“AT&T chief technology officer John Donovan last week confirmed the US carrier had been unprepared for the US success of the iPhone 3G,” Jonny Evans reports for Macworld UK.
“Speaking at the Goldman Sachs technology conference last week, Donovan admitted that the network had seen demand for 3G services in some areas exceed expectation to the point AT&T was forced to build up capacity,” Evans reports.
Full article here.
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He wasn’t the only one!! CEOs across the board were not expecting Apples avalanche!!
It’s not rocket science.
1). Take total number of iPhones initially sold.
2). Compare current 2.5G usage data to pre-iPhone usage.
3). Multiply the two, map out where it’s needed most, and plan accordingly.
This guy needs to be fired.
and he tells this to Macworld UK???
How about some US reporters!!
@Gunboat Smith
Could you imagine what most parents would have done if they knew how badly their kids would have treated them when the little darlings became teenagers?
Get a life! Or were you perfect?
DanielM,
Good comeback!
However, raising kids is a labor of love and many mistakes are forgiven by both party. Though some people hold grudges for waaaaayyyy too long.
In the business world, there is money being exchanged and as such there is a responsibility to anticipate and deliver as promised.
What this CTO is basically saying: “We screwed up, but good luck getting your money back, suckers!”
Or to phrase it using your analogy:
“Hey kid, I know you are being a rebel right now but I’m your father, so you will get nothing AND like it.”
@ ragarcia
Thank you. But a little more:
re “In the business world, there is money being exchanged and as such there is a responsibility to anticipate and deliver as promised.”
So we hang our parents, President, teachers, ministers, our friends, etc. Even the Patriots, Yankees and 2004 Olympic Dream Team. Sounds like Nazi Germany, doesn’t it.
Or our teenagers are basically saying, “We are screwing up for the next few years, but good luck getting your life back.
I don’t think so.
Bottom line: Real easy to second guess, isn’t it.
Second guess my butt ! We damn well know that Apple staff sat down with AT&T;staff and told them what their sales expectations were. AT&T;should have anticipated the ramp up and planned accordingly. They had a track record with the first generation of iPhones. Their plan should have been to ramp up as sales volumes increased, but most importantly, AT&Ts;infrastructure should have been designed to handle the increase in traffic.
no duh!
The real American Telephone & Telegraph is long gone.
Cingular basically just bought the name…
Yet another fool who underestimated what Apple and Jobs could do.
@ Gunboat Smith:
Apple has sold FAR more iPhone 3Gs than the first model. Plus, with expectations on 3G speeds, more people could have been expected to use them. Simply looking at where 1st Gen iPhones were used does not determine where 3G iPhones will be used.
However, AT&T;should have planed for more demand. The number of iPhones and thus 3G usage is only going to increase, and AT&T;’s network is going to have to expand to cope.
This may be simply a manpower/time problem for AT&T;, but unfortunately it looks bad for both Apple and AT&T;.
So get your butts in gear AT&T;. Your hurting iPhone sales with your spotty crappy coverage.
Very good conversatioin.
I’m in bind, because, if you are going to keep comparing items of “passion” with business, then I have no way of swaying you.
I believe, we have passion for our sports teams, family (even our country’s leaders) that makes us ignore (for the most part) the calamities they put us through.
I also believe that because they are businesses, ATandT and Apple should not get that benefit from us.
There is no second guessing the fact that the 3G network should have been better prepared such as there is no second guessing that MobileMe should have been better prepared.
At least Apple extended our MobileMe accounts because they realized they were unprepared.
Is ATandT going to provide us with 3G credits even though they admit they are unprepared?
@Conspiracy
Re “and he tells this to Macworld UK??? How about some US reporters!!
Something wrong here. According to article, this comment came from the Goldman Sachs technology conference last week. which, however, was linked to a meeting actually held on February 27th, 2008.
I can’t confirm that there was another conference this year, and in particular last week anywhere.
I live in San Francisco and gotta admit that voice reliability of the 3G is FAR worse than that of the original iPhone…even after the 2.1 update (though that has helped a little). I understand SF is a hard terrain to cover with all our hills and buildings. But with so many iPhone users (not to mention bloggers) here you’d think AT&T;would get their shit together and focus on coverage here. In my neighborhood I get 0-2 bars on 3G and a solid 5 under Edge. This is not Apple’s fault. It is clearly AT&T;’s!!
And now you know why I’m still on Verizon. The features of the iPhone would be great, but AT&T is just too high a price to pay for them.
@DanielM
divorce them?
@ ichi
I suggested that to my son.
His response, “If there was such a thing as teenimony, I would.
Smart kid.
I defy anyone to have fully anticipated the Tsunami that is the iPhone.
The $100 million VC fund was oversubscribed very quickly. Internet browsing by smartphones of all types got swamped by what the iPhone has enabled. Companies who were never going to produce a platform specific web site have gone back on that because the iPhone is more than 90% of their browsing visitors. The forecasts that were used to guide business decisions by all concerned (Apple, AT&T;, O2, T-Mobile, Orange, etc. internationally) probably seemed dreamlike at the time they were first proposed. Yet with hindsight they were short of the mark. It is also no use saying that for 3G they should have learned from the 1st gen iPhone as the time it takes to do major network expansion is longer than a year end to end anyway. The follow through of that initial rush in summer 2007 will find its way into the delivered network coverage by maybe the end of this year and this years 3G iPhone release maybe sometime next year.
No matter how much money, decisions and resources you throw at some tasks they still cannot be completed any faster.
At the end of the day we have an awsome phone with real in your pocket mobile computing capabilities that is far more powerful than many desktop PC’s of little more than a decade ago. Enjoy the journey.
As for those who insist on trying to sue. Get a life. The defence that any corporation can use in these situations is one of best endeavour and reasonable anticipation and it is not hard to show they did that but that the market turned out to exceed even wild dreams. And that means they tried but it was beyond anticipated and so it ain’t their fault.
Lastly, at least this guy had the courage to admit that despite all efforts they did get it wrong. I would sooner have 1 executive who has that candour than 100 who fudge it up.
Goldman Sachs Tech Conference
Appropriate venue for this guy to admit ” ATT Unprepared “
Was it held on Wall Street ?
BC
the WORST service and customer service of ANY of the three cell carriers I’ve had over the last 8 years – BY FAR.
ATT more drops in more places, more lost calls, more disconnects – I swear the company is run by MSFT, it’s that bad.
@fenman
What the hell? Concise. Accurate. Dude, your analysis belongs on a professional page somewhere, not slumming down here at MDN.
(Just kidding, MDN. Love ya’.)
Do you think APPLE will wake up and get out of this relationship with AT&T;before it is too late? If they have sold this many phones with a bad carrier, how many would they sell if they made various versions like say for Verizons network? It seems to me that APPLE INC. is shooting themselves in the foot as far as how many customers they could have.
What fenman said.
Please, I am still pissed off at Verizon for passing on this in the first place.