More AT&T Fail for Apple

[Zebo]

Apple's chic new smart phone clearly has iPhone fans abuzz. Apple said it sold 600,000 iPhones on Tuesday, vastly outpacing its sales of earlier models. The deluge was 10 times as many orders as AT&T fielded this time last year for the iPhone 3GS, and the company shut down sales Wednesday because it's already run out of inventory. Pre-orders, which had initially been scheduled for June 24 delivery, are now only guaranteed to arrive by July 14.

Though all of that should be good news for Apple, it was far from sunshine and roses on Tuesday. AT&T couldn't handle the stampede of pre-orders, and online and over-the-phone ordering returned frustrating error messages and busy signals. Many early-bird customers who showed up at retail stores had their information taken down on paper, which AT&T entered into the system manually after the systems were back online.
0:00 /1:32iPhone 4 orders collapse into chaos

To make matters worse, several customers complained that when they logged onto their AT&T accounts to check their eligibility for an iPhone upgrade, they found that they were logged into another user's account instead. A number of customers said they were able to view other subscribers' personal information on Tuesday.

AT&T is steadfastly refusing to comment on those allegations. And while Apple apologized Wednesday for the pre-order problems, no one at AT&T has uttered the words "we're sorry."

http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/16/technology/att_apple/

When Apple finally puts its phone on another carrier in the United States, experts say AT&T will be in for a shock: As many as 40% of AT&T's iPhone customers will leave for Verizon once the network gets the iPhone, analyst Drake Johnstone of Davenport & Co. forecasts.

Many pundits think that's why AT&T allowed users to upgrade early to the new iPhone. By locking customers into a fresh two-year contract, the company may be softening the blow of frustrated customers churning off its service.

 

[rival]

So apple gets ETF's on 40% of their accounts, shame.

1. how much extra free publicity is this iPhone4 getting by having AT&T's networks fall flat on their face during pre-orders? Its all over the news.

"omg so many ppl wanted the phones the internet blew up, now i want one"

2. security breech just adds more publicity, take off your tin foil hat and relax

avg cost of iphone x 600k = $ x monthly fee = into at&t's pocket, i dont think apple or at&t care

 

[TheWart]

So apple gets ETF's on 40% of their accounts, shame.

1. how much extra free publicity is this iPhone4 getting by having AT&T's networks fall flat on their face during pre-orders? Its all over the news.

"omg so many ppl wanted the phones the internet blew up, now i want one"

2. security breech just adds more publicity, take off your tin foil hat and relax

avg cost of iphone x 600k = $ x monthly fee = into at&t's pocket, i dont think apple or at&t care

Uh, something tells me that the iPhone would already be in the news without the bad publicity of AT&T's network crumbling.

That sounds like the people that think Apple intentionally leaked the Gizmodo prototype...🙄

 

[Zebo]

So apple gets ETF's on 40% of their accounts, shame.

1. how much extra free publicity is this iPhone4 getting by having AT&T's networks fall flat on their face during pre-orders? Its all over the news.

"omg so many ppl wanted the phones the internet blew up, now i want one"

2. security breech just adds more publicity, take off your tin foil hat and relax

avg cost of iphone x 600k = $ x monthly fee = into at&t's pocket, i dont think apple or at&t care

Um A lot of people steer clear of AT&T and want the iPhone. I have a friend who owns a carpet store who dropped AT&T due to dropped calls, missed calls and such. He said "best phone ever but AT&T sucks" his business depends on reliable contacts. AT&T exclusivity is hurting Apple and weekly screw ups just compound the hurt. If you think Apple makes a dump truck load full of money now - just wait until AT&T's stranglehold is released and all major carriers offer iPhone. I think any CEO wants more money no matter how well they are doing.

 

[Zebo]

Yeah lets intentionally look like tards that will sell it.🙄

 

[Kadarin]

We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company.

 

[rival]

Yeah lets intentionally look like tards that will sell it.🙄

i'm probably just jaded because i use about 12 minutes of talk time a month. at&t's coverage is spotty but without being able to compare myself, i cant really judge

 

[KeithP]

So apple gets ETF's on 40% of their accounts, shame.

No, the contract is between AT&T and its customer(s). AT&T sets prices and fees. If you break the contract with AT&T, AT&T gets the early termination fee.

-Keith

 

[Zebo]

i'm probably just jaded because i use about 12 minutes of talk time a month. at&t's coverage is spotty but without being able to compare myself, i cant really judge

Agree T is garbage where I live too. I use sprint, well Boost CDMA with a flashed Sprint phone which is on sprint network and I talk a lot. CDMA Boosting is a backdoor secret in getting unlimited Sprint everything for $50 instaed of $100. Not that you care at 12 minutes/mo😛 Your Pre paid card probably expires before U use it.

