Cupertino-based Apple is expected to bring to the market in the coming months the fifth-generation of its iPhone, and at least three wireless carriers in the United States are gearing up for its arrival.
One of them is AT&T, which has been the exclusive carrier for the mobile device for a few years, but which lost the exclusivity earlier this year.
Verizon Wireless is the second operator in the country to have
the iPhone available for its customers, and rumor has it that Sprint would be the third.
The fact that the iPhone will land at more carriers is expected to spur competition among networks, yet it appears that AT&T's CEO does not agree with that.
During the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference, AT&T’s Randall Stephenson stated that the effects of new carriers launching the iPhone are “always overblown”,
Cnet reports.
“I’m very confident that we’ll do very well with [the new iPhone],” Randall Stephenson reportedly stated.
“Anytime there’s another competitor launching
Apple’s hit device, the expectations for what would happen to the carrier that had it before is overblown,” he also said.
He is convinced that there will be no difference in competitiveness when compared the previous period.
“The competitive dynamic will be no different than the last time,” AT&T's CEO stated.
Unfortunately, he did not offer details on the upcoming device, nor did he confirm in any way that there might be one or two versions of the iPhone set to arrive on shelves in the near future.
He did say, however, that AT&T has an advantage over other carriers when it comes to the release of the new iPhone, given the fact that it operates a GSM network.
Even so, AT&T is not expected to enjoy significant growth in next year. “We do not anticipate any meaningful acceleration of growth,” Randall Stephenson stated.
One other interesting piece of information that he shared was the fact that
Apple and Google are not the only major players expected to bring appealing devices soon, but that there is another “significant and meaningful player” set to deliver competitive products.
The first names that come to our mind are, of course, Microsoft and Research In Motion, with their Windows Phone and BlackBerry platforms.
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