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I remember back in 2006 when everybody thought the phone manufacturers were doing the best they could as well. The CEO of Palm famously responded to rumors of t
by chc 14y ago
I remember back in 2006 when everybody thought the phone manufacturers were doing the best they could as well. The CEO of Palm famously responded to rumors of the iPhone:
> Responding to questions from New York Times correspondent John Markoff at a Churchill Club breakfast gathering Thursday morning, Colligan laughed off the idea that any company — including the wildly popular Apple Computer — could easily win customers in the finicky smart-phone sector.
> *“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
Turns out they really were just sitting on their laurels, and Apple really could walk in and eat their lunch.
Not disputing that running a carrier is a PITA. Just that the carrier market today really is competent and providing roughly the best value it can.
- bonzoesc 14y ago> Turns out they really were just sitting on their laurels, and Apple really could walk in and eat their lunch. Not really, Apple had been struggling for a few years to learn how to make a decent phone too, they just didn't release the ones that kind of sucked. AT&T (in its previous incarnations as Cingular, SBC, BellSouth, and AT&T) has spent the last twelve years trying to make a functional cell carrier, and it takes them over 70,000 employees to do so. I suspect that Apple's 60,000 employees aren't focused on carrier operations.