 

[saratoga172]

I for one welcome the migration of people to Verizon. Everyone will then see that Verizon's network isn't as grand as everyone is making it out to be. I guarantee you that if Verizon were the sole iPhone provider it too would be having network problems. Top it off with the fact that when people migrate, I will have even better AT&T service, which is already pretty damn good.

I'll just close with saying that until I got an iPhone I rarely if ever had network problems. I had in a little over 2 years maybe 5-10 dropped calls. It is most certainly an iPhone issue compounding a minimal problem. Apple even admitted it by announcing their new antenna on the iPhone 4.

 

[Zebo]

I for one welcome the migration of people to Verizon. Everyone will then see that Verizon's network isn't as grand as everyone is making it out to be. I guarantee you that if Verizon were the sole iPhone provider it too would be having network problems. Top it off with the fact that when people migrate, I will have even better AT&T service, which is already pretty damn good.

I'll just close with saying that until I got an iPhone I rarely if ever had network problems. I had in a little over 2 years maybe 5-10 dropped calls. It is most certainly an iPhone issue compounding a minimal problem. Apple even admitted it by announcing their new antenna on the iPhone 4.

With 600,000 first day pre orders, 4x previous record, and many more to come I say June 24 AT&T dies. You're right in a way iPhone has swamped T's capacity and no other carrier could handle it alone either. But really Apple, hell all phone makers in USA, need to stop with the exclusivity and offer phones on all networks to prevent catastrophe. It's probably the carriers doing, bastards. Land of the free indeed. Anyway T's best feature is for international travelers I think which many apple buyers are due to high income. T is the only carrier which uses international GSM standards. With the rest you're locked into only talking in USA.

 

[Pliablemoose]

LOL Zebo, you're right, activation day will be a mess for ATT. Can you imagine them bringing 1/2 million+ devices on board the same day?

 

[ViRGE]

LOL Zebo, you're right, activation day will be a mess for ATT. Can you imagine them bringing 1/2 million+ devices on board the same day?

I'd expect it to be just like the 3G launch in 2008: A disaster until the early evening at the earliest.

 

[saratoga172]

Couldn't agree with you more zebo. Apple should let each carrier have a chance for it then we wouldn't be hearing about all the problems with any carrier.

It'll be interesting to see how swamped atts network gets launch day. Also remember there are a lot of those people that will be simply switching from their old phone to the new iPhone. So not all will be added phones. It'll still be hell though. I might be enjoying the day on edge which never seems affected. I also work all day so I won't need my phone until late evening.

 

[Paperlantern]

I too am anticipating the iPhone on Verizon, I have an iPhone and am on att through my employer, but the wife is on Verizon. She was jonesing for an iphone before she got her droid phone. Now its kind of just an "it would be nice" kind of thing since the droid phone is MUCH better than the garbage Storm she had prior. But she will probably still get an iphone after shes up for a new phone come end of next year, and the 4g iphone will be affordable by that time, and perhaps even have a 5th gen iphone out by then.

 

[Zebo]

I too am jonesin for a new iPhone. The retro/modern industrial design on this one finally sucked me in. My wife had the original and GS now and I got in an order for her on the new phone. Can't wait to live vicariously but I'll never use T until they get their shit together. I actually get angry when talking to her and line goes dead - try and call back and goes immediately to VM. I don't need this stress when I talk to everyone.

Oh and pliable - 600,000 is just first day. A first day marred by technical difficulties and still sold 600,000.

To put this number in perspective. Motorola sold 250,000 droids in the first WEEK of launch. Sprint sold 150,000 Evos in the first weekend of launch.

Apple sold 600,000 preorders in less than one day- expect millions by June 24.

Evo owners are returning Evo's for poor battery life, imagine when you can't talk on your new shinny iphone.🙂

 

[ViviTheMage]

Good ol AT&T hate thread.

Got my pre-order in on pre-order day without many problems, yeah it was slow ... but it was expected.

 

[AMDZen]

LOL Zebo, you're right, activation day will be a mess for ATT. Can you imagine them bringing 1/2 million+ devices on board the same day?

How many are simply going from one iPhone to the new one though? Just throwing a number out there, but if 60% of the people who bought the iPhone4 to be delivered June 24th already have an iPhone (2G, 3G or 3GS) then the strain is not as bad as it seems.

I don't think 60% is all too unrealistic either. Everyone I know who got in on the pre-order for June 24th delivery already have an iPhone. And how many of the other 40% already have an AT&T phone? 20%? Thats 20% actual new devices

Not nearly as big a deal as you are envisioning

 

[AMDZen]

I'd expect it to be just like the 3G launch in 2008: A disaster until the early evening at the earliest.

That was because of the servers processing that data and transferring #'s to new devices, that will still happen this time around - but the network itself isn't going to be hugely impacted based off what I said above.