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Ask HN: Why is Apple sticking with AT&T?
It seems as though the exclusive arrangement with AT&T has been holding back sales of iPhone and with the news that it's now limiting new features it's somewhat shocking that Apple isn't opening the doors to other carriers.
Assuming that Apple isn't stupid, why have they stuck to the exclusivity agreement?
- noodle 16y agoprobably because there's profit in exclusivity.
- byoung2 16y agoTo reach the biggest worldwide market, Apple has to stick with GSM. SIM cards make it easy to take your iPhone anywhere in the world, and embracing a standard like GSM makes it easy to sell to customers in Europe, Asia, and South America. If Apple left AT&T for Verizon or Sprint (leaving AT&T for T-Mobile would be a step backwards as far as networks go), they'd have to retool the iPhone for CDMA, and lock themselves into a market only used by a dozen or so countries. The alternative would be to have separate CDMA and GSM versions of the iPhone and iPad, or world versions with both CDMA and GSM, which would increase cost. As much as it pains iPhone lovers everywhere, AT&T makes the most sense for now
- runevault 16y agoEven if they didn't want to make CDMA version, they could still release it for TMobile AND AT&T, there's no reason they have to only be on one carrier in the USA.
- byoung2 16y agoIf you allow two carriers to sell your phone, they are eventually going to compete on price, driving the price (and profit) down. If Apple allowed both T-Mobile and AT&T to sell the iPhone for $199, people would make the comparison and see that AT&T has the better network (as scary as that sounds). T-Mobile would have to compete, and since it would cost billions to improve their network, their only real option is to sell the iPhone cheaper than the competition. so they offer the iPhone for $149. AT&T responds by lowering their price to $99 to compete with T-Mobile, and so on, and so on. By restricting the iPhone to one carrier, Apple only has to compete with itself (when it releases a new version).
- stonemetal 16y agoholding back sales of iPhone When has apple ever been about selling huge numbers of anything? Apple has always been about selling a small number of very expensive things. They stick with AT&T because it is the most profitable per unit sold thing to do. now limiting new features Apple has never been about selling great features, unless there was a compelling look at me scenario (just look at the history of graphics cards on Macs.)