In case you ever thought the U.S. stock market is an even playing field:
“I provided insider information concerning AT&T’s sales of Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s (Research In Motion Ltd) Blackberry products, as well as other handset set devices sold through AT&T distribution channels,” Ebrahim told U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan.
AT&T’s Marty Richter said:
“We took this matter very seriously and cooperated fully with the authorities,” said AT&T spokesman Marty Richtman. “The conduct alleged was clearly against our code of business conduct, and Mr. Ebrahim is no longer an AT&T employee.”
According to a report from AllThingsD, Verizon Wireless will soon change the way it charges customers for cellular/data plans in a major way. Rather than charging customers for phones calls or messages sent, the report claimed Verizon would charge “almost exclusively based on how much data” is consumed. The new “Share Everything” plans will also be the first in the United States that allows users to share their data with up to 10 devices through a single account:
The plans, known as “Share Everything,” allow users an unlimited number of calls and texts and also allow data usage to be pooled among up to 10 devices on one account. With the move, Verizon becomes the first U.S. carrier to offer the ability for customers to share a bucket of data across multiple devices.
AllThingsD noted that AT&T also has plans for shared data options, but it did not provide more details. As for Verizon’s new plans, which will apparently kick-in June 28, the report explained the cost of the data plan and pricing metrics based on a per-device fee. In other words, you will have to pay roughly $40 per smartphone ($10 per tablet), and then opt for either a $50 1GB data plan or a $100 10GB plan. While the report claimed the new pricing should not impact the cost of plans for users who continue consuming the same amount of data, it is clear that those signing a new plan for a single smartphone are getting a bit less for their money:
“By making iPhone available on pre-paid plans through Cricket Wireless, we are making the best smartphone more accessible to an even broader market in the US,” Apple representative Natalie Harrison said.
Apple took a big step today in the United States by aligning with Cricket prepaid Wireless. While you can buy an iPhone off-contract (for significantly more than the above Cricket prices), and then go on AT&T, T-Mobile, or any GSM carriers’ network, this is the first time Apple has let the iPhone play in the prepaid market.
Cricket’s monthly fee for unlimited anything (data throttled after 2.3GB) is $55 per month, which is very low for all things considered. You can also quit at any time, take months off, or trade phones. However, you need to buy the iPhone at an “unsubsidized rate.” But is it really unsubsidized?
What is interesting is that Cricket offers the iPhone 4 for $399 and iPhone 4S for $499. Look at Apple’s prices for unlocked iPhone 4S (iPhone 4 costs $549):
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There is a $150 gap somewhere. Perhaps Cricket is subsidizing some of the cost by thinking buyers will eventually make up that $150 difference in service fees. Apple may also offer Cricket a discount as it buys large quantities of iPhones, because Apple is hoping to spread its customer base.
We are not sure how many prepaid customers will shell out $400 to $500 up front for an iPhone. However, there are probably some jailbreaker/unlockers or otherwise who would like to take a Cricket iPhone and use it off-network (or without a network).
Sprint, which carries the iPhone, and owns two big prepaid networks in Virgin and Boost Mobile, will likely have an iPhone prepaid offering in the coming months too.
The argument over which carrier has the fastest network speed in any given location in the United States is still up for debate. Putting network speed comparisons aside, which are often not an accurate representation of speeds, you will receive in your specific area, a new app from startup SwayMarkets aims to provide a more realistic comparison.
The app, CarrierCompare, allows users to test the network speed of their current carrier against the two other major iPhone providers. CNNMoney went hands-on when the app released last month and just posted the user data it obtained that compares major iPhone carriers in multiple locations.
Analyzing user-generated data from Boston, New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, these were the results:
UPDATE: Sprint confirmed the promotion today with an email to 9to5Mac:
Beginning today, May 18, for a limited time only, customers can bring in their current iPhone from any other carrier to a Sprint store (or online and telesales) and receive at least $100 off the purchase of a new iPhone 4S (excludes upgrades) with a new line of service and two year agreement. Below are the two ways people take advantage of this limited time offer:
Save in store:
Reserve your iPhone 4S online at www.sprint.com (excludes upgrades)
Bring your old iPhone with you to a Sprint store
Save $100 instantly when you activate a new line of service!
Save Online
Go to sprint.com/iPhone to buy your iPhone 4S through our online store and open a new line of service (excludes upgrades)
After you receive your new iPhone, visit sprint.com/buyback and click Trade in my device to receive a shipping label via email. (Note: If your Buyback value is less than $100, we’ll make up the difference with an additional account credit. You’ll need to activate your new phone by 7/3/12 and trade-in by 8/14/12.)
Receive a credit on your bill within 2 to 3 billing cycles. Your credit may be spilt into 2 payments. Please wait the full 3 month billing cycle to receive your full $100 credit.
TechnoBuffalo reported that an upcoming Sprint trade-in promotion will allegedly give existing iPhone owners at least $100 toward an iPhone 4S—if they sign a two-year contract and open a new line of service. The deal will supposedly run between May 18 and June 30:
If you’re an iPhone customer considering jumping ship to Sprint, the Now Network’s upcoming promo just might be enough to influence your decision. A trusted source has shared with us that starting on May 18th Sprint will begin offering a minimum of $100 on any iPhone trade-ins towards an iPhone 4S.
T-Mobile offered a similar deal earlier this month, where the carrier promised $200 trade-ins for any iPhone.
