Today's launch of Apple Inc.'s(NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone (actually, this evening's launch) is sure to set many mobile hands on fire just like every Apple product seems to do these days. In what could arguably be called the most anticipated consumer electronics product launch ever, the iPhone buzz is churning up all kinds of racket, from double-digit percentages of mobile customers leaving current wireless carriers to AT&T (NYSE:T)(just to get the iPhone) to AT&T having a whole army of support and sales personnel ready to face the customer onslaught expected later today and into the weekend. Standard Apple madness, right?What about the effect all those new subscribers (if they materialize) are going to have on the other wireless carriers in the U.S.? Specifically, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel(NYSE:S), T-Mobile and Alltel(NYSE:AT)? These carriers are the ones that are going to face customer defections en masse if iPhone fever gets wireless subscribers dumping existing carriers for AT&T just to get the iPhone. Who could be the biggest loser here? We're not talking reality shows, but the wireless companies that stand to get hurt the most by not having an iPhone to offer.
Sprint Nextel may have the most to lose, as a Bear Stearns analyst predicts that AT&T will lure almost 1.1 million customers from the carrier to AT&T by next year just due to the iPhone. Sprint Nextel has had three quarters of customer declines (mostly due to the mismanagement of the Nextel customer base and brand), and at the worst possible time, more customers could leave in droves not for service offered, but for a product. Is the iPhone really going to be that revolutionary? The customers who buy it will tell the tale, and if they do believe that it will change the mobile landscape forever, Sprint Nextel will be the first to hear about it-- in the worst possible way.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-30-2007 @ 12:18AM
NavyWings said...
I see this as a major boon for AT&T and the other carriers should be quaking in their boots. When the iPod was about to make its debut, people didn't think it would be as popular as it's become. I see the iPhone as a revolutionary shift in the way we communicate.
Verizon will have issues as MANY users have just been looking for a reason to switch, and for me, this is it. Verizon has been notoriously aloof to its customers wants and now it's going to bite them. Verizon intentionally disabled the OBEX feature of the Razr thus preventing Bluetooth file transfer between the phone and your computer. So the ONLY way to get those cool pics off your phone is to email them to yourself. Hmm, at 30 cents a pop, pretty good business move on their part. But we know it's a money grab since the OBEX feature is ENABLED by default and other carriers leave it enabled.
It's not necessarily the iPhone itself that will cause the mass exodus, it's poor reponse to the customers needs and wants. Customers will flock to the provider that is, and right now it's AT&T. I'll pay the default penalty on three phones to leave Verizon now.