Is AT&T a Little Mad About the Verizon iPhone?

Today at 1:11pm, Verizon plans to announce its carrying of the iPhone. This is not breaking news. The press conference has been known for the past couple of days and iPhone coming to Verizon has been anticipated for quite some time. The iPhone by Verizon has brought speculation of an AT&T impending doom, the lost of millions of AT&T subscribers, and the gain of those millions to Verizon. “With iPhone Taunts, AT&T-Verizon Rivalry Escalates” by Jenna Wortham reports that yesterday, AT&T decided to respond to the fanfare surrounding the official announcement with an insult:

“I’m not sure iPhone users are ready for life in the slow lane”

-Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman

Verizon’s spokesman, Jeffrey Nelson came back with his own statement:

“AT&T is known for a lot of things, but network quality is not one of them…Typically companies try to call attention to their strongest suit”

Unfortunately, for AT&T, their words are very defensive, considering predictions against the company come from their bad reputation with iPhone users. I previously wrote “AT&T +iPhone = The Worst Carrier” about Consumer Reports naming AT&T as the worst cell carrier. The label was mostly weighed by bad ratings from iPhone users. The conclusion was that AT&T service failed to match the technology of the iPhone. So, it is a little hypocritical to allude that Verizon will give slow service.

The reality is the expectation that AT&T will lose consumers has nothing to do with Verizon, but with iPhone users finally being able to a choice. It just so happens the other choice is Verizon. Most believe Verizon will capitalize on this moment, using the dissatifaction with AT&T, to find success with the iPhone.

In the end, Apple is the clear winner. With Verizon as another venue for the iPhone means more places to sell the product, more revenue for Apple.