Even the iPhone can't save you, AT&T.

Even Without iPhone, Verizon Is Gaining on AT&T

Synopsis: AT&T is losing its mobile market share, even w/ its exclusive contract with Apple/iPhone, Verizon zzz...  I am happy!!!!!


1) Okay, I can't remain impartial because of my personal experience with both AT&T mobile and AT&T U-Verse.  Regardless, I really really, like, really really really can't wait until AT&T goes out of business.  It's a dinosaur that should have been put out a long time ago.  Only factor that saved AT&T from its demise in the recent past was its exclusive contract with mobile hardware manufacturers (RIM/Blackberry, then Apple/iPhone).  Losing its market share even with the iPhone is a bad sign. 


The reception/antenna issue of iPhone4 is completely irrelevant to AT&T's loss of market share (Side note, the antenna issue was much ado about nothing.  I think it was blown out of proportion by the jealous herd attempting to knock Apple/Steve Jobs off their high horse.).  People still lined up out the door to get the iPhone4 despite of the issue being public knowledge, and since it had nothing to do with AT&T, the very few that actually might have returned/decided not to get one, they could've just kept/chosen a different phone out of AT&T's roster of hardware. 


One more tangent, I've been thinking about what makes Apple one of the few companies that can actually create demand for its products.  I think Apple is completely aware of the dichotomy in its products -- Apple: consumer product Vs. Apple: device that performs a set of functions.  It owns in catering toward "Apple: consumer product" (just watch their commercials) so much so that its ability to do that can overcome its shortcomings in "Apple: device that performs a set of functions."  That's why it sold the hell out of previous generations of iPhones despite the fact that its carrier was AT&T, that's why it sold the hell out of iPad despite the fact that no one knew what it was for, and that is why it sold/sells/will sell the hell out of iPhone4 despite the fact that its antenna sucks. 


2) 

• "Analysts estimate that Apple brings in an average of more than $650 for each iPhone sold. Consumers pay upward of $200, and AT&T subsidizes the rest. Verizon, on the other hand, pays far less than $300 for Android, BlackBerry and Palm phones, said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Brothers."

You can get an iPhone4 16GB at $200 -- AT&T is willing to pay whopping $450 to Apple a pop.  I think there was a Verizon promotion where you got a Droid for free if you either bought another Droid or an Incredible.  That means they actually lose money on moving hardware. 


They need to make up for the loss and then some from somewhere -- luckily for them, there is us giving them money every month.  I'd be curious to find out what the lifetime value of mobile service user is that mobile phone companies can maintain such a business model.  


3) GSM is the global standard.  CDMA is only used in the US.  I wonder whether Verizon shot itself on the foot in the long term if it has any aspirations of expanding its business overseas.  


Maybe this is a moot point altogether.  US is not the mobile industry leader.  Maybe an Asian or a European company will come to dominate the international mobile market.  Maybe the American companies realize that, and they're trying to turn as much profit as possible before the invasion begins.  Hey, AT&T has long been nickeling-and-diming us already.