Monday, July 30, 2012

Apple rumoured to be “turning the screws on operators”

Apple, who is currently being beat by Android in the mobile space, might be fighting back, but in a somewhat dirty way.


It is now being rumored that Apple is pressuring carriers that provide the iPhone to do more things on their part, instead of Apple doing all the work.



According to MobileToday, Apple is asking carriers to provide greater financial support for advertising the next iPhone. One carrier said: ‘It wants to put the onus on operators to support the iPhone.’

On the flip side, Carriers are trying to move their customers to Android and Windows Phone phones to avoid the high subsides that come with selling the iPhone (it costs them more money than it should, but they still do it for (hopefully apparent) obvious reasons). This move is really successful, especially for Android. In this video from a few months ago, over 800,000 (probably even more current day) Android phones are activated every day. iPhones are now in a race with Android, but Windows Phone is supposedly catching up with the upcoming release of Windows Phone 8.



When MobileToday asked if companies would sign up to the revised terms, one source said: ‘It’s Apple; it’s a completely different beast from dealing with everybody else. It is such a large company and it gives you just enough information to scare the pants off you. Everyone is over a barrel.’


Anti-competitive moves such as this will make it more difficult for Android and Windows Phone, but as recent court proceedings against Samsung shows, Apple, whose success has been built on the iPhone, is showing some sign of desperation after being overtaken by the Korean OEM, who shipped twice as many smartphones as them the last quarter.


Do you think Apple is going to follow through with this supposed rumor? Do you think this is going to work with the carriers? Let me know of your thoughts in the comments below.