AT&T looking to carry the iPhone into 2011

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Back at Macworld 2007 we all remember Jobs huge announcement regarding the release of the iPhone in an exclusive partnership with AT&T (Formerly known as Cingular). However the exclusive deal to be the only carrier to carry the iPhone in the United States is set to expire sometime next year. What kind of damage could this do to the company if the contract isn't renewed with Apple?

When the iPhone made its debut in June of 2007, the company added 146,000 new subscribers during the first two days it offered the iPhone. Today there are over 17 million iPhones around the world, with the majority in the U.S. through AT&T. In the second half of 2008 the company is said to have added an additional 4.3 million iPhone subscribers, which about 40% were new to AT&T according to the Wall Street Journal.

So it is safe to say that out of the 77 million wireless customers that AT&T has a decent chunk of them have a mobile plan tied with their iPhone. It is no surprise that AT&T is looking to crunch the numbers seeing as though landlines are becoming redundant as families across the nation look to spend less money. "We have 77 million wireless customers and 30 million consumer phone lines. Which customer base would you rather work from? We tend to come at this backwards." said CEO Randall Stephenson.

What do you think, should Apple tie the knot with AT&T again or push the device on to other carriers? Vote in our poll below.

(4 replies) #1 lotus22 on 15 Apr 2009 - 11:37

It's better for Apple if the don't. However, on the other hand, it's better for AT&T if they do.

#1.1 McDave on 15 Apr 2009 - 11:51

It's better for consumers if they don't.

#1.2 dimithrak on 15 Apr 2009 - 17:30

McDave said,

If you saying verizons better.. thats not true at all

#1.3 DSLJay on 15 Apr 2009 - 21:22

dimithrak said,

I wouldn't say that. Verizon does have it's good points about it. I honestly think the IPhone would do good on the Verizon network. The only reasons I didn't get the IPhone was because it was on ATT and no removable battery.

#1.4 Chris-Gonzales on 15 Apr 2009 - 23:17

just because you have issues with ATT doesnt mean ATT is bad. may be your just a bad customer.

(2 replies) #2 +primortal on 15 Apr 2009 - 11:55

If Apple whats more users of the iPhone, they need other carriers besides AT&T. AT&T knows their days are numbers with the iPhone.

Hopefully Apple will announce a partnership with Verizon Wireless in June

#2.1 bdsams on 15 Apr 2009 - 12:23

Apple knows what it is doing now, its not a matter of if but when, they jump ship and allow VZW to have acess they will have a massive new market..they will wait till sales level off on AT&T then goto VZW for a massive boost in sales

#2.2 dimithrak on 15 Apr 2009 - 17:31

primortal said,

That will never happen.. I seriously doubt after the got the Blackberry storm on their line up... and Verizon isn't all that great...

(7 replies) #3 AEDan1977 on 15 Apr 2009 - 12:17

I think this is great for AT&T, I dont see apple opening up to verizon unless they redesign the technology of the iPhone for exclusive use because AT&T and the rest of the world all use GSM so it is easy for apple to sell to AT&T and the iPhone overseas, they would need to make another entire model just for Verizon if they were to have it that is CDMA.

Also Neowin... update that AT&T logo lol that one hasn't been used in forever. Here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~awm22/research/pic/att_logo.jpg

#3.1 bdsams on 15 Apr 2009 - 12:24

AEDan1977 said,

VZW has 80 million reasons why Apple may make a CDMA iPhone, add sprint in there too...also there are more countries than the US that use CDMA

#3.2 stooley on 15 Apr 2009 - 13:05

bdsams said,

Exactly. It is not like the investment into CDMA would not make a profit and with these current economic conditions....any company could stand to make a little extra money. Everyone says it is a waste of time, but if you can make millions off of something...is it really a waste of time?

#3.3 episode on 15 Apr 2009 - 13:09

Sprint is going to be out of business before it matters.

#3.4 profets on 15 Apr 2009 - 13:24

by the time the current contract expires i'm sure apple will have been researching or possibly developing a 4G LTE based iphone which it seems all carriers will be moving to

#3.5 rafter109 on 15 Apr 2009 - 14:15

profets said,

Sprint will not be using LTE, their 4G is based on Wi-Max. They are the first provider with 4G service which is currently only available in Baltimore, MD.

[edit] It is rather obvious that LTE will be the most pervasive 4G technology. I believe wholeheartedly that Apple would be foolish to continue to offer their phones exclusively with one carrier. Apple has a chance at inciting a price war between cariers which could increase consumer demand for their phones. Oh, wait, I forgot that this is Apple we are talking about. They will probably continue to offer the phone exclusively with one carrier just like they offer their operating system exclusively on their hardware. Way to go idiots.

#3.6 roadwarrior on 15 Apr 2009 - 14:41

In the US, the only two nation-wide carriers that use GSM are AT&T and T-Mobile. Unless Apple comes out with a version of the iPhone based on some other technology (or some of the other carriers convert to GSM), there really isn't much choice for Apple to expand to other carriers.

#3.7 profets on 15 Apr 2009 - 15:02

rafter109 said,

i know Sprint is using wimax, but i really dont think it will be able to compete with LTE in the long run, especially when you see that nearly all carriers probably go toward LTE, the 2 big cdma carriers in canada will go LTE, verizon will go LTE.. i'd have to assume all gsm carriers are going LTE

(1 reply) #4 eblkheart on 15 Apr 2009 - 14:59

As a iPhone user and a longtime AT&T subscriber (going on 12 years), I hope it stays. I'm very pleased with both.

#4.1 dimithrak on 15 Apr 2009 - 17:33

(1 reply) #5 DanielZ on 15 Apr 2009 - 15:32

AT&T will die as soon as the iPhone is taken away from them. Good riddance, too. Their service is extremely poor in the Long Island area, and 3G speeds are unheard of. If only Apple went with Verizon... they're a perfect match. Both of them overprice everything, and both claim to be the best.

#5.1 dimithrak on 15 Apr 2009 - 17:33

DanielZ said,

Never gonna happen.. keep dreaming!

(3 replies) #6 JayZJay on 15 Apr 2009 - 17:19

I'm not a current Verizon user, but my parents grew up and live in Kentucky. When all of the ice storms, etc went thru a couple of months ago, they were without power for 3 weeks. Some families just recently got power (about 8 weeks later). Verizon was the only cell phone company that maintained service because they had generators for the towers. AT&T didn't, not at least in the area where my parents live in Western KY.

Also, I've always heard that Verizon's EVDO data network is the best, at least of the big companies.

I would like to get an iPhone, but I really don't want one with AT&T. If the iPhone opens up to Verizon, then I'll be all over it.

#6.1 dimithrak on 15 Apr 2009 - 17:34

Get a hacked iPhone.. stop whinning..

#6.2 metro on 15 Apr 2009 - 20:51

GSM and CDMA = not the same tech. How do you expect a hacked GSM iPhone to work on a CDMA network?

#6.3 dimithrak on 16 Apr 2009 - 19:50

metro said,

Well I never suggested he use it with Verizon now did i? If you want it so badly.. you gotta give up certain things.. However, AT&T is still better than Verizon..

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