AT&T reports third-quarter earnings Thursday and by all accounts, they should be strong enough, thanks to the sheer size of the company’s footprint and, of course, its exclusive carrier rights to the iPhone.
Well this certainly doesn’t bode well for O2: The U.K. wireless carrier, which has reportedly been selling about 2,200 iPhones a day since it secured exclusive distribution rights to the device in 2007, has run out of the 3GS model. Extremely high levels of demand have emptied not just the company’s physical retail outlets, but its online store as well.
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.
The Federal Communications Commission’s efforts to determine whether exclusive handset deals are promoting or hindering innovation in the wireless market are moving ahead with a focus on rural areas. That’s the word from agency Chairman Julius Genachowski, who says he’s concerned not just with the competitive ramifications of carrier-exclusivity deals but with their tendency to limit customer access to top smartphones.
There’s no question that AT&T’s iPhone-exclusivity deal has been a strategic coup for the carrier. Since its debut in 2007, the device has drawn millions of new customers to the company and done much to revitalize its brand. But the carrier’s deal with Apple won’t last forever, and as soon as it expires, the telecommunications giant will face slowing growth and worse, defections.
Palm says it hasn’t yet announced a Pre distribution deal with Telefónica.
No matter–it appears as though the Spanish media have taken the liberty of doing it for the company. According to a number of Spanish news outlets, the carrier has negotiated an exclusive deal with Palm to distribute the new handset in Spain and Latin America, and perhaps England as well.
So those reports that the Beatles’ Apple Corps was in talks with Rock Band developers MTV Networks and Harmonix over the creation of a Beatles-themed videogame? True.
According to a Beatles pun-riddled joint press release from Apple Corps Ltd., MTV and Harmonix this morning (what, no “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey”?), the companies have inked an exclusive agreement to develop what they exuberantly describe as “an unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles.”
Guess AC/DC and Garth Brooks have something in common after all. They’re both Wal-Mart-only artists. When AC/DC’s new album, “Black Ice,” arrives at market on Oct. 20, it will be sold exclusively in the U.S. at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club.
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. Read more »
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.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
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.
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