Advertisement: Scratch proof your iPhone 4 with invisibleSHIELD.
“Nowhere is this more important than in the US, where the iPhone is available on just a single carrier—one that’s decidedly not the market leader,” Siracusa writes. “The only way for Apple to eliminate the distribution and marketing advantage currently enjoyed by Android is to make sure that everywhere an Android phone is for sale, there’s an iPhone sitting right next to it that will work on the same network.”
Siracusa writes, “Only then will Apple get a fair shot at selling based on the things it can actually control: the hardware and software of the phone itself. At that point, it can—and should—diversify its iPhone product line just like it did with the iPod in the last decade.”
Full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: We obviously agree with Siracusa:
“Google Android offers the same messy, inconsistent Windows PC ‘experience,’ but without any cost savings, real or perceived. Windows only thrived back in the mid-90s because PCs (and Macs) were so expensive; the upfront cost advantage roped in a lot of people, who were, frankly, ignorant followers who did what their similarly-ignorant co-workers and friends told them to do. Microsoft still coasts along on that momentum today.
The fact is: Apple’s iPhone [3GS] costs just $99 and the [iPhone 4] goes for only $199 in the U.S. with a 2-year plan. I’d call any Android device the ‘Poor Man’s iPhone,’ but you have to spend just as much, if not more, to partake in an increasingly fragmented and inferior platform. There’s no real reason to choose Android, people settle for Android. ‘I’d have bought an iPhone if Verizon offered them.'” Just look what’s happening in any country where iPhone is offered on multiple carriers. It’s a bloodbath.
Apple offers consistency to developers of both software and hardware. Just look at the vibrant third-party accessories market for iPhone vs. the Zune-like handful of oddball items for Android. If you make a case or a vehicle mount, does it pay to make 14 different Android devices that number under 1 million each, or to make one or two for what’s [over] 100 million iPhone/iPod touch devices? As Apple’s iPhone expands onto more and more carriers, Android’s only real selling point (‘I’m stuck on Verizon or some other carrier that doesn’t offer the iPhone’) evaporates.” – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, “iPhone isn’t the Mac, so stop comparing them,” December 22, 2009
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Adam S.” for the heads up.]
@ Chanson de Roland
Actually, Apple would have to make three phones. While AT&T and T-Mobile use the GSM standard, they have different bands for their 3G data.
@Chanson de Roland.
Well said my Friend, well said.
“One true voice of Reason”
September is right around the Corner. Magenta Baby !!!!!
You know the funny thing about all this iphone hype? 5 years ago none of it mattered. We as people think we are entitled to anything and everything. The problem is not Apple, Steve, AT&T, Google or Verizon, we as cumsomers are the
problem. As for me, I wish we could go back pre 80’s when we were not consumed by technology and people didn’t suck so bad. I have to go update my farmville account. Just remember you suck to
@Basil
The moment someone says “Apple needs to get its act together” they lose a lot of credibility. If one thing has been made clear over the last decade it’s that Apple clearly knows what they are doing. So let up on pretending you know more than they do.
@Chanson de Roland
Thanks for the word of the day.
Fungible: able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable
I have said it before, and it has proven to be true so far. Apple will not produce a CDMA iPhone. Until the other carriers deploy 4G, Apple will remain GSM only in the U.S., and that means AT&T and T-Mobile. If Apple was going to produce a CDMA iPhone, then it would have done so by now. At this point, it would be a waste of time with next generation wireless networks around the corner.
@ singidunum
> However, the idea that there are millions of people who WANT an iPhone, but don’t want AT&T is a fallacy.
You are asking the wrong question… That research result is based on asking a certain question; the question is probably something like, “If you want an iPhone, would you be willing to use ATT to get one?” And perhaps the number people unwilling to use ATT is “miniscule.” Does that mean Apple will NOT sell significantly more iPhones if there was a Verizon iPhone…?
We are talking about sales, not carrier preference. A significant number of would-be smartphone customers are not tech experts. Probably MOST are not. To them, an iPhone is just another type of smartphone. If they walk into a Verizon store, the salesperson is not going to sell them on an iPhone, because that’s not one of the available choices. Or even if they walk into an ATT Store, and there is a three-week waiting list for an iPhone 4, the salesperson is going to try to sell a model that is in stock. In either case, you can’t sell something that’s not in the store, and the customer wants to walk out with a smartphone and the salesperson wants to make that happen.
Therefore, having that iPhone in the store, as a visible (and immediately available) choice is very important. Giving those countless salespersons (as many as possible) more chances to sell a customer on iPhone is very important. Doing so WILL increase iPhone sales significantly; it’s common sense. So having a Verizon iPhone will increase iPhone sales significantly. BUT the only way to do it is to increase production rate so that there is FIRST no waiting list using the current distribution channels, and THEN increasing the number of distribution channels. Until that happens, Apple might as well continue with ATT as the only U.S. carrier.
@ C
You are a complete idiot.
The iPhone is better but it is now losing the numbers game. AT&T is a fucking joke and it’s killing them. In a perfect world apple would buy a carrier like Sprint and turn it into iWireless.
