AT&T

AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson seemed to have many things to say about the iPhone at a wireless industry conference earlier this week (full video below). In a talk that resembled this Fake Steve Jobs satire, the New York Times reports that Stephenson was upset that high-volume smartphone users were costing the carrier so much that the lower-volume users had to subsidize their usage. Stephenson said that unlimited data for the iPhone was a mistake: “My only regret was how we introduced pricing in the beginning, because how did we introduce pricing? Thirty dollars and you get all you can eat.” AT&T discontinued its unlimited data plan in 2010 and moved to a pricey tiered data plan, which it has since reprised and restructured. The plans paid off, because the company earned a whopping $6.1 billion in revenue during Q1 alone. Over 70 percent of the smartphones that AT&T activated last quarter were iPhones.

The CEO also had a bit to say about Apple’s iMessage that introduced in iOS 5. iMessage offers iPhone users free text messages while on Wi-Fi, which—of course—takes away from AT&T. The CEO said he is losing sleep:

“You lie awake at night worrying about what is that which will disrupt your business model. Apple iMessage is a classic example. If you’re using iMessage, you’re not using one of our messaging services, right? That’s disruptive to our messaging revenue stream.”

Stephenson apparently did not lose any sleep over the failed T-Mobile merger that cost his company $4 billion and some very important spectrum. For what it is worth, Sprint said it is sticking with its unlimited data plans, even if the new iPhone has LTE. Interestingly, Sprint still does not carry an iPad of any sort.

Stephenson also relayed the story of the initial meeting with Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs:

Expand
Expanding
Close

AT&T is still the “iPhone network,” according to numbers  from its quarterly earnings report. AT&T sold 5.5 million smartphones in the quarter, but 4.3 million of the smartphones activated were iPhones. That means the iPhone represented a whopping 78 percent of total smartphone sales (although some “iPhone activations” could have been hand me downs). Additionally, AT&T’s postpaid customers are almost 60 percent smartphone customers, which means AT&T’s iPhone customers represent a huge percentage of its base—nearly 5o percent and growing.

Verizon announced numbers last week including 3.2 million iPhones sold. While the iPhone is down significantly from the holiday quarter, it is up from 3.6 million activations in Q1 2011. Apple’s earnings will be reported at the end of the day today.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Weiphone’s Hacker Loktar_Sun just unearthed how to unlock an iPhone—including the iPhone 4S.

To complete Weiphone’s step-by-step unlock tutorial, the latest version of iTunes and a jailbroken iPhone is required. For those unaware, unlocking is the process of modifying an iPhone’s software so that it can operate through carriers other than its official carrier in a given country. Also, a jailbroken iPhone simply means it is freed from the limitations imposed by Apple for safety measures.  In other words, continue at your own risk.

The following process is straightforward for anyone familiar with unlocked or jailbroken iPhones:
Expand
Expanding
Close

PC World tested 3G and 4G wireless data transfer speeds for the top four carriers —both indoors and outside with multiple devices across 13 major cities in 130 testing locations— and discovered some surprising results.

During average wireless speed tests for 3G networks with the smartphones pictured below, T-Mobile took home the fastest download and upload speed prize at 3.84 Mbps and 1.44 Mbps, respectively. AT&T landed the No. 2 spot with its 2.62 Mbps download speed and 0.85-Mbps upload speed.

The slower 3G network provider reclaimed its pride and rose to fame with its 4G wireless speeds, however. AT&T garnered 9.56 Mbps while downloading and 5.15 Mbps for uploads. Verizon debuted at second with its 7.35 Mbps download speed and 5.86 Mbps upload speed.

The overall winners are named below.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Although Nokia may or may not be having some success in the United States with its heavy Lumia 900 marketing campaign under AT&T, it does not appear to have made any headway on its home turf in Europe. AT&T will give you $50 to take one of its Lumia 900 phones in the United States, but it has already fallen off the Best Selling list at Amazon.

Yesterday, the credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded Nokia’s debt to near junk level citing a “sharp decline in first-quarter cell phone sales that led to a 35 percent fall in revenue.” Standard & Poor’s announced a similar downgrade in March. Nokia’s share prices plunged another 20 percent in recent days on news that it would not come close to its forecasts.

Things do not seem to be looking up, either. Reuters talked to four European carriers that said Nokia phones simply could not compete with Apple’s iPhone and the Android devices already available.

“No one comes into the store and asks for a Windows phone,” said an executive in charge of mobile devices at a European operator, which has sold the Lumia 800 and 710 since December

When the Nokia 900 launched, we asked: “What question does the Lumia 900 answer? Why would you buy a Lumia over an iPhone or Android device?”
Expand
Expanding
Close

It appears AT&T has been hit hard by complaints from Apple iPhone users who used up their two-year subsidy and want to go elsewhere, such as T-Mobile in the United States or just roaming internationally without paying AT&T’s high international costs.

