I think the article, AT&T Chief Isn't Worried About Losing IPhone Exclusivity, makes a good point about why the AT&T chief says that he is not extremely worried about losing customers once the company loses iPhone exclusively. It was a good strategy, on AT&T's part, to exclusively offer the iPhone when it first came out because that made a lot of people switch to AT&T. Once people switched they were then convinced to sign long term contracts with family and business plans, which will prevent some customers from immediately switching service providers. In fact, this is why my family won't be switching service providers anytime soon.
Even with these long term contracts that the CEO, Randall Stephenson, talks about, I can't believe that he is not at all concerned about eventually losing users to other networks. Because, eventually, all of those contracts will expire as well. I think that although there may not be an instant loss of users, overtime as the contracts expire AT&T will see a major loss of customers to other networks, unless AT&T improves their customer service and can continue to compete on price.
I agree that there will be a long-term impact in this. My family has Verizon, so I have never been able to get an Iphone. I tried to convince a switch to AT&T so I could get one, but then I heard that they would no longer have exclusivity of the Iphone. So, now I can wait until that day comes to get an Iphone.
ReplyDeleteAT&T is better for 3G service in big cities, but Verizon has better coverage in less populated areas. Since I am an outdoorsman, this is important to me. When my friends and I go to hunting camps or fishing camps, my phone is always used by those with AT&T service (since they don't ever have a signal.) Therefore, I think that AT&T should definitely be worried about losing some of their customers once their exclusivity ends, since Verizon can offer better service in certain areas.
I think that's great. iPhone's exclusivity with any network operator doesn't seem to be something that was meant to linger on anyway. Everyone wants Steve Jobs's latest gadget, so let's give it to the people, right? In any case, consumers can only benefit from such a turn of events (except for the poor souls that decided to stay with AT&T “forever” only to have the iPhone).
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