I received an interesting item in my mailbox today, a 16 page magazine called "AT&T Magazine: Special iPhone Edition!" I've scanned some of the pages below. (Click to see larger versions.) The advertisement is aimed at current iPhone owners; the inside cover says (emphasis added by me): "Read on for the 10 reasons AT&T and your iPhone are such a prefect fit." You can see below that a similar statement is on the cover (bottom, right) of the magazine. Thus, AT&T has decided to spend money to send out a slick magazine to current AT&T iPhone customers to try to convince them that they should use an iPhone on the AT&T network. Considering that U.S. customers can only use an iPhone on the AT&T network right now, this entire expensive campaign seems about as necessary as telling people that they should only buy an iPhone that is made by Apple — unless, of course, AT&T thinks that the iPhone is about to come to Verizon. People often ask me whether the iPhone will soon be available on Verizon, and the existance of this magazine in my mailbox tells me that AT&T thinks it might happen soon.
In case you did not (yet) get one of these yourself, here is a summary of the 10 reasons mentioned in the advertisement.
1. Our innovative network. AT&T stresses that it has the "best combination of mobile broadband performance and available services" including "an expansive Wi-Fi network and the ability to let you simultaneously talk and surf the web."
2. Fastest network. AT&T has already upgraded cell sites and plans to spend another $18 to $19 billion.
3. Expansive network. 360 U.S. cities, 230 million people, 75% of Americans.
4. Talk & surf. Didn't they just mention this one in #1? Of course, I can undestand why they mentioned it twice if they are worried about Verizon. One of the largest advantages of AT&T's GSM network is that voice and data transmissions can take place at the same time. Verizon's CDMA network can only handle one or the other at a time.
5. The Wi-Fi advantage. Didn't they just mention this one also in #1? This repeats that AT&T has a lot of Wi-Fi Hot Spots around the country that you can use for free with an iPhone.
6. iPhone 4. AT&T touts the advantages of the iPhone 4 and iOS 4. If the point of this is to respond to a potential iPhone on Verizon, I'm not sure how this is relevant.
7. Global coverage. "With more phones that work in more places, it's no surpise that AT&T received the award for Best Mobile Phone Coverage in the World from Business Traveler magazine." This is another advantage of using GSM (which is popular throughout the world) versus CDMA (which is rare outside of the U.S.). So once again, this is really just a comparison to Verizon.
8. Family-friendly services. Here, AT&T touts three of its apps and four services. (1) AT&T Navigator, a GPS app for when "you're lost on the way to a soccer game across town"; (2) AT&T FamilyMap, an app that works in conjunction with the $9.99/month AT&T service that lets you locate two family members with an AT&T phone (or $14.99/month for up to five family members) so you can "stay connected to your newly independent teens"; (3) MyWireless Mobile to manage your wireless account, (4) the ability to add lines to your plan for when "your daughter is ready for her first cell phone"; (5) rollover minutes; (6) unlimited text messages for $30/month; and (7) Smart Limits for Wireless which lets you set limtis on your kids' web browsing and purchasing on their smartphone.
9. Forward thinking. "With 100 years of innovations, eight Nobel prizes and more than 7,000 pending and issued patents, you know you can count on AT&T to stay on the cutting edge."
10. Sustainable solutions. Touts some of the envonmental initiatives of AT&T such as recycling and power saving.
I get the feeling that AT&T came up with the number "ten" first and then figured out later how to match up its services with that number, even at the risk of repeating itself, although to be fair many of the listed features are true advantages of AT&T over Verizon. Again, however, what I really got from this advertisement is the feeling that AT&T believes that we are close to a day when Apple offers a Verizon iPhone. The fact that I received this advertisement today doesn't necessary mean that a Verizon iPhone will happen in the next month, next year, or even next decade. But I can't imagine why AT&T would send this out unless the possibility was real and on the short-term horizon.
