APPLE SCREWS OVER AT&T

[Dottore]

Just buy the shares. You'll do much better and won't have to stand in line.

[12own911]

Hey Wayne, tell me how you like it... I won't buy until I hear how you like it...

[Scott R]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
Despite all the hype, and despite that fact that I will probably buy one, I think the commercial success of this phone will not be as great as Steve Jobs thinks it will be. He wants to sell 10 million of these within a year's time. That's about 28,000 per day. AT&T has about 1900 stores across the US, Apple has 160 stores. That's about qty 14 of the $600 phone each day in each store. Probably not very likely without some severe discounting in the near future...

-Wayne

That's not going to happen, for a business traveler like me this thing is useless. (and we buy the expensive phones) I can't get Exchange email, or use my corporate address book and calendar. Thanks, I'll pass.

Not to mention the fact that it appears to be seriously flawed. On the today show the host could not even accept a simple incoming call with a team of Apple reps at her side.

Nice product if your 16 and want to store all of your Brittney Spears videos on your phone.

[Spin City]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
.......That's about qty 14 of the $600 phone each day in each store. Probably not very likely without some severe discounting in the near future...

Then there's a little thing called the internet. I think you can buy things there too...

[Spin City]

Maybe I'm just a real oddball (could mother have been right? ) but I've bought my last 2 cell phones over the internet, and my wifes last 2 also.

[88cs]

I bought out the entire stock of a company that quit making cell phones, +- 3400 of them, and sold them all over the net in about two months. No warranty or support, except I did warranty against DOA and kept some to exchange anyone who had a real problem after some time even though I said I wouldn't. The funny thing is that amounted to five.

[nostatic]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
True, but how many cell phones get sold over the Internet? Probably zero until now...

-Wayne

you know some people say the same thing about car parts...

Wayne, tons of cell phones are sold over the net.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
All sold out on the 8GB model at all of the Apple stores - they only seem to have the sucky 4GB model in stock. Does anyone even want that one anyways?

-Wayne

Wait a few weeks then the 16 gig models will pop up in the stores and the prices on the 4 & 8 gig models will drop.

[HardDrive]

As Scott R stated above, they really need to get the tie in to MS Exchange working for it to get any kind of wide adoption with businesses. Its supposedly coming in the third quarter.

Its expensive. If its performance is good, and the supporting services are done well, then who knows? Perhaps it will make inroads with the business crowd. But thats a pretty big chunk of change for a device, and once the hype dies down, it will have to stand on its technical merits.

[widgeon13]

My understanding is that ATT agreed to "no branding" and they are the only carrier that would go along with this agreement, consequently they got the service contract by default. That doesn't sound like a happy family to me.

I'm confident Apple will continue to do well, they will quickly bring out new models and have the ability to correct flaws on the run, stock will continue to go up. Not sure I'd buy now, may wait for a split.

Can't personally see paying $600 for a smartphone but I guess a lot of folks have the cash. Going to be interesting to watch.

[stomachmonkey]

If you were Apple would you want AT&T staff or your own staff helping out the customers?

[Ronbo]

A couple of weeks ago AT&T said that the iPhone wasn't going to be available in *all* of their stores. There is a locator on their web site where you put in your zip code and it will show all the stores in your area that are selling the phone. It wasn't the case of Apple screwing AT&T.

[Scott R]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
It supposedly works with Exchange when you use IMAP?

-Wayne

That's fine, if you have IMAP enabled and you run a small business. The way you want this to work is you have a server that runs an Iphone application, that uses a mailbox in Exchange. This server then links to another server over the big I to apple or some place. This gives you security, hand held policy enforcement, and encryption. Without the security you can't really meet most places corporate compliance policies. I think they are a long way off on this from what they told us during the demo we had.

[island911]

Originally posted by stomachmonkey
If you were Apple would you want AT&T staff or your own staff helping out the customers?

Yeah, not only is the iPhone interface difficult, but the retail locations had the difficult job of taking money and handing the customer a box AND telling them to go find a computer to log on to itunes. THose early Apple zealots would surely need the extra attention only an Apple stor could give.

Seriously, that's pretty raw on apples part. The At&T store that I went by had 2 security guards and just a few campers. they seemed to be set-up for sales. .. I don't know if they recvd any phones or not.

[HardDrive]

IMAP is not a robust enough protocol for business users. Just sending and receiving mail is not sufficient.

The iphone would need to support the following to be used in my organization:

-Ability to accept policys, so that passwords policys can be enforced on the device.

-Ability to have mail pushed to the device from the server side.

-Ability to remotely wipe the device if lost or stolen (without calling AT&T).

[BGCarrera32]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
I think the commercial success of this phone will not be as great as Steve Jobs thinks it will be.

Agreed. Steve Jobs was also a backer of Dean Kamen's "Segway" scooter, claiming it would revolutionize transportation. Marketing talk is all it is...

Yahoo Finance had a poll yesterday asking if you would buy an iPhone. As of approx 21,000 votes when I checked... 87% said no.

[kstar]

Have any of you guys read the news today?

There have been some real gems posted here that will be nice to revisit in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.

Best,

Kurt

[nostatic]

I don't think Jobs put money in the Segway...he just was a proponent. There is a difference...

[on-ramp]

Originally posted by BGCarrera32
Agreed. Steve Jobs was also a backer of Dean Kamen's "Segway" scooter, claiming it would revolutionize transportation. Marketing talk is all it is...

Yahoo Finance had a poll yesterday asking if you would buy an iPhone. As of approx 21,000 votes when I checked... 87% said no.

$600 for the phone, required 2 year plan, setup cost, etc, etc...we're talking over 2K in the next 2 years .

and who really has that extra 2 grand lying around?

[notfarnow]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
True, but how many cell phones get sold over the Internet? Probably zero until now...

-Wayne

28% (and rising) of our company's cellphone sales are online.