My life, technology and more...

A little Background before we get started.

A couple weeks ago I had some serious issues with AT&T. My iPhone had acted up where it wouldn't turn on. I went to apple and they offered to replace it, but I asked if I could just upgrade. They told me that they did not have the authority but AT&T did, and would likely allow it. When I went into the start I was treated pretty rudely and was flat out told NO. The sales rep wouldn't even listen to me. She then told me if I wanted to upgrade with the subsidized pricing that I could buy the 3GS on a family plan and an aditional phone. Uh, No thank you. I got my replacement phone from apple and went home. I then posted my experience on the AT&T facebook page.

Today I got a call from AT&T and actually found out some very interesting things about the battle between AT&T and Apple.

I am an apple fan boy. I wont deny that one bit, But I will admit that they don't always have the best practices. Maybe there are not as in it for the consumer as I and others would like to think. When it came to the iPhone apple was shot down a lot! They were turned down by Sprint, Verizon, T-mobile and even alltel. But AT&T decided to take a chance. I was told today that they are very happy to be given the chance to have the iPhone on their network. A few months back I had heard from several sources that the reason the other phone companies turned the iPhone away was the price though.

Well my call with AT&T, I found out that it was AT&T that actually was able to talk apple into subsidizing the iPhone. It was made with a promise of selling more handsets, and lets face it, it worked. With the 3G launch last year, iPhone sales more than doubled over the 1st gen iPhone. But why are the iPhone plans so high? Well apple gets a percentage of bill price. So apple continues to make money off of the consumer. But what shocked me more than any thing was when I found out today that the reason I cannot upgrade my iPhone early is because of a restriction that apple has in the contract! But why would this be? Lets face it, Apple knows that their consumers if they want it, they will pay the premium price to upgrade early. Apple also takes for granted that their iPhone only consumers are idiots and will upgrade when eligible and then miss out on the next iPhone release only 6 months later. If I didn't have an iPhone I could upgrade right now. But there isn't much that can be done for me.

We sit back and think that AT&T and Apple have a close relationship, we blame AT&T more and more all the time, But is apple the real bad guy? Could apple really be the reason why these apps are getting rejected from the app store? It saddens me to think so, But at this point I wouldn't put it past them. Especially after today and after finding out that AT&T had know clue of the iPhone 3GS until the announcement was made at WWDC. How is that for a business relationship.

Think about it.