As a result, the iPhone has bypassed a sizable chunk of the wireless market. Some would-be users don't want to leave their non-AT&T provider; others would have faced hefty penalties for pulling out of their existing wireless contracts for the sake of an AT&T deal.
So there was rejoicing anew in the tech world when the Wall Street Journal reported today that the days of the AT&T monopoly on iPhone service are drawing to a close.
According to the Journal, Apple is set to begin mass production on a new version of the iPhone this September. The new device would run on a wireless network known as "CDMA." That's the network that Verizon, Sprint and a handful of other wireless providers all use, as opposed to the GSM setup favored by AT&T and other providers.
This would mean, among other things, a major blow to AT&T's iPhone-centric business model. AT&T presently controls 43 percent of the U.S. wireless industry, the Journal notes, and has experienced growth for several consecutive fiscal quarters, thanks largely to the iPhone's enormous popularity. The tech blog Gizmodo hailed the news as something that would turn the cell phone market "upside down." But at least one tech industry watcher says that the industry's been burned by such rumors before, so she'll believe that the post-AT&T iPhone has arrived only when she's able to hold one in her hand.
"So much about the mobile industry in the U.S. has been dictated by the carriers," said CNET writer and frequent MSNBC tech contributor Caroline McCarthy in an email. "The move beyond the carrier constraints has to come from an existing power player in the market, like Apple's iPhone. But on the other hand, rumors of a non-AT&T iPhone have been around for so long that plenty of people have grown cynical about even that."
David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer
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