Our report from last week about Tim Cook’s office doing special requests to open iPhones may have set off a storm. We received upwards of a hundred reports that, through Cook’s office, 9to5Mac readers were able to unlock their iPhones, but perhaps Cook is now tired of his office handling these requests.

AT&T will now unlock your iPhone—if you are in good account standing and are done with your obligated term of commitment (including having paid an early termination fee.)

Here is AT&T’s statement:

“Beginning Sunday, April 8, we will offer qualifying customers the ability to unlock their AT&T iPhones. The only requirements are that a customer’s account must be in good standing, their device cannot be associated with a current and active term commitment on an AT&T customer account, and they need to have fulfilled their contract term, upgraded under one of our upgrade policies or paid an early termination fee.”

Here is another fun fact:  If you have paid the no-commitment price, AT&T will unlock your phone too.

Chalk one up for the good guys.

[tweet https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/189077291270283264]

Update (Sunday): How was unlocking? Talk about it in the forums!

Expand
Expanding
Close

Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster has surveyed kids for a many years on their electronics usage. This spring, he polled 5,600 students, and half the group was male, while the other half was female. A surprising 34 percent of high school respondents said they owned an iPhone and 40 percent said they planned to get one in the next six months:

.

This is surprising, because comScore released its own Mobile phone breakdown today that claimed only 13.5-percent of ages 13 and up owned Apple phones:

Included in that 13.5-percent are supposedly those 34 percent of high school kids, meaning the adult population would have to be even lower than 13.5-percent, which also means high school kids are three times as likely to own an iPhone as their parents if the numbers are right.
Expand
Expanding
Close

When 9to5Mac brought you the story about Tim Cook convincing AT&T to unlock an iPhone on a customer’s behalf, we knew it would cause a bit of controversy because of AT&T’s questionable unlocking policies. Confusion among consumers regarding inconsistent policies for unlocking iPhones that have finished contractual obligations is nothing new. As witnessed in our original story, the carriers often make special exceptions for some customers while redirecting others to Apple. In many cases, they simply flat-out refuse to unlock iPhones.

It is not clear if AT&T is getting ready for a full-fledged policy change, but it looks like your best shot at getting an iPhone unlocked is by emailing Apple’s chief Tim Cook. A significant number of readers reached out to us since our original story that confirmed AT&T is continuing to unlock iPhones at the request of Cook’s office.

Expand
Expanding
Close

While noting its March numbers indicate continued growth for the iPhone’s marketshare, Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley (via AllThingsD) said the iPhone is currently outselling “all other smartphones” at both AT&T and Sprint together. He also said Verizon is selling roughly as many iPhones as all Android phones combined:

Expand
Expanding
Close

We are sure the Lumia 900 launch will be great for AT&T, but the carrier might be setting expectations a little high:

“At all levels, this is a notch above anything we’ve ever done,” AT&T device head Jeff Bradley said in an interview with CNET, noting that includes the launch of the iPhone.

Sure, Microsoft and AT&T will be throwing a lot of cash at this launch, and pricing their “Hero” device at $100 with plan certainly is aggressive, but does anyone really this launch will overshadow the 1 million-unit weekend of the iPhone 4S launch that AT&T itself said:
Expand
Expanding
Close

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is seeking to have Apple drop the “4G” from the advertising/website of its new iPad products with cell modems…

The ACCC alleges that Apple’s recent promotion of the new “iPad with WiFi + 4G” is misleading because it represents to Australian consumers that the product “iPad with WiFi + 4G” can, with a SIM card, connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia, when this is not the case.

Optus and Telstra do not use the compatible LTE radio frequencies as Apple’s iPad; therefore, new iPads are not compatible with the LTE 4G networks in Australia. Both mobile carriers already dropped the “4G” naming on the new iPad on their websites. However, Apple does display “iPad +4G” on the Apple.com.au website.

The speed that the iPad gets in Australia is pretty solid…

[vodpod id=Video.16283816&w=425&h=350&fv=playerType%3Dembedded%26amp%3Btype%3Did%26amp%3Bvalue%3D50122211]

Importantly, Apple has the subtext:

The iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G model can roam worldwide on fast GSM/UMTS networks, including HSPA, HSPA+, and DC-HSDPA. When you travel internationally, you can use a micro-SIM card from a local carrier. You can also connect to the 4G LTE networks of AT&T in the U.S. and Bell, Rogers, and Telus in Canada.

.

More importantly, it does not look like Australians play high and fast with marketing terms like “4G” as we do here in the United States, which now describes HSPA+ on AT&T iPhone 4S’s.
Expand
Expanding
Close

There are two interesting pieces of information this morning on the new iPad.

