AT&T launches “Just You Wait” campaign for improved iPhone
Can there be any more glorious feeling than telling Apple fans something they’re longing to hear? To look into those rapt, upturned faces and give them news that makes their hearts swell and their eyes well, as you bask in a megawatt glow of adulation? (This, by the way, is why Steve Jobs always applies sunscreen before big product announcements.) You can’t really blame AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson for wanting a little piece of that, so when he was asked at a Churchill Club appearance yesterday about the prospects for a future iPhone with a faster Net connection, he happily volunteered, “You’ll have it next year.” He said no more, except (in a telling choice of words) that Steve Jobs “will dictate what the price of the phone is.”
Now, it’s a given that at some point Apple was going to address one of the biggest complaints about the iPhone — that it uses AT&T’s sluggish EDGE network, rather than a faster 3G connection. The sticking point, according to the company, was that the available 3G chips sucked too much power. Still, in September, Jobs himself made vague comments about a 3G iPhone “later next year.” But by making such a firm and public declaration right in the heart of the holiday shopping season, Stephenson may have trod heavily on one of Jobs’ most sensitive spots (see “You have to understand, Mr. Jobs is very sensitive about premature elaboration“). As Dwight Silverman puts it, “The first rule of new product development is: You don’t talk about new product development, because it kills sales of existing products,” citing the suicidal marketing move known as the Osborne Effect. Larry Dignan adds, “Perhaps the average iPhone craving bear won’t wait for the 3G version, but some percentage of prospective buyers will. … Jobs can’t be too happy this morning, especially if the 3G iPhone continues to be the buzz and it won’t be ready soon, as in for Macworld in January. If not, iPhone sales could be dragged down as customers wait for the second coming.”
Word is that the new iPhone will be priced at $599 for the first group of people in line, and then once the line dies down, the price will be immediately lowered to $399.
To Mac/Apple fanatics, price and money is no object. So I wouldn’t be too much concerned about current sales, and certainly not for the new iPhone. Current iPhone owners will rush right out and drop that $600 or so, so they can have the latest Holy of Holies the New 3G iPhone! After all, “coolness” is priceless! Right!
I’ve found the screen too small for heavy browsing anyway, so slowpoke edge turns out to be good enough for most things. Youtube sucks that way, it’s true, but usually I am near an access point or just wait.
And USA HSDPA coverage hasn’t been good enough to depend on. I use EV-DO in my laptop instead. In fact I haven’t got EV-DO rev1 speeds via HSDPA anyway, even in Australia or Europe.
3G is a function of the network. There isn’t much availability of 3G on AT&T right now. What this announcement does is keep people from buying 3G phones from competitors over the Holidays and wait for iPhone.
My guess is this announcement will have little effect on US sales, except to defer Blackberry sales. In Europe there may be some customers who wait, but the Orange’s estimate of 100k in France by EOY seemed convervative.
This will be HUGE in Asia IMO. No way there could be a launch without 3G.
And for all naysayers, remember that Apple updates its products once a year. It always has a blow-out announcement (or two) at MacWorld. All in all, good for Apple.
I find 3G connections in suburban Portland and suburban Sacramento, so I can’t imagine it’s all that rare. Compared with Edge, the change in speed makes for a qualitative difference. I could never see much use in the web-enabled features of my former phone. With the speed of 3G it all starts to make some sort of sense.
I was forced to become an ATT customer in August - they had the best signal at my new location - and selected a Samsung 3G phone. I think anybody who understood the difference in data speeds was happy to punt on the iPhone until they get it right, so I’m not sure this announcement made much difference. In the meantime, I find that when I am at home with my broadband-luddite Grammy, reading the papes goes faster on my phone than trying to use my laptop over a dial-up. The next page arrives so fast you stop caring that the screen is tiny.
For a while I had laptop tethering via 3G also, and the data speed seemed quite good for a fully mobile connection. Unfortunately ATT wanted to lock me to a separate additional service agreement for that, despite the fact that no additional piece of hardware had been needed or provided.
If the iPhone used the KT-Tech KTvid CODEC rolled out at CTIA wireless in November, this would be a moot point. 2-way audio and video at sub second rates starting at 20 kbps. Doesn’t matter whether its slow EDGE or fast 3G, the KTvid tech would allow vidchat from the iPHONE today (20 kbps was the norm on the trade floor) from either. Want 30 FPS full screen CIF video in under a second, all you need is 80 kbps on the downlink.