As part of its new “Alter Ego” ad campaign, T-Mobile posted the above TV commercial comparing the speed of the iPhone 4S on AT&T to devices on its 4G network. The carrier recently did a similar comparison when launching its Test Drive tool for comparing its 4G devices with the iPhone on other networks. In related news, yesterday we reported T-Mobile was preparing to rollout an iPhone-compatible 4G HSPA+ 19000 MHz network to various markets by the end of the year.
Although many thought the comparison of the 3G iPhone on AT&T to 4G Android devices on T-Mobile was unfair, Apple is rumored to launch a new LTE iPhone following the introduction of the new 4G iPad last March. Recent reports indicated Qualcomm was having trouble meeting demand for LTE chips likely to land in the next-gen iPhone, indicating T-Mobile will likely have to take a new approach to its ads come October. Expand Expanding Close
AT&T’s variant of the family data plan is on the horizon.
The company’s CEO of Mobile Business Ralph de la Vega told CNET on the sidelines of the CTIA Wireless trade show that the upcoming shared plan would allow consumers to buy one package of data to split among multiple devices, which is a forward-thinking step that could encourage tablet sales.
“I’m very comfortable with the plan that will be offered to our customers,” revealed de la Vega.
Just a few months ago, the executive seemed to doubt family plans due to IT, billing, and device subsidization issues. He even remarked his goal to “get it right”— instead of unveiling the strategy prematurely.
The big May 7 uncloaking that revealed Research in Motion is behind the seemingly anti-Apple “Wake Up” flash mob from last week occurred on schedule, but not too many people appeared to care as the steam from the confusing campaign already ran its quick course.
The “Wake Up. Be Bold” marketing scheme unveiled yesterday at wakeupbebold.com by BlackBerry Australia & New Zealand, and it included a Star Wars-like running script read aloud by a narrator prompting viewers and listeners to “Wake up.” Now, less than 24 hours after the brains behind the campaign came to light, RIM announced a newly appointed Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer—Kristian Tear and Frank Boulben, respectively.
Tear joins RIM from Sony Mobile Communications, where he served as Executive Vice President, and Boulben is the former Executive Vice President of Strategy, Marketing, and Sales for LightSquared.
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:
At a recent presentation in front of international wireless operators at the Informa MVNO Industry Summit in Barcelona, wireless industry analyst Whitey Bluestein claimed Apple will soon move to provide wireless service directly to users of its iOS devices. Specifically, he said Apple will beat Google to become a mobile virtual network operator. While noting Apple’s distribution through retail stores and the 250 million iTunes accounts with credit cards, Bluestein said Apple’s biggest barrier is the subsidies paid by carriers to offer consumers iPhones at their current prices on contract. We already know former Apple CEO Steve Jobs wanted to “replace carriers” and worked on it leading up to the iPhone launch, but Bluestein said Apple would soon be the “first mover” as Google struggles to compete with the iTunes ecosystem.
Here are the main points:
Apple will in the near future begin providing cellular service, data, voice and roaming, directly to its customers.
Apple will begin by offering mobile data plans bundled with iPads (vs. current practice of selling GSM iPads with AT&T data and CDMA iPads with Verizon data plans).
Apple will then offer iPhone customers activation, data and international roaming plans through the iTunes Store.
Apple will provide voice, data and messaging plans directly to its iPhone customers, on an ala carte basis as an alternative to their current mobile operator and then as wireless service provider directly to customers.
Google, while behind Apple in technology, distribution and back-office capabilities, will nevertheless follow in lock-step behind Apple and provide wireless data services directly to its Google Tablet customers.
The big problems obviously include the mobile industry’s resistance to Apple becoming an MVNO. Also, Apple becoming a carrier would be a difficult transition and would leave customers with two-year contracts stranded on previous carriers.
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.
Weiphone’sHacker 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
Yesterday, we reported that Qualcomm announced it was having “trouble meeting demand” for its next-generation chips that would likely find their way into an LTE-enabled iPhone 5. While the announcement was a clear indication that Apple’s rumored October release window was much more likely than talk of a June unveiling at WWDC, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster agreed and said the new device will be the mother of all hardware upgrades:
“We think one of the big features of iPhone 5 is going to be LTE… when iPhone 4S came out it was obviously the same form factor… this is going to be a big hardware upgrade… this is going to be the year of the hardware… the mother of all upgrades “
Following the launch of its new Alter Ego ad campaign yesterday, T-Mobile just made its new “Test Drive” tool available for comparing the speed of “American’s Largest 4G Network” to other guys— Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon. Unfortunately, as pointed out by TMONews, the carrier is comparing 4G LTE Android handsets, such as the Galaxy S II, to the 3G speeds of the iPhone 4S. This is obviously not a fair comparison of LTE network speeds…
T-Mobile’s TestDrive website is now live and I will say at first glance, I’m disappointed. I’ll just get right to it — T-Mobile, I’m really puzzled by this. The idea that you claim “America’s largest 4G network” and design a new commercial campaign around speed and then compare your “4G” network against “3G” smartphones is a questionable act. Speed should no longer be the focus of T-Mobile’s marketing campaign, Value and Technology should. Speed should be a secondary thought. If you can’t win on speed, highlight where you can, Value, Value, Value.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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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:
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…
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.
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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.
AT&T’s Marty Richter said:
It appears AT&T has been hit hard by 
