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Howdy, I'm MG Siegler. I’m a general partner at CrunchFund and a columnist for TechCrunch. This is where I collect things.

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Love The iPhone 4, Shit On AT&T

After reading all of the reviews of the iPhone 4, the major takeaways:

  1. All agree it’s the best smartphone ever.
  2. All agree that FaceTime is awesome.
  3. The consensus on the battery life ranges from much improved to hugely improved.
  4. The thing seems to be indestructible.
  5. AT&T sucks.

The last point is rather humorous. At least 2 of the 5 reviews (WSJ and Boing Boing) brutally rip apart AT&T. The others have nothing nice to say. 

I’m seriously starting to wonder if it’s not in AT&T’s best interest to move on from iPhone exclusivity. It’s gotten to the point now where it’s not at all odd to see major publications take a shit on their brand in a high-profile review.

After reading all the complaints for the past 3 years, I can’t believe anyone would actually sign up for AT&T unless they were doing so just so they could get an iPhone. AT&T’s inability to handle the device has poisoned the entire well.

As soon as the exclusivity ends and people start jumping ship to the other carriers, I bet AT&T sees a major upswing in network reliability. For three years now they’ve proven that they can’t (or won’t) take the steps to fix the network. So the only option is to have the users fix it for them — by leaving, and reducing the strain.

But it may not matter at that point.

When the iPhone exclusivity ends — and it will end — they’re going to be left with one of the most destroyed brand names in history at this rate.

Naturally, AT&T doesn’t want to lose paying customers (and the new ones that will sign up thanks to the new iPhone), but they may be selling off the future to reap the rewards in the present.

See the rock? See the hard place? That’s AT&T smack dab in the middle. Feel free to take a shit on them. Everyone else is.

Tags at&t iphone iphone 4 apple

How AT&T Plans to Lift Its Image Via Social-Media - Advertising Age

One vocal and visible critic of AT&T service, TechCrunch blogger MG Siegler, thinks acknowledging holes in service and outreach might be able to quell at least some backlash for the brand. “It’s enough for a certain percentage of people,” he said. “A lot of people complain about Comcast, but when they get someone person-to-person reaching out, a lot of people feel better, even if it doesn’t actually serve long-term problems.”

In other words, trick people into thinking your service doesn’t suck. 

Tags mg siegler media at&t

 Source adage.com

iPhone 4 Order Security Breach Exposes Private Information

Despite entering their username and password, the AT&T system would take them to another user account.

If this is true, alongside the colossal fuck-up that has been the iPhone 4 pre-order, and given the recent iPad info leak incident, and given that, you know, AT&T just doesn’t work most of the time, Apple seriously needs to rip-up the exclusivity agreement and move its device to other carriers ASAP.

AT&T is far too big of a liability in just about every regard now. Apple is a company that prides itself on customer experience — and yet they’ve tethered themselves indefinitely to a company that is perhaps the biggest customer nightmare of all time.

Tags at&t iphone apple iphone 4

 Source Gizmodo

AT&T makes sweeping changes to data plans -- Engadget

My initial reaction would be outrage that AT&T is killing off unlimited data plans, but I’m so happy that tethering is finally coming to the iPhone (a year late) that I almost don’t care.

The pricing does seem reasonable for most iPhone users, but I’m sure I’ll go over some months, so I’ll be paying more.

I think the killing off of unlimited data for the iPad is particularly lame — this was a huge point Apple touted leading up to launch. I’m sure they’re not happy about that.

From Engadget:

We spoke to Mark Collins — AT&T Mobility’s senior vice president of data and voice products — about the changes for a few clarifications on the company’s strategy, and he made it crystal clear that the concept of unlimited data is a thing in the past.

It was fun while it lasted.

Tags at&t iphone ipad apple tethering

 Source Engadget

AT&T to offer iPhone insurance for $13.99/mo « Boy Genius Report

So, over the life of your 2-year contract, this would cost you $335.76. Or, more than the iPhone itself. Even the expensive model. 

Oh, and you’ll still have to pay a deductible if you do lose the thing ($199 for a 32GB iPhone 3GS).

God I hate AT&T — they should really call this option the “subsidy recouper,” because that’s basically what this is.

Tags at&t apple iphone

 Source boygeniusreport.com

Every Phone Needs This

I’m going to write about this further — maybe tomorrow, on TechCrunch. But basically, I’ve been using the EVO 4G a lot over the past week or so. The device itself I’m not too fond of, but I would almost consider buying one just because it’s so damn easy and useful to turn it into a WiFi hotspot and tether it to your laptop. In fact, that’s how I’m writing this post right now in a cafe in New York.

It’s amazing.

And it’s fast. I’m not even using 4G (which doesn’t work in NY yet), but the Sprint 3G is about as fast as the WiFi in this cafe.

All of this just reiterates what a piece of shit AT&T’s network/feature set is.

Tags at&t EVO 4G sprint iphone

AT&T’s Funny Solution

And just to follow-up on AT&T’s bullshit ETF move, the best way to retain customers is not to penalize them for leaving, but to make it so they don’t want to in the first place.

In other words, fix the damn network.

I’m heading to New York City tomorrow for a week, all I can say is thank god Google gave everyone at I/O a Sprint EVO 4G yesterday. I’ll actually have a phone that works in NY.

Tags at&t

AT&T An Open Letter

God I love this bullshit spin. First mention the lowering of the ETF for the phones that basically no one breaks their contracts with because they don’t care which phone they have. Then mention you’re jacking up the fee for those more likely to cancel a contract.

And it’s bullshit to spin this as “fair” since they subsidize phones — they’ve been doing that forever, and making plenty of money.

So what’s this really about? I think it may be the most tangible sign yet that AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity is set to end — and they know it. This could be anytime over the next two years, but AT&T has to enact this now, before the new iPhone comes out and people sign their new contracts or they wouldn’t be able to jack it up for those customers retroactively.

It’s all about getting customers to stick around (or getting something out of it if/when they don’t). And I believe they’re making it more expensive now because there will be a big reason to switch sometime in the next year or so.

They say it’s not about one phone. Sure. It just happens to be a few weeks before WWDC where Apple will announce the new iPhone. Total coincidence. 

Tags at&t iphone verizon

 Source att.com

It’s now been over a year since Apple unveiled tethering as a part of iPhone 3.0 OS. At the time, while 22 carriers around the world were announced to be supporting it, in the U.S., all Apple could say was that AT&T would be supporting it “later.”

Apple has just unveiled iPhone 4.0 OS. There was no talk of U.S. tethering in the announcement. There’s also been no word from AT&T since late last year — and that was only to correct bloggers who thought “later” meant “later this year” (the nerve!). 

At this point, I’m thinking AT&T might roll out support for this iPhone 3.0 OS feature around the time Apple has iPhone 6.0 OS ready to go.

I have but one simple question: where the fuck is tethering?

Tags iphone iphone os tethering at&t apple