Don't bitch about success

InformationWeek.com has an article by Marin Perez about AT&T and the iPhone:

AT&T is reportedly pushing to extend its contract to be the exclusive provider of Apple's iPhone, according to published reports. The touch-screen smartphone has been a runaway hit with consumers, and it has poached many customers from rivals T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint Nextel. But the exclusive deal reportedly runs out next year, and AT&T wants to extend that until 2011. The deal has given AT&T scores of new subscribers who generate more average revenue per user because of the required data plan, and it could gain millions more this summer if a rumored new iPhone comes out.
The carrier has had to pay a heavy price to be the exclusive provider of the iPhone, though. With the original handset, AT&T was giving Apple a monthly share of revenue from each iPhone customer. The mobile operator dropped that agreement with the release of the iPhone 3G and moved to a more traditional model where AT&T subsidizes the handset by as much as $425 per unit. Additionally, AT&T is not fully happy that it has ceded nearly every aspect of user experience over to Apple, as most iPhone customers only deal with the carrier when they're paying the bill.
Apple does have far more leverage now than it did when it was shopping the original iPhone. Many doubted if Apple could succeed with the iPhone because of its unfamiliarity with the mobile space, but the company has sold more than 17 million units in less than two years. More importantly, Apple has become somewhat of a trendsetter in the smartphone space, and its platform and App Store have brought mobile applications to the forefront.
There are also technical considerations to factor in, too, as making a new handset for a carrier like Verizon or Sprint means Apple would have to create a CDMA iPhone. While this would open up a large number of users in the U.S. market, the majority of networks around the world use the GSM technology. This could change in the near future, though, as Verizon plans to roll out a nationwide 4G network based on Long Term Evolution technology by 2015, and this could make it a more attractive carrier for a future iPhone because of the mobile Internet possibilities.

Rico says he appreciates the subsidy, and hopes to continue the relationship with a new iPhone (3G and/or 4G) one of these days...