I wonder how different the market would be had Apple not given AT&T exclusivity. Honestly, I think Android still would have done well, but does anyone think the exclusive deal with AT&T hurt Apple in the long run?
i'm not sure "hurt apple" is the right way to put it, as i see it pretty much everybody who wants (and can afford) an iphone has one. apple hasn't lost anything yet because of the deal.
the exclusivity deal allowed android to gain a foothold, but i don't see android as a competitor to iphone, just an alternative. people who buy android phones are people who don't want an iPhone and probably wouldn't have bought one anyways.
I disagree. I wanted an iPhone but couldn't get it because I was on Verizon.
I also happen to be someone who influences my friends and family on technology. When Android turned out to be a great experience, I told other people. Now my mom, sister, sister's boyfriend, both brothers-in-law and their wives, and my mother-in-law are all Android users.
Every single one of those people would have purchased an iPhone if Android wasn't around.
Not a straightforward scenario. Doubtful most other carriers were willing to make the same deal AT&T made at the time (no customization, etc.). People were waiting in line for iPhones to begin with, so they would have to have had different manufacturing, etc. Apple could have probably even released a Cocoa Stack or something to run the iOS ui on any Android phone out there and gobbled up a huge market, but Jobs wanted total control, and seeing Apple's current profitability, it's hard to realistically predict a better move than the ones he made.
FD: Until a couple of weeks ago I owned no Apple products except a very old ipod nano someone gave me years ago. I'm no fan of Apple, but it seems unrealistic to second-guess the success they had for the last decade.
Like someone mentioned above, I do not think it "hurt" them. I think it limited them a little. Think about what it was like before the iPhone came to Verizon. There were a lot of people praying that it would because they simply would/could not make the switch to AT&T. That limited the reach of the iPhone a little. Not everybody is willing to switch their provider just for one phone.
Well, that counterfactual implies a world where the carriers don't have a stranglehold on the market and the ability to cripple or deny service to hardware and software they don't like. In that world Android would be better off as well; phones wouldn't have unremovable bloatware or disabled functionality, and they'd get updates in a timely manner.
