Senate Tries to Split Up AT&T and Apple

Jun 16 2009, 6:00pm CDT | by Robert Evans

Once again, our government is screaming 'fire' where there's not even smoke. Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and token Republican Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) sent a letter to the acting chief of the FCC complaining about wireless dualopolies. They think that arrangements like Apple and ATT's are unfair to the competition and negatively impact consumer choice.

To be quite honest, I think these charges are ridiculous. My job involves reading about virtually every new mobile or smart phone that gets released. Consumers have more choice in the mobile phone market than they ever have. Samsung's ridiculous Omnia blow-out yesterday is proof positive of that. The two most notable alliances right now are Apple/ATT & Palm/Sprint. While it's true that the Pre is fairly popular and the iPhone is ridiculously so, that doesn't mean other companies have fallen on hard times.

RIM and Nokia don't seem to be overly troubled by the fact that the iPhone is exclusive to AT&T. In fact, they'll have a lot more to worry about when that exclusivity ends. That is exactly why any sort of law passed to ban this would be utterly useless. Neither Palm nor Apple are excited that they have less markets to sell their phones to. The more carriers your smartphone is on the greater market share you'll capture.

There are some benefits to having an exclusivity deal, but as the mobile market contracts they become more and more of a hindrance to mobile manufacturers. With any luck, nothing will come of this, the alliances will fall apart, and the government will find something else to overreact to.

Updates

Debate Club: The U.S. Must Attract and Retain Global Talent to Stay Competitive

Source: The New America Foundation

There aren't many issues in politics that are so obvious they shouldn't need debating. But attracting and retaining skilled knowledge workers is surely one of them. It's like motherhood and apple pie—a total no-brainer. Economists ...
Full article at: The New America Foundation More like this 16 minutes ago

The 'Strong-Weak' Theory Reveals Which Stocks Will Move Lower

Source: Minyanville

There is talk of Greece leaving the eurozone, and we are already seeing a slow-motion runs on Greek banks. The Financial Times reports that €5 billion has left Greek banks in just the last two weeks. The more that Greek citizens feel it is possibl ...
Full article at: Minyanville More like this 17 minutes ago

Clueful (for iPhone)

Source: PC Magazine

Clueful ($3.99), from security company BitDefender, is the first and only app auditor I've seen for iOS users. The app scans installed and uninstalled apps for required permissions, or access levels, so you won ...
Full article at: PC Magazine More like this 20 minutes ago

where to buy

Buy from Amazon

Don't miss ...

Apple

iPad mini Rumors continue

Robert Evans
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.