Most of the iPhone OS 3.0 features aren’t anything new, they were announced months ago. So much of yesterday’s keynote dealing with the iPhone was not a surprise. What was a surprise was how stupid that AT&T looked when they weren’t ready for tethering or MMS!
I think 29 countries are ready for MMS but not AT&T in the United States and 22 countries are ready for tethering but not AT&T in the United States. What does this say about contracts and exclusivity with they way they are marketing this phone? If some other carriers had this phone they’d be selling like hot cakes as people would be trying to get away from AT&T…
Personally, I don’t see me ever using the MMS (especially if it costs more), I just send my attachments as an e-mail. But the tethering is what’s holding me up from getting the iPhone.
FYI, when the 3.0 beta came out, it had the tethering in it and some people were able to turn it on, so this works. It’s just a matter of AT&T selling it to the customers.
And you’d pay the $30 to $40 a month additional for tethering? No thanks… I’ll just use my iPhone when I don’t have internet access for my computer!
The thing that people are overlooking here is that the United States of America is huge. It’s not like smaller countries where there’s not much network to mess with… nor is it like big countries where most of the mobile phone-using population is concentrated in small areas. When Apple has something new, it’s much easier for other countries to adjust because there’s so much less for them to do. AT&T here in the USA, on the other hand, has to make network changes over vast regions in many, many, many rural areas where coverage is on older, antiquated systems. This takes time. I find it impossible to believe that AT&T just sat on their hands when Apple decided to implement this new stuff… they’ve probably been working their asses off to get started as fast as they can… it’s just that they’ve got SO MUCH MORE to do. So I’m willing to cut AT&T a little slack here, given that their circumstances are quite a bit different then most other carriers on earth.
@Dave2: umm… no.
by your logic, huge countries like china and india should also suffer from the same problems, added to the fact that a lot more people per square area use the same network. if their networks can support mms and tethering from day 1 of 3GS, i strongly feel AT&T is screwing innovation here and making us look bad. Shame on you AT&T!