If AT&T’s lawsuit over Verizon’s allegedly misleading “there’s a map for that” ad wasn’t a public relations mistake to begin with, it will be by the time Verizon gets through with it. Responding to the suit today, Verizon rep Jeffrey Nelson used it to stoke public perception that AT&T’s network is inferior to Verizon’s.
A complete reversal of its earlier policy restricting Internet telephone services to Wi-Fi only, AT&T’s decision to allow iPhone owners to use such services on its 3G network has gone over well with consumers and with Apple. But it hasn’t gone over well with AT&T investors. Shares in the company slipped on news of the decision yesterday and they’re falling still further today.
“Want 5 times more 3G coverage? There’s a map for that.” That’s the cheeky slogan of a new Verizon ad reportedly set to debut during tonight’s Monday Night Football game. Riffing on the tagline from Apple’s iPhone commercials, it essentially turns widespread complaints about the quality, coverage and speed of AT&T’s network into one grand Verizon marketing campaign.
While the highlight 
of the week was undoubtedly Apple’s Rock and Roll event on Wednesday featuring Steve Jobs 2.0, that was only the anodized aluminum, candy-colored, video-shooting cherry on top of another week of tech sector reporting from All Things Digital.
Apple will sell somewhere between five and seven million iPhones in China in 2010, according to research house Broadpoint AmTech. But that’s assuming its distribution deal with China Unicom is exclusive. And according to Apple, it’s not. “I can confirm it is not an exclusive deal,” an Apple spokesperson told Dow Jones.
Welcome news for folks who love the iPhone, but hate AT&T: The increasing prevalance of exclusivity agreements between wireless carriers and cellphone manufacturers, like the one between Apple and AT&T, is drawing some government scrutiny. Four U.S. senators are urging the Federal Communications Commission to review such deals with an eye toward determining whether they unfairly restrict consumer choice and hamper competition.
Earlier this afternoon, Peter Kafka reported in Media Memo that RealNetworks was “next up in today’s layoff parade.” Here’s the official internal memo from RealNetworks founder, chairman and CEO, Rob Glaser.
AT&T does intend to offer a no-contract-required option for Apple’s new iPhone 3G. It just doesn’t know when–yet. In an announcement reaffirming the device’s pricing (from $199 for 8GB to $299 for 16GB to eligible customers), the company said it will sell the iPhone 3G without a contract for $599 (8GB) or $699 (16GB). When? “In the future.”
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
Spectacular in the bellowing Russian sailor sense of the word …
“If you spell something wrong on your insurance claim, do you really deserve surgery? I don’t think so …”
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