The lack of competition for AT&T has led to higher pricing, longer waits for features like tethering, and an overloading of the network, which has led to the now infamous crappy reception and poor coverage areas, particularly in certain US cities.
I firmly believe that if (when) the iPhone gets on some more carriers in the US, the iPhone experience will improve greatly, even if I don’t choose to leave AT&T at that point.
Just look at any of the other countries where the iPhone is offered on multiple carriers, and you can see that many of our US specific grudges would quickly go away if this long-term exclusivity were to end tomorrow.
There is one reason, however, why I’m glad Apple stuck it out with AT&T, and managed to use that exclusivity for at least one great advantage over every other phone available here in the US. And that’s Apple’s total control over what apps are preloaded and hard-coded into the device.
Sure, there are Apple apps that I can’t remove from my iPhone, like the calculator, or the mail app, but none of those are cheap crapware that’s trying to sell me something. There are no expiring 30-day trials, Blockbuster video apps, or other such nonsense taking up space and annoying me to no end.
Android fans love to talk about the nirvana of “open” software, but these sorts of ploys to nickel and dime users out of their minds are the reality of the real world of corporate culture. There’s nothing “open” about forcing users to carry around a copy of “Avatar” everywhere they go.
As long as there is money to be made, people in suits will always try to wrangle that money out of you. And Google has no control over what Verizon, T-Mobile, etc. put on these phones, because they have nothing to offer the carriers in return for that favor.
It would be one thing if Android phones were cheaper than the iPhone, thus justifying this diversion of attention. You paid less, after all, so it makes sense that you’d be subjected to ads and other ploys to take more money from you. But they are not. All the major phones on the market are similar in price.
So if this insistence on adding cheap crapware is the reason why the iPhone is still not on Verizon, than I have to say I’m happy to wait until Apple can make that happen.