“The Apple iPhone, due out next month, has been breathlessly hailed as offering consumers the ultimate wireless experience,” Leslie Cauley reports for USA Today. “It also could give AT&T, its exclusive U.S. distributor, the ultimate experience for a wireless carrier: an easy way to handcuff rivals and steal customers… If you want an iPhone anytime soon, you’ll have to take your business to AT&T.”
Cauley reports, “Stan Sigman, CEO of wireless at AT&T, makes no apologies for his tough approach. ‘I’m glad we have (the iPhone) in our bag,’ he says. ‘Others will try to match it, but for a period of time, they’re going to be playing catch-up.'”
“They also sparred over the iPhone…. Verizon passed on the opportunity to become the exclusive U.S. distributor, balking at Apple’s demand for control over distribution, pricing, marketing and more. That left an opening for AT&T — then called Cingular — to cement a deal,” Cauley reports.
Cauley reports, “Denny Strigl, Verizon’s chief operating officer, decided to pass on the iPhone deal and says he has no regrets: ‘Time will tell’ if he made the right call, he says. ‘The issue is not the Apple-ness of the iPhone itself, but with the cellular network that it is running on,’ Strigl says, picking his words carefully. ‘That will be the true test of the iPhone: What will the iPhone experience be?'”
Cauley reports, “Given Apple’s cultlike following, however, Verizon isn’t taking any chances. Strigl says Verizon is already working with a manufacturer — he declines to say which one — on an answer to the iPhone. ‘We do have a very good response in the mill,’ he says. ‘You’ll see that from us in the late summer.'”
Full article here.
Strigl makes a very weak attempt to freeze a market that will soon turn red hot with Apple iPhone’s debut.
Vapour ware!! the best response a man under the cosh can produce!
He can’t wait to pop one open and see what is inside to copy…problem for him is…you can’t just copy OS X, which is really what is so cool about the iPhone…it is all about software. Go ahead, copy the touch screen.
Much, much TOO late summer.
Strigl-“an answer to the iPhone.”
Answer: “It’s the Mac OS stupid!”
MW: court-Strigl, that guy who was unwilling to court Apple and lost his business!
Yawn. I guess he can’t publicly admit that his company is scrambling for an answer. Besides, they only provide the network – their only concern is raping their customers for more money. So, I’m sure that every time you press a key on this new device, you get charged 15 cents for it.
“Verizon CEO: We have ‘very good response’ to Apple iPhone coming ‘late summer’”
They’re filing for bankruptcy?
In the meantime check this article out for a good laugh!
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2007/05/22/microsoft-will-jeff-raikes-succeed-ballmer-as-ceo/
Verizon will respond with the zPhone from Microsoft! zOMG!
Amazing that so much of the world makes it’s living by copying the few really creative people…
Oh, let me guess its a Treo 1000XYZ piece o’ crap. I have a treo on verizon and it is truely awful: horrible UI, buggy OS and software, useless features, s-l-o-w, oh and, it looses files, emails and applications stop working correctly for no apparent reason. I’ve returned one to get another thinking this was just a bad copy – nope, the replacement is just as bad.
The second happiest day of my life will be buying an iphone. The fist happiest day will be when I sell this treo-crap to some unsuspecting sap on ebay.
‘The issue is not the Apple-ness of the iPhone itself, but with the cellular network that it is running on,’ Strigl says, picking his words carefully. ‘That will be the true test of the iPhone: What will the iPhone experience be?'”
This is idiotic. The network will be about as important as who your ISP is at home. If I go to a friend’s house and use her computer, what will affect me experience more: Her ISP, or the fact that she uses Windows? The days of the network controlling the UI are over, my friends.
Strigl may say he has no regrets, but you can’t tell me that Verizon is happy missing out on all the free publicity.
Note to Verizon:
You made a bad decision. I am switching to AT&T.
“on an answer to the iPhone”
Yeah, but I’ll bet all Strigl will get is a busy signal. That has a nice ring to it.
Okay, so he has no regrets, then why are they readying a response?
The iPod has proven to the marketplace that Apple’s competitors in the consumer electronics space probably will not be able to match it’s designs and application in time enough to stop the iPhones momentum.
Precisely because consumers have rejected every other MP3 player on cost, cool, features, etc. Most consumers will not wait for any competitor’s counter to iPhone to see if it will stack up, and they won’t believe any claim that it will either.
Strigi is correct in pointing to the network and caller experience as the one hurdle in the iPhones way not yet addressable. If this is as promised there is no chance for any other iClone to take a hold of this market space.
BURN VERISON… BURN!
You can have a great network but if you make things difficult to use for your customers what is the point? Then you screw your customers over by making them pay for features that every other provider gives their customers for free. Furthermore, your employees can get cheaper service from other providers than with their verizon employee discount. How exactly are you going to get people to stay? Because of your network? Sure, not every company has great service in every area but other than that how is the network really going to matter. Does the consumer care how many SONET rings or DS3s or DS1s you own? NO. As long as they can get reliable coverage they will go with whomever has the best offering. The network is really a footnote in the minds of the average consumer.
I wonder what’s coming on the Horizon
Strigi will be looking for a job next year.
Strigl’s answer about it all “being about the network” is just a rehash of Verizon’s marketing message from its commercials. Just another clueless robot looking for a chair to throw.
Their response project is headed up by his wife..uhh Morgan Fairchild, that’s the ticket!
Note to Verizon:
There is only one company that could in theory compete with the iPhone’s OS in a reasonable amount of time and that’s Microsoft with Windows Mobile. The fact is the other OS’s used by other smart phones is not even close with what the iPhone OS can do and Microsoft’s Mobile OS is years away from having what Apple does.
Core Video. Core Animation. Power Management (that works). seemless networking. Security. I’d really like to see RIM’s or Symbian’s attempt at core animation. Good luck with that one. They have neither the resources or experts in house to pull that off, much less ‘by late summer’.
The Blackberry succeeded for one simple fact: it allowed easy access to corporate [read: Exchange] email. It wasn’t because of its ease of use, user interface, media content, speed, design or anything else. It was the simple fact that it had ‘push’ email so the high strung executives that wanted email instantly could have it and those that rarely sit down in front of an actual computer to check email would have access to corporate email. Has anyone tried browsing on a Blackberry? Its aweful. Attachments like Work/Excel? Also aweful.
The simple fact is, this will play out just like the iPod has but on a faster timeline. Consumers will by the iPhone. It will be the must have device and it will have a cool factor 10x anything else out there. And it will work seemlessly. One by one, users of other smart devices will want and then switch over to an iPhone and one by one, those IT managers running those BES systems to push email to the blackberries will be asked to make it do to the iPhones. And it is pretty easy to figure out who wins those battles [CEO vs. CIO]…
buckle up, because its going to one fast ride for the rest of the year.
Who wants in on a board to pick how long before someone who ‘shouldn’t’ have an iPhone is spotted with one?
Strigl reminds me of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
What’s really funny is that this Verizon moron thinks mentioning a “very good response” to iPhone will cause me to delay a purchasing decision. With an Apple iPhone I know that I am starting at the top with an upgradeable OS X device and everything else will be an also-ran for years to come.
I guess this is what happens when you place Apple in the same basket as all the other phone manufacturers. There’s a reason why Apple doesn’t got to the Consumers Electronics Show, or present the iPhone alongside other phone makers at mobile phone events. There’s Apple, then there’s everyone else.
Okay, Verizon, show us what you’ve got.