Carrier Quandry

AT&T has been getting a lot of BAD PR lately...and twitter being so popular right now is NOT helping the situation. A lot of the customer vitriol is centered on the iPhone.

Is Steve Jobs upset he partnered with AT&T in the US?

Is Verizon seeing all the bad PR AT&T is getting and happy that they passed on the iPhone?

One thing we do know- the Smartphone situation just got a lot more complicated...

Cell phone reception is extremely variable dependent on where you are-

People in SanFran and NY think AT&T's coverage sucks
People in Chicago and Miami think AT&T's coverage is awesome

Dropped calls, Pricing Plans, Outages, basically all CARRIER.

This is the evil we know, but now the new evil is a lot more complicated.

Dumbphones can do MMS
Smartphones can do MMS
AT&T can do MMS on dumbphones and smartphones
iPhones can do MMS (outside the US)
iPhones on AT&T in the US cannot do MMS...yet.

This is where things get complicated- the iPhone is a victim of its own success. AT&T has singled out iPhone customers and have treated them differently knowing that the iPhone population can cripple their network. It is under this rationale that the slingplayer app cannot work via 3G on the iPhone like it can on other phones that AT&T sells.

If you are contemplating buying a Palm Pre II in the future on T-Mobile you might have to wonder how popular is this phone going to be? Are any of my apps going to be limited in function because of the market penetration of this particular phone model on this particular carrier?

Not only do you have to find the best phone that fits your needs, you have to make sure that it is offered on a carrier that has good service in your area and you have to make sure that in this area where you live and work, that not too many people have the same needs you do.

Going with the populace has its drawbacks.