iPhone News Updated

Verizon ad spotlights shoddy AT&T iPhone service

Verizon ad spotlights shoddy AT&T iPhone service

The new ad from Verizon, aimed squarely at highlighting the shoddy service provided by AT&T to iPhone users, could be seen as a public bid to wrest Apple’s business away from AT&T.

The currently running ad, which takes very careful aim at AT&T while staying positive about the iPhone, includes comments from iPhone users and veterans of the AT&T wireless network. Those comments include the following:

I bought an iPhone and had to return it due to poor service The coverage is very poor. When I called AT&T repeatedly for assistance, each time they told me that the service was ‘excellent’ in my area, which was not even close to true.

AT&T has the worst service next to Sprint.

Apple is shooting themselves in the foot.

The former users in the ad even include one user that says his AT&T service was so bad that he jailbroke and unlocked his iPhone and moved his service to T-Mobile. That is not the sort of public relations that AT&T will be happy about, but it is virtually the only kind of comments they have been receiving for the last year or so. The anecdotal evidence of bad service is supported by scientific surveys which have shown that the iPhone is far and away the consumer’s favorite smartphone, and that AT&T’s poor service is about the only fly in the iPhones ointment.

Apple’s current exclusive U.S. deal with AT&T is due to expire on June 10, 2010, according to an SFGate story. The iPhone user group has been very vocal that they do not wish to see the deal renewed. It would seem, as a matter of good cotporate sense, to be a no-brainer for Apple to give AT&T the heave-ho, since it seems apparent that AT&T is the only factor holding the iPhone back in the smartphone marketplace.

However, some expert analysts feel that the AT&T deal will be renewed by Apple well before the due date. Noted Gartner analyst Phillip Redman has recently said “I don’t think Verizon will be getting an iPhone for a couple years. Apple would need to develop it on a different platform than it does today and would be expensive to build.”

It is difficult to see how Apple could renew the contract with AT&T, given the complete dissatisfaction of the user group with AT&T service, and all that is at stake in the smartphone wars. With a better wireless carrier, Apple has a chance at wresting the smartphone lead away from the Blackberry. Without a better carrier, the iPhone is likely to languish in a distant second place. There is something that is being missed in this equation, but no one is quite sure what is keeping Apple in AT&T’s back pocket.

[Thanks: http://iphonetouch.blorge.com]

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