If used solely as an LTE MiFi, AnandTech got a mind-numbing 25.3 hours of Verizon LTE hotspotting out of the new iPad. That is equal to about five to seven MiFis.

Now for the killer. If you have an iPad on Verizon’s LTE network and use it as a personal hotspot (not currently possible on the AT&T version), it will last you roughly 25.3 hours on a single charge. Obviously that’s with the display turned off, but with a 42.5Wh battery driving Qualcomm’s MDM9600 you get tons of life out of the new iPad as a personal hotspot.

By my calculations, that means you could download 182GB of data at 2MB/sec on LTE through a single charge or over 18 times Verizon’s highest data plan in a single day.

In addition, PCWorld tested the heat on the new iPad and compared it to the ASUS Eee Transformer Prime and Samsung Galaxy Tab under the same conditions. Without the charger plugged in, the new iPad was actually cooler than the Samsung Galaxy Tab—even with a bigger battery after playing a game for an hour.

The point is that the new iPad runs only slightly hotter than high-end Android tablets and only when charging. The cool champion is still the iPad 2 when playing graphic intensive games.

Expand
Expanding
Close

A new report from AllThingsD citied a study from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners that gives a breakdown of iPhone percentages sold through each retailer, including Apple and the carriers. The survey targeted iPhone buyers over a three-month period from December 2011 to February 2012 and found approximately 76 percent of iPhones were sold through brick-and-mortar stores. The other 24 percent of iPhones were purchased online. Those numbers obviously shift with a high number of preorders during product launches. The report noted the iPhone 4S’ s launch saw 67 percent sales conducted online, while only 33 percent were in-store.

The full breakdown for each retailer (in the United States) not surprisingly shows the carriers clearly dominate iPhone sales: AT&T captured 32 percent, Verizon came in at 30 percent, and Sprint with 7 percent. AllThingsD said Best Buy came out on top among retailers—other than Apple and the carriers—with 13 percent of sales compared to Apple’s 15 percent. Reports are quick to mention Best Buy is selling almost as many iPhones as Apple, but it is worth noting Best Buy has four times as many stores…

Expand
Expanding
Close

According to an in-store iPhone advertisement in at least one Target location in Orlando, the store is offering $25 off the 8GB iPhone 4 and both the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 4S models until the end of the month. A tipster sent the image above showing the deal is offered for upgrades or on a new two-year contract available through AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint depending on your location.

(Thanks L. Nielsen!)

We are also noticing some of the best prices ever on iPad 2s. When Apple dropped the price of the iPad 2 by $100 (now starting at $399) after the introduction of the new iPad, retailers immediately started slashing prices even further on the last-generation device. We already saw the 16GB entry-level iPad 2 go for as low as $360, and today 9to5Toys pointed us to a 32GB model in white or black for $449 from Go4Computers through eBay Daily Deal. That deal includes free shipping and no tax (outside Florida), and the same goes for the 8GB iPod touch, which is usually $199 but now goes for $169.

If you live close enough to swing by a local Micro Center, it is currently offering the 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad 2 for $359.99.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Reports from the Wall Street Journal last October revealed Sprint’s Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse convinced the company’s board to take on a staggering commitment of approximately $20 billion to purchase 30.5 million iPhones over four years. At the time, Hesse said Sprint “would likely lose money on the deal until 2014. ″ He also claimed not having the iPhone was “the No. 1 reason customers leave or switch.” In an interview with Mobile World Live (via BGR), Hesse defended the decision and claimed, among other things, that iPhone users are “more profitable than the average smartphone customer.”

“ Subsidies are heavy for the iPhone. This is the reason why a high percentage of new customers is important… But iPhone customers have a lower level of churn and they actually use less data on average than a high-end 4G Android device. So from a cost point of view and a customer lifetime value perspective. They’re more profitable than the average smartphone customer.”

Hesse went on to claim that Sprint was “pulling a lot of customers” from AT&T and Verizon during the fourth quarter by noting four out of every 10 iPhones the carrier sold were new customers. According to Hesse, that is around double the rate of the other carriers.

Expand
Expanding
Close

While it is no secret that LTE devices are capable of burning through data quicker than their 3G counterparts burn, several reports claim many new iPad users are concerned about how quickly they are reaching their data cap. In some cases, users reported reaching their 2GB monthly cap within hours of just streaming video. According to a new report from The Wall Street Journalthatprofiled several disgruntled AT&T and Verizon customers, Apple’s “promise of superfast wireless connections collides with the reality of what those services cost.”

Doing some math that any consumer could: LTE speeds often hit 2 Megabytes/second. You would hit 2GB in 1000 seconds—or under 17 minutes.

One man profiled in the story, Brandon Wells, went through 2GB of his Verizon plan streaming March Madness college basketball games to his new iPad. WSJreports:

Expand
Expanding
Close