The Wall Street Journal article is titled “How Steve Jobs Played Hardball In iPhone Birth.” Steve Jobs used to call Wireless companies “orifices” where manufacturers of remarkable gadgets like the iPhone have to pass through before they get to the public’s hands. Not anymore, at least not with the iPhone. Never has a cellphone manufacturer been so powerful holding sway over the carrier even though the reverse is much more the industry norm. As Journal writers Amol Sharma, Nick Wingfield and Li Yuan put it:
These service providers usually hold enormous sway over how phones are developed and marketed — controlling every detail from processing power to the various features that come with the phone.
Not so with Apple and Cingular. Only three executives at the carrier, which is now the wireless unit of AT&T Inc., got to see the iPhone before it was announced. Cingular agreed to leave its brand off the body of the phone. Upsetting some Cingular insiders, it also abandoned its usual insistence that phone makers carry its software for Web surfing, ringtones and other services. The deal also calls for Cingular to share with Apple a portion of the monthly revenues from subscribers, a person familiar with the matter says.
Cingular barely got a glimpse of the iPhone, much less a comprehensive idea of what kind of cell phone it was going to be, a privilege wireless carriers have always had as a matter of course. It was only after the iPhone was revealed at MacWorld in January that Cingular finally was given a chance to take a close look at the product, which is currently still being tested by both companies at a secret location.
Post Your Comment