I can see it now: $99 a month get you unlimited everything (including data). B.Y.O.Phone or get an iPhone for $199 (with or without a contract). Build build LTE/3G into every iPod, iPad, iPhone, and Mac and offer unlimited data for each device for $99 for the first device and $24 each additional device. Example: You get and iPhone ($99/month) and an iPod touch ($24/month) and a MacBook ($24/month) which would make you monthly bill about $150 per month. Say you have a family: 4 iPhones + 1 iMac + 2 Macbooks + 3 iPod + 1 iPad… Monthly cost $350… not bad considering how many devices are constantly connected.
Steve, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile, T-Mobile please!
@chanson de Roland
I think you are Spot on regarding your analysis. Possibly T-mobile in Dec/Jan. As a happy T-mobile customer, that would certainly trip my trigger to get an Iphone.
@BAC
$350 a month? No way I can afford that. Many of us couldn’t. strike that, Most of us couldn’t. $350 a month for a ‘family plan for internet access is nuts.
So is it just me or are most people that make comments about cell phone providers complete idiots? Have any of you worked for a cell phone provider before? The reason AT&T sucks is the iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, great phone, but Apple is the reason AT&T sucks, AT&T isn’t why the iPhone sucks. I’ve worked as a RF engineer for Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, AT&T, and T-Mobile. The more network hungry your phone is the more your network is gonna suck.
Plus I gotta say most of the comments on here are the most retarted things i’ve ever heard…like the one about how windows is inferior to mac os? thing about it like this…if you are the big man on campus everyone else is gonna either hate you or wanna be friends with you right? That’s Microsoft, it’s not that there stuff is bad, it’s just that they have more people gunning for them. Apple is now turning into the new evil empire. Lots of those same hackers that wanted to hurt Microsoft now want to hurt Apple. Bottom line, the more money you make the more problems you have.
may i also add that i’m tired of carriers charging specifically for calling or texting… skrew it. why not just charge us for what it all really is? DATA!!!!
A data plan saying you have x amount of data for this month. use it however you will. Any carrier that implements this in partnership with apple on the iPhone will suddenly get sooo many people switching to it that all the other carriers will be forced to do the same…
I am eagerly waiting for the day.
I’ve never seen so many Apple fans in a panic, yet you all talk about wanting to destroy Android. Guess what?
Competition is a good thing! iPhone 4 was
the biggest upgrade ever.” Do you think that wasn’t because Android provides real competition? And the person who wrote this article who calls Android phones “increasingly fragmented and inferior platform” has no idea what he’s talking about. Pandering to the fanboys. Two-thirds of Android phone are 2.1 or 2.2. The compatibility problems are imagined. I wonder if you iPhone fans have ever even held an Android phone for longer than 2 seconds. You should try it, you just might like it.
Proud owner of a $529 unlocked Nexus One. (I wouldn’t trade it for anything.)
Many observers often like to point out that Apple has always and only been concerned with profitability over market share, and the money they are making off every iPhone is far more than LG, Sony, Nokia, or any of the other makers are per phone. Apple never compromised on their Macs for decades, and now the computer line has grown to e 3rd largest. Don’t expect Apple to expand to other carriers just for “market share”.
PS: and EVERYONE knows that the iPhone would destroy Droid sales if it came to Verizon though. People are “happy” with the Droid in my personal experience, but when asked, wished they had an iPhone, 3 out of 4 people asked. Some users may stick with Android now, but if the iphone does ever come to Verizon, Motorola is going to have a real tough sell ahead of them.
CDMA/TDMA carriers don’t deserve to be rewarded with getting the iPhone unless they upgrade or change their networks to the same technology used by most of the rest of the world.
CDMA/TDMA was chosen for North America as a form of protectionism of the handset market for makers like Motorola and Qualcomm, which have become laggards in the market. So not only did Motorola and Qualcomm attempt to stifle choice and competition, they didn’t even offer anything very good compared to what the rest of the world eventually got.
So DON’T give the iPhone to CDMA/TDMA carriers, make those damn carriers upgrade themselves to technology that allows their users to have choice, mobility (i.e., overseas roaming), and serious competition for handsets.
iPhone 5. October. Works everywhere.
Signed
Wishful
Chanson has it right.
Furthermore, the business case for developing a CDMA iPhone vs. continuing to sell all of the GSM iPhones that they can build is not particularly strong. If and when the available manufacturing capacity for the mainstream models begins to outstrip the current sales volume it might make more sense for Apple to put more effort into strengthening sales of the GSM iPhone outside of the US rather than developing and releasing a CDMA and/or multiband version that is likely to be bulkier, heavier and generally not as capable as the GSM model.
One way to make the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and all Macs even more enticing for customers outside of the US would be to secure the agreements that would make it possible to upgrade the iTunes store to make as many movies and TV shows available across as many borders as possible. People with a US-based iTunes account can rent and buy video anywhere, but people with Euro-based accounts can’t access them, even when they are in the US.
I realize that these restrictions are not Apple’s fault, but they are a hinderance to getting the maximum value from their products.
Well, some of us have been clamoring for Apple and T-Mobile to get together for 5 years now.
If they can make it happen in Deutschland, in “Old Europe”, then you’d think “New” USA would be able to catch up. AT&T and Verizon both leave much to be desired.
Apple definitely needs to release the iPhone on a second carrier in the USA, so that Americans can finally figure out what is a phone issue and what is carrier-related.
When I got my new iPhone in Australia, I was rather looking forward to trying out this “death grip” reception issue, but I couldn’t make it happen – the strength of the network service made it impossible…
Arse Tache as no business telling Apple what to do!