For over 7 minutes, The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart reacts to the debut of the Verizon iPhone and decries the past “three or four years” of being stuck on AT&T Mobility: “Those of us in the ‘iPhone community’ have sacrificed one thing for the ability to carry around every photograph we’ve ever taken, or song we’ve ever listened to, or home video, or compass. We have sacrificed the ability to make phone calls. For YEARS, for YEARS!!! For years struggling with the world’s most popular ‘almost phone.’ Well, our long national nightmare may soon be over…”
Considering The Daily Show’s demos, better P.R. for Apple and Verizon (and worse for AT&T) is difficult to imagine:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Verizon iPhone Announcement | ||||
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[Video provided byThe Daily Show. If you cannot see it on your device, please contact Comedy Central here.]
MacDailyNews Take: “Our long national nightmare may soon be over” is so apropos that we used it in our Takes relating to the prospects of the Verizon iPhone back in August 2010 and again just last week.
The unjust tarring and feathering of Apple’s iPhone due to AT&T Mobility’s creaky network in major media-centric metro areas is finally going to end (unless Verizon’s network too becomes overloaded, in which case they’ll incorrectly blame iPhone again). Why do we say “incorrectly?” Because when we have even halfway decent AT&T coverage in less densely populated areas, our iPhones actually work perfectly well as phones, so it’s obviously AT&T network congestion that’s the root of years worth of problems and complaints. If you can’t get some extra capacity approved in neon-flashing problem areas within a 3-4 year timeframe, you’re doing something wrong.
Oh, by the way, Verizon Wireless this morning announced the activation of sixteen new cell sites in the New York Metro Region.
Have at it, AT&T astroturfers, but you’d have better luck astroturfing the entire surface of the moon than in mitigating this so richly deserved P.R. nightmare.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Brawndo Drinker” and “Andrew W.” for the heads up.]
Well, I can hear you, but I can’t get your email if I have a VZW phone and in Alaska.
If I’m traveling out of the country, I can’t hear you now, or get your email with a VZW phone.
Never had a problem, except cranky customer service… I could get that at VZW too. I’m all for competition, but I don’t get the jubilation.
Give credit where credit is due.
Verizon didn’t have the guts or vision to debut the iPhone and disrupt the mobile industry. AT&T did.
Will a CDMA phone work on European and other international phone networks when traveling?
I don’t see the excitement over Verizon. Verizon service sucks!
One of my clients moved their office in late June and their Verizon phone/internet service is still messed up after spending ridiculous amounts of time trying to get them to fix it.
Gotta love those monopolies!
The jubilation over VZ Phone by AT&T customers will be short lived. My experience with VZ prior to AT&T was that of dropped calls, poor coverage areas, etc. Worse, my understanding is that VZ has no ability to surf web while calling someone. This is a real handicap, as being able to look something up while using headphones or speaker phone is one of the true joys of having an iPhone. AT&T customers should look before they leap. For VZ customers, this is a great opportunity to experience the iPhone and since they have not known the pleasure of simultaneously being on a call and on the internet, they won’t miss what they do not know. I am thrilled that VZ has the iPhone and wish it was available on the other networks, as well.
Neither Verizon nor any other cell phone service provider would have handled the iPhone avalanche any better than AT&T.
I’m just hopeful that AT&T will quit treating me like they have me by the balls and show some appreciation for my patronage.
This (the beginning of Verizon’s iPhone era) will be interesting to watch.
I wonder if their network has been beefed up enough to handle it. I seriously doubt it.
By this time next year, Apple will have sold millions more iPhones, and Android will have taken a serious hit, but there will likely be millions of VZ customers wondering what happened to their service.
I feel for the carriers covering this enormous land of ours with infrastructure–but only to a point. What was it Steve called them, “Orifices?” Yeah, that about sums it up.
In this world we live in, the vast majority of the people in the position of handing out decisions are really only good at one thing–doing whatever it takes to obtain (and retain) those positions. Their organizations show it: a one-quarter vision of the future at best.
There is, of course, one shining exception to this rule
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I don’t know about you but I find Jon Stewart very unfunny. I’ve never been able to laugh at his jokes. Can’t see what’s so funny about them really.
Complain all you like, yet ATT allowed the iPhone to see the light of day. Without ATT none of you happy camper would have it and would still be carrying a blackberry or Windows mobile. Now, the iPhone is breaking down barriers that would never happened before. Just because ATT wanted to spin the dice and play Las Vegas odds on a computer company that was turned down by Verizon.
A little pain for changing the world is not so bad.
So, bite the hand that feed you, belittle those who fought through the good and bad so others may follow with greater choices!
Yea!
I’m iCal’ing MDN on this–let’s see how things are four months from now. I will quote MDN on “our long national nightmare” at that time, and we’ll see how MDN thinks about this “savior” when reality sets in.
And, as many others have said, if it weren’t for ATT’s corporate intelligence, we wouldn’t have the iPhone today. How intelligent was Verizon three years ago? Where were they when Steve Jobs came knocking? How many billions has Verizon lost because Apple refused to put Verizon’s crapware on its products?
