No iPhones Going to Cingular Stores or Independent AT&T Wireless Dealers

Dan Knight - 2007.06.20

Low End Mac Reader Specials

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, Apple Displays, MacBooks, iMac's, MacBook Pros, Laptop and iPod accessories and more. Apple A/C Adapters for laptops starting at $25.00 Call 1-800-941-7654 or Click Here.

OWC: Top Quality Memory for Faster Mac Performance 1GB/2GB/4GB Kits from $23.99/$47.99/$94.99 Expert Support, Free Installation Videos & Guides, Lifetime Advance Replacement Warranty - www.MacSales.com

Mac users can finally play Party Poker for Mac. Not only that, they can also learn how to play PokerStars for Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, laptops, and LCD TVs side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for a new cell phone GPS products or MP3 players. The Ciao network makes searching products easy for you.

MacBook/MacBook Pro / MacMini / iMac Intel Core2 DUO DDR2 667Mhz 4GB Kit $84, 3GB Kit $60, 2GB Kit $40 1GB $20. Click to Maximize your Macs...

Sorry, fans of the iPhone, but you won't be able to buy an iPhone from your local Cingular dealer when Apple officially launches the device at 6:00 p.m. (local time) on June 29.

You will be able to buy it at the Apple Store, retail or online (and we can only hope this means they'll also be selling AT&T wireless packages). And you'll be able to buy an iPhone at any AT&T retail store - but only at the 1,800 owned by AT&T.

Problem is, a lot of Cingular dealers are franchisees, not company stores, and thus not allowed to market themselves as AT&T stores. According to AT&T, there are 8,000 franchise outlets and other retailers selling AT&T wireless phones and service - and not one of them will be selling the iPhone.

"...odds are, your local Cingular store (until recently, Cingular was the brand for AT&T's cell phone service) probably won't have iPhones," according to Peter Burrows of Businessweek. And that's going to create a lot of confusion and frustration among those who have a working relationship with their local Cingular franchise or simply assume that the iPhone will be available from anyone offering AT&T wireless service.

Greed

It's a horrible example of corporate greed, as is Apple's decision to make AT&T wireless the exclusive iPhone service in the United States.

Apple tempted us all with the iPhone, and then let us know that for the next two years (and more recent sources are saying five!) it would be a Cingular exclusive - thus alienating those who have abandoned Cingular over poor service, those who don't have Cingular coverage, who are locked into other carriers for up to two years, or who are simply happy with the service they're getting from Verizon, Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile, Alltel, and regional carriers.

Cingular became AT&T wireless, and they're ready to reap the harvest of Apple's innovation - and they're not going to share it with their franchisees. That's like Apple introducing a new Mac and making it available exclusively through its own online and retail stores - but not to any other Apple dealers.

It's wrong (but probably not illegal) to arbitrarily block a franchisee from selling the same products sold in the company store, although there may be some restrictions based on sales volume and training.

Price Fixing?

Bruce Hamilton of the Cingular store on University Ave. in Palo Alto, CA, says five people a day have been asking to be put on their iPhone waiting list - which doesn't exist, as the store is a franchise. He speculates that Apple wants to make sure nobody offers the iPhone for less than its US$499 (4 GB) and US$599 (8 GB) retail price - and AT&T can't tell retailers what price to charge.

That would be illegal. According to the Wikipedia, "In the United States, price fixing can be prosecuted as a criminal felony offence under section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act." So rather than allow franchisees to undercut Apple's established retail price, it looks like AT&T is simply refusing to let them sell the iPhone at all.

Well, not completely. There is an AT&T sancationed workaround. Franchisees are allowed to help customers order the iPhone from Apple's online store and sell them AT&T wireless service.

But for those hoping to take an iPhone home on June 29, that's not an option. If they don't go to an Apple retail store or an AT&T company owned store, they're going to be upset at the controlling practices of AT&T and Apple Inc.

PowerPC's last chance: The Mac's history with the G5 CPU, 06.24. The introduction of the G5 Power Mac in June 2003 promised a bright 3 GHz future, and failure to achieve that paved the way to today's Intel Macs.
16:9 computer displays: Let's not go there, 06.17. "...there's no reason our computer displays should match the proportions of our television displays."
Left behind by Mac OS X or up to date with Linux?, 06.04. If you wanted up-to-date software, you may need to run the latest version of Mac OS X. But what if it won't run on your hardware?
More in the Mac Musings index.

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Mac Pro overclocking, Windependence with Darwine, Blu-ray for Macs, and more, Mac News Review, 07.04. Also more on running Leopard on non-Apple hardware, Ubuntu on a Mac mini, the first autofocus webcam with Zeiss optics for Macs, and more.
Wouldn't life be great with an iSlate?, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 07.04. PDAs and smartphones are too small for some tasks, full-fledged Tablet PCs are overkill, and ebook readers are too limited. Apple has the tech to own this niche.
Mac of the Day: Blue & White Power Mac G3, Jan. 1999 - The most colorful Power Mac introduced an innovative 'drawbridge' enclosure.
List of the Day: SuperMacs is for those using Umax SuperMac clones.
July 6 in LEM history: 00: 3 user accelerators - 01: SCSI and FireWire Disk Mode - Stick with the Mac - Computers for college - 05: Optimizing OS X performance - Return of the bumper snicker - 06: Can consumer MacBook replace 2 PowerBooks and a ThinkPad? - Vintage Macs with System 6 run circles around 3 GHz Windows PC - Run Windows apps without Windows
The Macintosh Portable started a notebook revolution, Carl Nygren, Classic Macs in the Intel Age, 07.03. Before Apple introduced the Mac Portable, notebook computers were text-based and ran MS-DOS. Ever since, graphical interfaces have been the norm for laptops.
More links in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2008 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, PowerBook, MacBook, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.