We all know what's going on here. AT&T was the the worst cellular carrier before they picked up the iPhone. Now they are struggling to keep up with iPhone customers who are in turn struggling with AT&T's bloated, over-extended network. Until AT&T gets their shit together, I expect Apple will become more restrictive.
Meanwhile I'm loving both the authorized and 3rd-party apps that are available on my Palm Pre. More and more phone app developers are jumping on the bandwagon. Sprint's internet is still the best out there, and more than prepared to handle higher volumes of traffic.
Of course Apple is defending their buisness partners interest. Question is of ethics and fair play. Everyone here knows I'm not a big fan of Apple's general methodology for doing buisness, but I can see where they would be within their rights for not approving a VOIP application that may not be in the best interest of their exclusive buisness partner.
The bigger question is on how all these deals get struck in the first place, with the contracts, long term commitments, that's old model is not particularly consumer, or innovation friendly. If we had an open system that let you take your phone across carriers and switch providers and hardware at will you might not have a need for all this inter-company turmoil.
Given the current environment though, I can see Apple's dilemma.
I agree with you, if they are going to discriminate it needs to be fair and not push the boundary's of anti-trust.
But there's something else that bothers me about this as well. The iPod touch has no ties to AT&T whatsoever, nor does it provide any competition to them. So why are they leaving off features on the iPod touch that are on the iPhone? The iPod became a mainstay because it was the best piece of equipment out there. They just gave their competitors (MS, Creative, Sandisk) a huge advantage in their efforts to catch up.
Snarkasm
Madison, WI Icrontian
Comments
Meanwhile I'm loving both the authorized and 3rd-party apps that are available on my Palm Pre. More and more phone app developers are jumping on the bandwagon. Sprint's internet is still the best out there, and more than prepared to handle higher volumes of traffic.
The bigger question is on how all these deals get struck in the first place, with the contracts, long term commitments, that's old model is not particularly consumer, or innovation friendly. If we had an open system that let you take your phone across carriers and switch providers and hardware at will you might not have a need for all this inter-company turmoil.
Given the current environment though, I can see Apple's dilemma.
But there's something else that bothers me about this as well. The iPod touch has no ties to AT&T whatsoever, nor does it provide any competition to them. So why are they leaving off features on the iPod touch that are on the iPhone? The iPod became a mainstay because it was the best piece of equipment out there. They just gave their competitors (MS, Creative, Sandisk) a huge advantage in their efforts to catch up.