Does anyone remember the failed ROKR phone? Cingular was the carrier on that deal. No one bought it, I never heard about it once after Job's keynote that year. I think Apple may have signed a deal with Cingular for the iPhone because they were either contractually obligated (from the days of ROKR), or they felt guilty for their last flop. Either way, I agree with most that locking your new buzz-worthy device down to a single carrier was most likely a bad idea. Maybe Apple couldn't have just introduced the iPhone on another carrier for reasons I am not aware of, but it would have been so much better if they had. Did Apple's misdelivery on the ROKR get them in hot water with Cingular? I can't them making this decision unless there was a darn good reason for it that involved obligation. Steve Jobs and crew has to know that Cingular isn't the greatest out there. I hope. I guess now I will be holding my breath until the Cingular-only deal is up, or perhaps I will wait for another device that is similar instead. At least now everyone in the phone business has the bar set much higher to develop their own iPhone clone. If someone were to come out with a full version of Firefox on a mobile device, that would be worth buying.
Tags: apple, cingular, firefox, hardware, iphone, ipod, news
Facebook Plunges Again
Tumblr 101: Tips And Tricks To Get Started
Comments
25
Subscribe to commentsJINXJan 19th 2007 1:17PM
I think the reason cingular got the iPhone is because Verizon & Sprint both have their own music download services that are intended to compete with iTunes. Since the iPhone won't allow direct downloads, they wouldn't operate well with the networks' own services.
Big GFeb 5th 2007 8:49PM
Why they went with Cingular I don't know. However, Steve Jobs apparently made Cingular change their infrastructure to work with their Visible Voicemail thing.
SteveJan 21st 2007 12:04AM
@Simon Wakefield: That's exactly the reason. Cingular redesigned their voicemail system to accommodate the iPhone and agreed to the terms sight unseen of the final product.
Nikolay KolevJan 19th 2007 11:57PM
First, the prices $499 and $599 might be available only with a new contract, so, I don't think that having the biggest customer base is a good think (if you're already out of contract, switching to the iPhone carrier will in fact be cheaper and having the largest customer base means that more people will have to pay higher price.) Second, give me a break - to reinvent the phone and use EDGE, which is not even available everywhere! Third, Apple is not the first manufacturer of a touch screen phone - LG is! Fourth, based on Jobs comments, iPhone platform will be available for Apple-only software - something that's proven to be in contrast with customer demand.
Team CellswapperJan 20th 2007 6:38PM
And what if you are stuck under contract with a carrier OTHER than Cingular but still want a iPhone?
http://www.Cellswapper.com - get out of any cell phone contract with no early termination fees!