iPhone - Official Thread

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....AT&T employees are getting jack shit. This was pulled from somewhere on the interwebs:

AT&T internal communication said:
We anticipate overwhelming customer demand for the iPhone, giving us a unique and powerful opportunity to attract customers from our competitors, and we need to focus all our resources on meeting that demand.

This is expected to drive growth, which benefits us all. For that reason, we will not offer employee discounts of any kind on the iPhone, nor will there be any concession on the rate plans used with this device. This applies to all employees at all levels.

Employees who choose to buy the iPhone must purchase it at the consumer price and must use it on a regular, undiscounted, consumer rate plan. An employee who buys and activates the iPhone will lose his/her employee rate or discount. The iPhone must be activated on a consumer rate plan.

Once you see the capabilities of the iPhone and the rate plans we will offer, we think you'll agree it provides all customers, including employees, with fair value for an outstanding product.
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Wow. Just...wow.
 
SuperPac said:
I mean at this point why would you even need to line up hours early at all? Just walk in and buy...this is the way all tech products should launch.
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Did you also gives this advice to people interested in the Wii last November?
 
Yeah, there's a fair bit more AT&T employees than Apple ones. Besides, AT&T didn't develop the tech, they're just selling it. I'm not sure how their employees are really deserving of any sort of discount.
 
i don't argue that they shouldn't get a discount, but free is just laughable.

in any case, they shouldn't be too suprised about not getting discounts either. after all, the deal that Apple made with AT&T is pretty damn unprecedented in the phone industry.
 
Humphrey Bogart said:
they're not Apple employees, so why should get free iPhones?

that's like giving any gas station employee a free car.
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You are aware that they get discounts on EVERY OTHER PHONE (and AT&T doesn't make any phones) as well as their service, both of which are getting taken away?

Again, it just shows the power that Apple wields in this relationship, and is just a glimpse into why other carriers like Verizon turned down this opportunity.
 
Shows the different approach by these two companies. It's night and day.

dammitmattt said:
Again, it just shows the power that Apple wields in this relationship, and is just a glimpse into why other carriers like Verizon turned down this opportunity.
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Umm... is there any indication that Apple had anything to do with this? This could easily be purely something AT&T decided to do. Sure, there have been reports about Apple wanting revenue shares or network upgrades for the iPhone, but I really doubt they would have a problem with employees getting a discount on the phone and/or the service. Especially the service. Considering how well Apple treats it's employees, and yesterday is an example, I doubt they would have put up any fight had AT&T decided to offer discounts to their staff.
 
dammitmattt said:
It looks like you have a lot of options, though I'm not sure where your hotel is. This is a pretty big market for AT&T so I'm sure you'll have good luck today. To get through the IVR and actually speak to someone, press 2 for wireless sales when you call the store.
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Thanks for the tip! Actually the first two on that list are the closest to me. I'm gonna give them a shot. But some AT&T stores are apparently saying they only have 100. Although they're not supposed to be telling people how many they have so that may or may not be correct.
 
So, does anyone know how many of these each store is going to get?

I don't really want to wait in line for very long.

Why else would Apple delay the launch until 6 PM? They said they wanted people to get off work and be able to purchase one, not to mention that each customer at the apple store can buy 2 iphones.

I'd imagine that these conditions above would suggest that there is going to be massive supply.
 
dammitmattt said:
You are aware that they get discounts on EVERY OTHER PHONE (and AT&T doesn't make any phones) as well as their service, both of which are getting taken away?
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and all the phones they get discounts on, AT&T buys in bulk. not the case with iPhone. like i said, the deal that Apple made with AT&T is unprecedented in the phone industry.

not hard to see why no other company got on the bandwagon, and why AT&T busted out 5 year exclusivity.
 
Kung Fu Jedi said:
Shows the different approach by these two companies. It's night and day.

Umm... is there any indication that Apple had anything to do with this? This could easily be purely something AT&T decided to do. Sure, there have been reports about Apple wanting revenue shares or network upgrades for the iPhone, but I really doubt they would have a problem with employees getting a discount on the phone and/or the service. Especially the service. Considering how well Apple treats it's employees, and yesterday is an example, I doubt they would have put up any fight had AT&T decided to offer discounts to their staff.
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I can't really say a whole lot, but it's likely AT&T's call on the service and Apple's call on the devices themselves. The other vendors have a much more, how should I say this, giving relationship with AT&T.

Humphrey Bogart said:
and all the phones they get discounts on, AT&T buys in bulk. not the case with iPhone. like i said, the deal that Apple made with AT&T is unprecedented in the phone industry.

not hard to see why no other company got on the bandwagon, and why AT&T busted out 5 year exclusivity.
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Dude....AT&T might not be getting discounts on the iPhone purchases, but they sure as hell are buying them in bulk :D
 
dammitmattt said:
I assume you work for AT&T, right? :)

You have NO CLUE the amount of influence that Apple has on AT&T right now. Going by public documentation, AT&T has poured a lot of money into every facet of its networks to prepare for the iPhone launch.
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Oh please.

Since you're clearly so plugged into the cellular network technology scene, I'm looking forward to your explanation for how the speed attainable on Edge was actually increased.

