“On the eve of its wide launch tomorrow, everyone is buzzing with talk about how great the iPad is. Reviews have all been raves, hundreds of thousands have been pre-sold, and lines are forming at Apple Stores,” Uncle Bell writes for AT&T Critic. “It seems everyone is excited and can’t wait to get their hands on iPads.”
“Well, everyone except AT&T. You would think that given most of its profits are due to its exclusive deal on the iPhone, and it has first crack at iPad 3G users thanks to a new deal with Apple, AT&T would be gushing about the device,” Bell writes. “You would think they would be touting it in advertisements, on their webpages, and in their stores. But no, what you hear from AT&T about what is likely be the biggest tech launch of the decade is: silence and crickets.”
Bell writes, “The silence is a lack of iPad announcements (like new apps) or special deals for loyal AT&T customers. (Okay, I know there aren’t any of those.) The cricket chirping came from AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson who went out of his way to dismiss the iPad as be primarily a wi-fi device. This with hardly a ‘but it’s nice, too’ comment. In fact, he almost sounded like he was pouting about how the iPhone is better. Given the way AT&T is acting, you’d almost think they fear and hate the iPad. Well, they do. And they should. Here’s five reasons why:”
1. It’s Unlocked.
2. It’s Going to be a Traffic Monster.
3. It works better with Wi-Fi.
4. No contract.
5. It’s an iPhone Replacement.
Uncle Bell writes, “All an all, the iPad isn’t good news for AT&T. But it might be good news for it’s abused customers.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Give AT&T a break, Uncle Bell; they’re too busy to notice iPad because they’re fast asleep, er… hard at work on iPhone tethering (“coming soon” for the last two and a half years now).
questioning my decision to wait….
Hopefully, there are competitive alternatives just over the Verizon.
ruprecht,
You keep that cork on that fork now, you hear?
Yes… I guess the next step is an iPhone that is used with a no-contract monthly pre-paid service, that can be used with any compatible wireless network service. It further relegates the wireless carriers to just providing the pipes, while putting Apple front and center with the customers (and the profit potential).
As an initial step, I’d like to see an iPod touch model that has 3G like an iPad, but was not technically a “phone.” Same no-contract data deal as iPad. Basically a mini iPad.
Bull pucky from a hit whore.
Haha cork on fork
that brought me back a little
I agree. I’ve been a loyal Att customer for ever and I am looking elsewhere for options on the iPad i.e. Mifi etc. I ask Att today about tethering and they told me Apple is the hold up on the iPhone tethering.
I could get a regular phone and tether the iPad to it and forget the iPhone and Att.
@ Mark
The iPad will not tether to anything.
@ Fred Mertz,
Hi! Thanks for all the MDN articles. I’ll be you’re responsiblle for more MDN articles than Fred Mretz posts.
Al
Guess who can’t spell responsible.
@MDmac
If a phone has WiFi then the iPad will connect to it.
Thank you think? Att seems to have the same near sided problem not realizing this either. The iPad has a lot of “tethering” options.
@Mark II
lack of tethering us certainly no Apple’s fault, despite what ATT says. Tethering works just fine for those of us on other carriers around the world.
Think about it.
Worse thing that AT&T;could do right now is say anything about the iPad.
AT&T;knows why and so does Apple.
ruprecht, “Mother?”
Caine, “No Ruprecht, Not Mother”.
. . . “Excuse me, may I go to the bathroom first?”
Priceless and soon on my iPad.
I’m SO tired of running OS 3.0 to keep my tethering alive. Come on already AT&T;!!! Hell, Verizon will have the iPhone before AT&T;gives us tethering!!!
@ Think
Re “If a phone has WiFi then the iPad will connect to it.”
My iPhone has Wi-Fi and according to the man himself, the iPad will not be able to tether to it.
Stupid article.
One, the launch tomorrow is the wifi iPad. Nothing to do with AT&T;.
Two, Apple advertises the iPhone, not AT&T;, that’s part of the deal. It’s highly likely that Apple will advertise the iPad, not AT&T;, that would be consistent, especially given that the iPad is NOT locked to one carrier, though it’s unlikely to work very well on T-Mo, the only other GSM carrier in the US.
<<MDmac
@ Mark
The iPad will not tether to anything.>>
One of us is confused, and I’m hoping it’s you and not me. When Steve gave his terse answer about tethering, I thought he was referring to other devices tethering TO the iPad. Why? Cause the iPad 3G plan is the best thing going. No contract, $30 unlimited.
Now, since the iPad uses wifi-N to connect to the net, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be able to connect to my home wifi network, to the one in Starbucks, to the mifi signal, to someone’s 3G phone, to my Macbook with wifi internet sharing on.
Since the iPhone does not YET, allow tethering, the iPad won’t be able to connect to it, but it should be able to connect to everything else that is broadcasting a wifi signal.
KenC nailed it. ATT isn’t about to advertise a device whose initial release doesn’t even access their network, and they have never been able to advertise the iPhone because Apple wants to control all that. It’ll be no different for the iPad.
<<>MDmac
My iPhone has Wi-Fi and according to the man himself, the iPad will not be able to tether to it.>
Uhm, you are confused. Your iPhone uses wifi to connect to routers. It is not SHARING its wifi to other devices.
Other phones that do allow sharing of its wifi, aka tethering, will allow the iPad to connect.
Re Tethering
With all the reviews posted in the last two days and not one person mentioned a thing about it. Not even Macworld.
A conspiracy perhaps. But nary a whisper. Don’t think so.
My iPhone has Bluetooth, on the Rogers network in Canada I can use Tethering. The iPad has Bluetooth are you saying that Apple will not allow me to connect my iPad (when it becomes available in Canada) to my iPhone using that Bluetooth link? Or is it that the iPad can not Tether to iPhone currently because AT&T;is not supporting it?
Maybe ATT is waiting for the 3G iPad, which isn’t being released for another few weeks. The current iPad is WiFi only.
The iPad is many things, but an iPhone replacement it isn’t. What a ridiculous thing to say. At home, perhaps, where most people don’t use their cell phones (despite the growing popularity of cell-only households), iPad owners can make VoIP calls; but you can already do that with Skype (and other) iPhone apps.