It turns out that AT&T has not taken kindly to all of the Verizon ads lately knocking their network. It seems that the two networks are playing nice now after a small legal battle that was childish at best and just managed to bring light to the whole deal anyway; making it a lose lose for AT&T. After the dust has settled a little bit though, I got this email from AT&T. They decided to email me and let me know that their service was great and getting better all of the time.
Normally I would just think this was some email that I had signed up for accidently when buying something, but I know that for AT&T I had specifically told them not to send anything. They sent it anyway and it only puts more bang in Verizon’s advertising buck. True, it does speak well about AT&T’s network and it does try and reassure us all that they are working hard to make it better, but only when they are under the gun. Shouldn’t AT&T be working on their network all of the time. I know that AT&T has to defend their brand whenever it is slandered in someone else’s advertising, but AT&T should have addressed many issues long before deciding to take on the iPhone. The iPhone has done so much to damage AT&T’s reputation that AT&T has actually started to advertise their other devices more heavily to soften the blow when they lose exclusivity of the iPhone. There will probably be a huge shift in brand loyalty when the iPhone does become available for other carriers, but unfortunately only time will tell.
First Verizon snubbed AT&T’s 3G coverage in a snarky “There’s A Map for That” advertisement. Then they called the iPhone a Misfit Toy thanks to AT&T’s spotty 3G network. AT&T got hysterical about it, going to court to get the “false and misleading” ads removed from the air. Verizon’s breezy response: “The Truth Hurts.”
Now [...]
Although it is just a rumor, it has been floating around so it may be worth a mention. With all of these Droid commercials and “there’s a map for that” stuff you would think that Apple and Verizon will never have a partnership, but the truth is there is a perfect transition here that could truly make sense. The “Droid Does” campaign was not a very good one for the argument, but if Verizon keeps pushing the fact that their network is much better and you should pick your network and then your phone we could see a perfect shift to the iPhone coming on to Verizon’s network. We have always known that Verizon was greedy and wanted too much control of the iPhone and so Apple had to logically fall back on ATT as the second best partner. Verizon is really kicking themselves right now since Apple and ATT have been living it up, but if Verizon gets a second chance it could mean great things for Apple and not so great things for ATT. I think with all of the talk of bad networks that ATT could actually see a decline in their subscriber numbers if Verizon were to get the iPhone. I for one would consider the switch if only to give Verizon a chance. The only reason that I ever switched from T-Mobile was because of the iPhone and to have a choice between the two biggest wireless providers in the US would just make it more dependent upon the network. Only time will tell if we are going to get a chance to have a big red iPhone, but hopefully we will get the option so that it helps pull prices down a little.
Walt Mossberg and Katie Boehret were at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, and sent back this report on some of the highlights of the show.