In reality, the savior is ATT for having the courage and the sense to break old models in allowing Apple to design the best mobile communications experience ever developed.
We wouldn’t have the iPhone if it weren’t for ATT…
Curious. If Apple had come out with an exclusive CDMA iPhone years ago and put their resources developing CDMA where would the iPhone be today? Probably a couple of years behind internationally I suspect. I’d like some one to discuss topic without becoming irrationally lopsided.
I had a discussion with my wife the other day. Got to the point I turned away and walked out of the room. No matter how much louder she screamed there was a point of no receptions. But I still had 5 bars showing up in bed that night.
And if you ever spent time on the NASA site, ever notice the number of time the connection to the space shuttles break down? Even on the clearest night.
I switched to AT&T when I got the original iPhone and gave owned all of them. I use my iPhone for personal and business and have travelled a bit, including a cross country trip. For me, AT&T has been outstanding. I don’t see why people complain. As for Verizon, I despise the company for putting me through 10 years of hell with their phone and Internet service, and I think they are the worst company to try to control and manipulate customers for every penny.
The best thing about anyone switching to from AT&T to Verizon will be that perhaps, just perhaps, it will lighten the load on AT&T’s network…..and then we’ll see how much “ruling the air” Verizon can handle. After years of really poor customer service and “you want that feature, it’ll cost you extra” with Verizon, I can honestly say I’m happy with AT&T and the coverage here in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia is just fine, thank you very much. Methinks some people will moan & groan at anything, just to hear themselves moan & groan.
Verizon, the company from HELL.
I’ve been using AT&T and am mostly happy with them as I travel a lot. I will be sticking with them for now as I frequently need to check emails while I am on conference calls.
Everytime I hear a Verizon customer say,
“…let me check my email and that website and I’ll call you right back…”
I’m going to remember the editors of MDN declaring how wonderful Verizon is while I point and chuckle.
I have had no problems with ATT but watching this vid almost makes me wanna switch. LOL
@ Samural
After spending a couple of years in the Signal Corps, getting my first cell phone the day it landed in the country back in the ’80’s, and still in the communications, I think that I can speak with some authority.
Although it has gotten better, wireless by its nature has had and will always issues. There is no perfect system.
I would suggest that the Verizon service today is not the same as you experienced in the past. The same could be said for every other provider.
What is most important, there is now a second system, albeit with different functionalities and to some curtailing objectivity, we should still welcome it with open arms.
There will be some areas in the country where AT&T or Verizon will provide equal voice service, in some locations, one will prevail. and yet in others, neither will suffice.
So lets keep an open mind. If voice is your most important need, one should test to get the best. If simultaneous voice and data is a priority, there is only one that can deliver without compromise or working around it.
If neither AT&T or Verizon is available, get an iPod Touch.
There is no need to be immature about it.
I’m staying with ATT and here’s why.
I get good service in all areas where I work & play (that’s a few hundred miles in all directions). I don’t experience dropped calls (any more). Next July when I renew my contract I can still get the unlimited data. I can also drop one of 3 phones on my family plan and still get unlimited on the other 2. I can talk and check something online at the same time (once you get used to that it seems to be used more & more often).
And another important thing is that I have yet to catch ATT trying to pull a fast one on me in my bill by sneaking in some bogus and unwarranted extra charge. Verizon would do this to me constantly. I also had so many dropped calls when I was with Verizon that they let me out of my contract with no termination fee.
I wouldn’t be surprised that the majority of iPhone users on ATT will stay with the carrier. Verizon iPhone customers will be:
1. Those who are having major problems on ATT
2. Existing Verizon customers who want the iPhone but couldn’t switch
3. New customers that wanted the iPhone but are in a area where ATT signal is poor
I’m sure some potential customers will hold off if simultaneous data and voice will be important for them or if they are waiting for a LTE phone.
If only the video weren’t in flash!
MDN again throws out their bait. And of course, anyone who dares to say anything in defense of AT&T is obviously an astroturfer.
After all, MDN guys are only human. They have been so excited by the Verizon prospect, they got carried away (and not just a little; out of 15 stories yesterday, 12 were about Verizon/iPhone). For the first time, MDN replaced their home page with a live event coverage for a NON-Apple event. We all will have to be a bit patient with them (until their enthusiasm for Verizon wears off a bit). I’m sure very soon, we’ll start seeing some non-Verizon news stories here too…
For everyone that is declaring how well or poorly your service is, without knowing where you are, it doesn’t help those that now have a choice of providers.
Well, once again we see the 80/20 rule at work. Almost universally, no matter what you talk about, it works just fine for 80% of the people; and not for 20%. Those 20% make 80% of the noise. I for one have never had a problem with my ATT iPhone. If I had, I’d be changing you can bet on it. But to portray this as a national problem of millions of people buying and keeping the iPhone and finding the “phone” part of the iPhone useless is an overblown exaggeration.