AT&T announced changes to their iPhone and iPad data plans today. Press Release

First, I’m disappointed that they’ve changed the iPad data plan options. They’ve removed the $30 unlimited data plan and replaced it with a 2gb $25/month plan. Many people (myself included) were getting a 3g iPad so they can take advantage of the unlimited data plan when traveling along with the option of turning it on or off when needed. Now you’re stuck with a cap on your data usage, something most people won’t go over but it’s still constantly in your head. I wish AT&T would have just kept the $30 unlimited plan, and made some kind of announcement explaining what’s going on… something like “iPad traffic is costing us too much money, but we’ll still keep our plans until June 1st, 2011 and then we’ll make changes then.” That would have been the honorable thing to do. Also, the $30 unlimited plan was one of the major selling points Apple used to pitch the 3g iPad. Sure, AT&T is offering to grandfather those who are already signed up to the unlimited plan, but that doesn’t help most of the folks who wanted to turn on and off the unlimited plan option when needed. Someone on Hacker News wrote a FTC complaint worth reading, See link

Second, I’m disappointed that they’re charging $20 for tethering when they also are limiting data to 2gb for $25/month. Sure, most people don’t use 2gb and it’s $5 less than unlimited. But if you’re paying for 2gb data per month, you should be able to use that in whatever manner you’d like – either on your phone, or tethering to your laptop or iPad. It’s ridiculous to charge $20/month more for tethering when AT&T isn’t even doing anything. The tethering function is built into the iPhone OS and doesn’t require AT&T to lift a dime. AT&T should let people tether for free, now that they’ve capped data at 2gb for $25/month.

Third, I’m disappointed that AT&T is marketing these changes as “lowered data prices.” They should call it just “changed data plan prices.” What they’re doing seems disingenuous.

This is on top of not being able to use my iPhone inside my home because AT&T coverage is so poor where I am. AT&T is not gaining any points with me. The pressure is building. Apple, free the iPhone from AT&T and open it up to all willing carriers.

Guy lives in 100sqft house for past 10 years. Would love one to try out, but too bad it costs 50k.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37157280/ns/business-small_business

Great article by John Gruber on how Apple releases first generation core products, then relentlessly improves them over time.
http://www.macworld.com/article/151235/2010/05/apple_rolls.html

Arghh.  I hope it’s not true, but blogs are reporting that Apple originally agreed to iphone exclusivity with AT&T until 2012.  AppleInsider Article. Please, tell me it’s not true.  I can’t imagine what Apple must have been thinking to agree to a 5 year exclusive deal with AT&T.  Did they not know of AT&T poor network, poor reception, and dropped calls?  Argghh.  I’m on AT&T solely because of the iPhone, and I’m waiting, waiting, waiting for Verizon to get the iPhone.  I can’t get decent reception at my house.  I bought a $200 gadget that is supposed to boost cell reception inside, but it doesn’t work.

Let me continue my ranting.  5 years!!!  1 year would have been ok.  2 years maybe.  But 5 years! With such a poor network.  Arghh.

Another Article points to the pent up demand for the iPhone among Verizon customers.  People are waiting, waiting, waiting.  But can they really wait for 2 more years?

So, this all leads me to the hope.  The hope that maybe Apple renegotiated the 5 year exclusive deal with AT&T, and somehow miraculously it all ends this summer and Verizon gets the new iPhone HD.  Maybe Verizon will allow tethering on the iPhone as well.  I really hope that Steve Jobs announced a Verizon date at WWDC, July 7th.

I can’t wait till Verizon gets the iPhone. My guess is that Apple will announce something at WWDC on June 7. Now that everybody has seen the next iPhone, they probably have some other news, including the Verizon announcement, to share. But there’s always the chance that they don’t have things lined up with Verizon yet and something is announced later on in the year. But it makes sense that they launch the new iPhone with a bang, and announce it together with a Verizon iPhone.

When the iPhone goes to Verizon, I’m expecting lots of people to switch from AT&T to Verizon (including myself). I get such poor reception at our house that my iPhone at home is basically just an ipod touch. My Dad who’s on Verizon might switch to an iPhone if Verizon gets it. I just met with a friend who’s telling his 4 year old daughter that he’s going to ditch his Blackberry and get an iPhone when Verizon gets it (he gets no reception at home with AT&T, so he’s forced to go with Verizon). And I think there’s a lot of people just waiting to get a Verizon iPhone.

Come to think about it, why shouldn’t the iPhone be on Tmobile and Sprint as well? I say the more the merrier. Give customers a choice of whatever phone carrier they want.

Also, I know Apple doesn’t want to fragment the iPhone market, but I think it’ll be a good move if Apple comes out with different versions of the iPhone, just like they have different versions of the iPod. Maybe an iPhone Nano. And the regular iPhone with colors. There’s just so many Android phones coming out, Apple needs to give the customers more choices.

Here’s my guess on what the next iPhone will be:
iPhone HD
double screen resolution, 640×960 (best screen on mobile phone ever)
better battery life
better reception due glass-like backing
720p HD video recording
5 megapixel camera with flash
front-facing camera with iChat app for video conferencing
AT&T version available mid to late June
Verizon version available in August-September timeframe

Lino and Mona will be representing GP Apps at WWDC 2010 this year.

Charlie Stross has an interesting article he titles “The Real Reason Steve Jobs Hates Flash”, though it’s more about the rapid changing PC computing sector and Apple’s vision to stay ahead. Here are some interesting parts of his article…

“I’ve got a theory, and it’s this: Steve Jobs believes he’s gambling Apple’s future — the future of a corporation with a market cap well over US $200Bn — on an all-or-nothing push into a new market.”

“here’s Steve Jobs’ strategic dilemma in a nutshell: the PC industry as we have known it for a third of a century is beginning to die. PCs are becoming commodity items. The price of PCs and laptops is falling by about 50% per decade in real terms, despite performance simultaneously rising in real terms. The profit margin on a typical netbook or desktop PC is under 10%.”

“My take on the iPhone OS, and the iPad, isn’t just that they’re the start of a whole new range of Apple computers that have a user interface as radically different from their predecessors as the original Macintosh was from previous command-line PCs. Rather, they’re a hugely ambitious attempt to keep Apple relevant to the future of computing, once Moore’s law tapers off and the personal computer industry craters and turns into a profitability wasteland.”

“Operating system, hardware platform, and apps define an ecosystem. Apple are trying desperately to force the growth of a new ecosystem — one that rivals the 26-year-old Macintosh environment — to maturity in five years flat. That’s the time scale in which they expect the cloud computing revolution to flatten the existing PC industry. Unless they can turn themselves into an entirely different kind of corporation by 2015 Apple is doomed to the same irrelevance as the rest of the PC industry — interchangable suppliers of commodity equipment assembled on a shoestring budget with negligable profit.”