A few posts ago in The iPhone, will it be for U? I asked if the iPhone will be on brand for Apple. This morning I came across a story in the NY Times with this headline: "Chiefs Defend Slow Network for the iPhone." At least at its inception, the iPhone will run on AT&T's older, slower network. The article states: "Early reviews of the iPhone, while positive, have faulted the slower network because it will limit the palm-size wireless computer’s greatest strength — making the Internet easily accessible on the go."
Of course, this news lead AT&T chief executive Randall L. Stephenson to sound like a twelve-star general during the Viet Nam war. “It doesn’t concern me,” he said. Perhaps "It doesn't concern me" should be AT&T's new tagline. It's certainly their positioning.
This is bad news for Apple. It reflects a lack of customer focus. Which is fatal. Bad. Off-brand.
And as they used to say in Maoist China, "When you sleep with dogs, you wake up with fleas."