And you'll have to do better than pointing out that, you know, they're putting "a lot of money" into "their networks."

Edit: Is Edge running faster today than it was yesterday? Yeah, across the board maybe it is. Maybe for some users it is and for others it isn't.

But Edge is what it is, and it's very important that everyone understand that it is unchangable. And what it is is a slow-ish cellular network.

People squawking about the Edge network suddenly receiving a bump sound like people claiming their dial-up suddenly doubled in speed. It just isn't possible. There's a hard-cap capacity at work.
 
dammitmattt said:
I can't really say a whole lot, but it's likely AT&T's call on the service and Apple's call on the devices themselves. The other vendors have a much more, how should I say this, giving relationship with AT&T.
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I would agree with you on who controls service and the phone, but I doubt very much that Apple told AT&T that you can't give a discount to your employees on the phone and especially the service.

Yesterday Apple gave all their employees a free phone. Do you really think they would do that, but tell AT&T you can't be generous with your employees? I really doubt it. Like I said earlier, just two very different approaches by two very different companies.
 
GDJustin said:
Oh please.

Since you're clearly so plugged into the cellular network technology scene, I'm looking forward to your explanation for how the speed attainable on Edge was actually increased.

And you'll have to do better than pointing out that, you know, they're putting "a lot of money" into "their networks."
Click to expand...

I know very little about the EDGE network, but I DO know that improvements can ALWAYS be made, and the EDGE network itself has been constantly improving since it was launched.

I didn't imply that I was the expert, but I was definitely questioning whether you were one yourself.
 
Kung Fu Jedi said:
I would agree with you on who controls service and the phone, but I doubt very much that Apple told AT&T that you can't give a discount to your employees on the phone and especially the service.

Yesterday Apple gave all their employees a free phone. Do you really think they would do that, but tell AT&T you can't be generous with your employees? I really doubt it. Like I said earlier, just two very different approaches by two very different companies.
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I never meant to imply that Apple told AT&T anything, only that they aren't being as generous as other vendors. I meant to come down hard on AT&T for this, but I wasn't clear enough.

What IS clear is that Apple has an unprecedented level of control compared to other vendors, who probably aren't too happy right now.
 
dammitmattt said:
I never meant to imply that Apple told AT&T anything, only that they aren't being as generous as other vendors. I meant to come down hard on AT&T for this, but I wasn't clear enough.

What IS clear is that Apple has an unprecedented level of control compared to other vendors, who probably aren't too happy right now.
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Fair enough. I agree with those statements.
 
GDJustin said:
Oh please.

Since you're clearly so plugged into the cellular network technology scene, I'm looking forward to your explanation for how the speed attainable on Edge was actually increased.
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They did boost the speed, apparently, by removing a bottleneck caused by their towers.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/exclusiv...oosted-by-atts-operation-fine-edge-265867.php

TFA said:
iPhone Data to be Boosted by AT&T's Operation "Fine Edge"

An AT&T employee who works on Operations tells us that the carrier ordered a last-minute beefing up of its EDGE throughput, latency and coverage in anticipation of the iPhone. The operation, internally referenced as "Fine Edge" will continue until June 15th, and has been going on for as many as 6 weeks.

EDGE is slow, but at least at AT&T, the implementation isn't limited by the protocol itself. Rather, the limiting factor is, according to our source, the data backend and the way the towers are configured to allocate bandwidth to data and calls. And according to an internal doc, they're dropping in more T-1s in their poorest performing towers, hoping to get that paltry 40kbps performance to a new minimum of 80kpbs. (EDGE's real world max is about 200kbps.) That's still painfully slow, but we're not ones to look a gift WWAN upgrade in the mouth.
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Damn it, once this thing goes on sale and everyone gets theirs, POST IMPRESSIONS. I have a Blackjack that may be sent off to cel-phone heaven if this thing is any better.
 
Slurpy said:
Meredith Vieira unable to figure out how to answer iPhone. Damn thats embarrassing. Didnt even look like she pressed the button.
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I bet she was tapping the screen with her fingernail and not her finger. What a doofus.
 
zomg I just got mine!

It's bulkier than they make it look in the ads.

662967750_17903ffdbf.jpg
 
dammitmattt said:
I think someone owes me an apology.
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I didn't know why GDJustin was being such as ass about it anyway. Unless he is an engineer working on the project, he can't say what is BS and what is not.
 
dammitmattt said:
....AT&T employees are getting jack shit. This was pulled from somewhere on the interwebs:



Wow. Just...wow.
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I don't see why would AT&T employees would get iPhone discounts. AT&T just provide a online service and nothing else.
 
I may be seeing things, but I believe I just saw the Mayor of Philly sitting in a line of 15-20 people outside the AT&T store on 16th in Center City as I walked by. He's like 5th in line.
 
kaching said:
I may be seeing things, but I believe I just saw the Mayor of Philly sitting in a line of 15-20 people outside the AT&T store on 16th in Center City as I walked by. He's like 5th in line.
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Kaching you're from Philly also?
 
I'm waiting for it to be offered through the corporate portal.. yeah I may be waiting a few months, but it sure beats paying $600 for it. :(

I really do want one though.
 
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