

Ask HN: Why is Apple sticking with AT&T? - olefoo

It seems as though the exclusive arrangement with AT&#38;T has been holding back sales of iPhone and with the news that it's now limiting new features it's somewhat shocking that Apple isn't opening the doors to other carriers.<p>Assuming that Apple isn't stupid, why have they stuck to the exclusivity agreement?
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byoung2
To reach the biggest worldwide market, Apple has to stick with GSM. SIM cards
make it easy to take your iPhone anywhere in the world, and embracing a
standard like GSM makes it easy to sell to customers in Europe, Asia, and
South America.

If Apple left AT&T for Verizon or Sprint (leaving AT&T for T-Mobile would be a
step backwards as far as networks go), they'd have to retool the iPhone for
CDMA, and lock themselves into a market only used by a dozen or so countries.
The alternative would be to have separate CDMA and GSM versions of the iPhone
and iPad, or world versions with both CDMA and GSM, which would increase cost.

As much as it pains iPhone lovers everywhere, AT&T makes the most sense for
now

~~~
runevault
Even if they didn't want to make CDMA version, they could still release it for
TMobile AND AT&T, there's no reason they have to only be on one carrier in the
USA.

~~~
byoung2
If you allow two carriers to sell your phone, they are eventually going to
compete on price, driving the price (and profit) down.

If Apple allowed both T-Mobile and AT&T to sell the iPhone for $199, people
would make the comparison and see that AT&T has the better network (as scary
as that sounds). T-Mobile would have to compete, and since it would cost
billions to improve their network, their only real option is to sell the
iPhone cheaper than the competition. so they offer the iPhone for $149. AT&T
responds by lowering their price to $99 to compete with T-Mobile, and so on,
and so on.

By restricting the iPhone to one carrier, Apple only has to compete with
itself (when it releases a new version).

------
stonemetal
_holding back sales of iPhone_ When has apple ever been about selling huge
numbers of anything? Apple has always been about selling a small number of
very expensive things. They stick with AT&T because it is the most profitable
per unit sold thing to do.

 _now limiting new features_ Apple has never been about selling great
features, unless there was a compelling look at me scenario (just look at the
history of graphics cards on Macs.)

------
noodle
probably because there's profit in exclusivity.

