular, saw minuscule customer additions despite having launched the highly anticipated T-Mobile G1. Likewise, Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) placed its bets on the BlackBerry Storm, and despite hitting one million in sales, had a slight decrease in subscriber additions in the fourth quarter compared to the previous period, along with a significant drop over the year-ago period,” Duryee reports. “(Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel, which is touting the Samsung Instinct as an iPhone-competitor, will report earnings in February.)”
“The iPhone is a hit because it combines a sleek device with a popular set of services, including the Apple app store. Contrast that to what Verizon and T-Mobile are offering: The BlackBerry Storm (Verizon) doesn’t even have its own app store – or at least yet—while the G1 (T-Mobile) isn’t that great-looking, and has a store that’s limited to free apps. You can even argue, too, that AT&T hasn’t been able to figure it out, but has been just lucky enough to have an exclusive with Apple,” Duryee reports.
More in the full article here.
