Undoubtedly, the new iPhone Undoubtedly, the new iPhone looks very cool. Very, very cool. But just as my technolust was peaking and I was turning on some Marvin Gaye in anticipation of a stop by the Apple Store, an inconvenient fact intruded: It's exclusive to Cingular.
Why?
What benefit does Apple derive from losing the contract-captive audiences of Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint/Nextel? Where's the sense in that? And it's not like most of us can just switch over to Cingular -- I've got years left of indentured servitude to the Big V. Moreover, I wouldn't jump ship anyway. Unlike with mp3 players and laptops, the quality of Apple's product is not the ultimate arbiter in its usefulness here. I won't be too happy with iPhone if my godawful network -- Cingular doesn't rank first in customer satisfaction in any region of the US -- keeps dropping my calls.
So what Apple has done is ensure the majority of cell phone users can't initially buy their phone, locked themselves in with arguably the worst service provider, and created the possibility that many will switch to Cingular to buy the iPhone only to loathe Apple for luring them to an inferior network. This seems an, uh, odd strategy. Can someone enlighten me as to its merits?
