On the eve of the Apple iPhone’s sale, the top executives of Apple and AT&T defended their decision to rely upon AT&T’s slow Edge wireless data network, rather than a faster network that is less widely available.
Apple’s chief, Steven P. Jobs, saw the choice of network as a trade-off.
Early reviews of the iPhone, while positive, have faulted the slower network because it will limit the palm-size wireless computer’s greatest strength — making the Internet easily accessible on the go.
“It doesn’t concern me,” said Randall L. Stephenson, the new AT&T chief executive, in a joint telephone interview on Thursday along with Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive. The fact that the iPhone offers faster Wi-Fi networking would more than make up for the relatively slow 300-kilobit-a-second pace of its cellular data network, he suggested.
The phone goes on sale Friday at 6 p.m. at Apple and AT&T stores.
Both executives said they were not certain what to expect at the stores on Friday evening. Lines have begun to form in some parts of the country, but there is uncertainty whether a $500-to-$600 consumer product can attract millions, rather than tens of thousands, of early customers.
“We’ve certainly built a lot of iPhones, although it may not be enough,” Mr. Jobs said. Changing a forecast in the consumer electronics industry is difficult, he said, because of the long lead times necessary to build components like semiconductors.
And Mr. Stephenson said, “I think it’s going to be an exciting evening.” He said his company had added about 2,000 employees in an effort to handle what it expects will be large crowds.
Mr. Jobs said Apple planned to limit sales to two for each customer, and Mr. Stephenson said AT&T would restrict purchases to a single phone.
Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/technology/29phone.html