AT&T is downplaying the impact of both Verizon and Sprint getting the iPhone 5. CEO Randall Stephenson told analysts the effect on the original U.S. iPhone carrier is “always overblown.” Instead, Stephenson said he was “very confident that we’ll do well” against the two CDMA carriers.
Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference, Stephenson said the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS are AT&T’s top-selling handsets. “I think we’ll do very well with” the iPhone 5, he said. The GSM carrier is also not relying totally on the iPhone for its sales — 40 percent of smartphones AT&T sells are now either Android or BlackBerry.
AT&T still has options unavailable to CDMA iPhones, Sephenson contends. He believes the GSM iPhone from AT&T is the only truly global iPhone, although Verizon has said the iPhone 5 will be dual-mode permitting its subscribers to roam freely with the addition of a SIM card and special plan. Stephenson also pointed to his carrier’s HSPA+ network as providing “much faster network capability” the rivals’ iPhones that likely will be 3G-only.
But Stephenson also sees a third platform appearing, giving carriers a choice beyond either Apple or Android. He described Microsoft Windows Phone as a “significant and meaningful player,” while also calling embattled RIM as still “viable.”
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
11 responses to “AT&T CEO: Threat from Verizon, Sprint iPhone 5 ‘Overblown’”
Too bad AT&T’s service sucks. // begin ranting //
Stephenson also pointed to his carrier’s HSPA+ network as providing “much faster network capability” the rivals’
—He forgot about Verizon’s LTE opps.
The same thing they are trying to roll out
Except the next iPhone probably won’t support LTE. In a year LTE will be relevant in regards to the iPhone.
I have always had better service with AT&T than I did with Verizon, I swathed when the iPhone 3G came out and have not been disappointed in all my manybtravels including overseas.
I have always had better service with AT&T than I did with Verizon, I swathed when the iPhone 3G came out and have not been disappointed in all my manybtravels including overseas.
Who else in NYC has gotten like 20 pieces of junk mail in the past two months alone from AT&T, begging it’s customers to stay?
Such a waste of resources that could be used towards improving the still shit service.