September 01, 2009

SEUROPEAN CARRIERS might be a little concerned about reports from the US that suggest AT&T might not be doing so well out of its exclusive deal with Apple to carry the Iphone, which everyone thought would see it raking in coin.

The general perception was that AT&T would make a fortune and get loads of Apple fanboys signed up as customers. Competing US mobile telecom companies muttered that the whole thing was unfair and they should have been allowed to join in. European mobile telecom companies bid to land similar deals, believing such franchises would be in their best interests.

However it is now starting to look as if things did not move as planned and those who sup with Jobs' Mob should use a very long spoon. True, the Iphone attracted new customers, and it probably gained AT&T a bit of Apple's smugly self confident 'cool image', but it seems to have come at a cost.

While the FCC is questioning whether some deals are good for the industry, it is clear that AT&T itself has been losing over its Iphone deal.

It trumpeted that it had at least 10 million Iphone activations since they became available in mid-2007, but only 40 per cent of these were new customers. Okay, four million new punters is not to be sneezed at, but the number appears to be falling off. It fell to 35 per cent in the most recent quarter in which the Iphone 3GS became available.

Source:-http://www.theinquirer.net