Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
I'm not saying it was a mistake because I don't think it was. Apple did what was best for Apple.
Apple makes hardware and software - they had no interest in setting up their own cell phone service company with towers, etc. so they were always coming into this as a hardware (with software) manufacturer, but they wanted the control to do it in such a way to maximize their profitability, which is what they did. It was their resources that allowed them to have the leverage to make such relatively outrageous demands on the cell service providers.
My point was to fanin80 that said Apple made an exclusive deal with AT&T for the chance to revolutionize the industry:
They actually did it for the chance to make more profits. They knew they were sitting on a goldmine and negotiated accordingly. And yeah, they changed the industry but that wasn't their motivation...their motivation was making money on a sweet product.
What do you mean going at it alone? If they didn't have this exclusive deal with AT&T are you suggesting the other option was to start building cell towers? They had an awesome product and they struck the best deal they could with it.
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You're both kind of wrong and right. Of course any public company's ultimate motivation is to make money but Apple is/was also motivated to change the cell phone industry.
Jobs' second core principle is customer experience and how it is end to end in the customer's eyes. An iPhone with carrier crapware is a bad experience and had they not been able to get AT&T to allow Apple to control the experience, the phone would have never shipped.