AT&T and Apple partnership in terminal decline?
By Jenny • Feb 16th, 2010 • Category: Industry News- Photo: Apple
The Mobile World Conference has brought with it revelations, allegiances and a veritable flood of new handsets. What has transpired in the wake of, or in the lead up to, the announcements is often unknown, and one cannot help but theorise how developments may be an indication of strained relationships.
Growing pains
- Photo: Apple
AT&T has long been the exclusive iPhone carrier in the US. The partnership has yielded a great deal of criticism since iPhone users, who tend to be heavy data consumers, felt the AT&T network wasn’t technologically capable of handling the demand placed on it. It has since been speculated that Apple was unhappy with AT&T for the same reasons iPhone users were. And, for these reasons, Apple would not renew its exclusive deal with AT&T once it expires.
AT&T and everybody else
AT&T has done nothing but fuel the fire on these claims at the Mobile World Conference. A premiere partnership with Microsoft and Windows Phone Series 7, as well as building its own app store to compete with Apple, will not make Steve Jobs and company happy. Either AT&T is hedging its bets, knows its time with Apple is limited, or is walking a precarious line, but what is clear is that, strategically, these moves undermine and offend their cash cow’s mobile strategy.
Apple’s response
- Photo: Apple
What is known is if the iPhone deal is due to end soon, the iPad deal has yet to begin since AT&T was announced the official 3G carrier in the US. Clearly, however, AT&T doesn’t consider itself and Apple exclusive. Perhaps Apple is secretly courting others, too.
Tags for this article: iPhone, Mobile World Conference
