Survey Says Most iPhone Users Love AT&T 490
Hugh Pickens writes "In a report sure to raise eyebrows, CNN Money claims that despite a very vocal group of detractors, the vast majority of iPhone users love AT&T. A survey released this week by Yankee Group reports that 73% of iPhone owners scored their satisfaction with the carrier as an 8, 9, or 10 on a 10-point scale. The results seem surprising, given the pounding AT&T has taken in the media and on the blogosphere about its service-related issues with the iPhone and AT&T's recent iPad-related security glitch. For its part, AT&T says its network really isn't as bad as many people think. 'There's a gap between what people hear about us and what their experience is with us. We think that gap is beginning to close,' says Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman. 'It doesn't mean we're perfect; we still have work to do. But that's no surprise to us, because we have a great network.'" Buried in the penultimate paragraph is the somewhat alarming note that "77% of iPhone owners say they'll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they'll buy another Android phone."
Depends where you live (Score:5, Informative)
Re:All depends on where you are and what you do (Score:4, Informative)
WHERE makes a huge difference. I punted AT&T in NYC due to the maddening frequency of dropped calls. Up in the burbs, I was satisfied with the service, but had to switch when I started spending more time in Manhattan due to a job change. I'm really happy with T-Mobile now, but I suspect that might not be the case if I was out in the boonies.
Re:Ignorance (Score:3, Informative)
Malware != virus, just so we're clear. Do you have any citations to back your claim up about OS X viruses? Didn't think so.
Yes, I do [sophos.com]. Also OSX is a BSD variant, which have had several viruses in the 80's and 90's.
Besides, Apple over-simplifies a lot for customers. When they're talking about viruses, they mean all of them - viruses, malware, spyware, trojans and so on.
It's where you're from... (Score:3, Informative)
I started out with Sprint, then Nextel, neither of which was any good. Could never hold on to calls, mad dead spots, problems with reception at home, etc. Then I got verizon and loved it (but hated the phone). Verizon's service was rock solid, but their data plans were way too much. Then my iPod (which I live and die by) broke and I didn't have the cash for both a new phone and a new ipod, so I changed to ATT and got my 32 gb 3gs. The service in the boston area is on par with verizon. I can't speak to the data network, but there are no significant dead spots, I can talk on the phone and move around, etc. The internet is fast enough for what I need it for when Im out.
Even when I drove out to western ny on 88/86 we mostly had (edge) service. A few dead spots between towers, but good enough.
I think NYC has it much worse than I do anywhere I've been.
So I think it just depends on where you are, and also what your expectations are. If you're a wicked heavy internet user and you travel all over the country, yea, obviously verizon is going to beat the shit out of everybody. But if you mostly stay in a place where att has decent coverage and is not overloaded too bad then it will be fine.
Re:Ignorance (Score:3, Informative)
Are you saying the users are dropping calls and are unaware of it?
I have AT&T and I am not satisfied with their service. I have no complaints about their customer service, but their cell service is sub-par.
My iPhone drops a *lot* of calls - at least a few every day (whether I'm at home, at a client or on the road). I'm in NJ about 1/2 hour from NYC so there's no 'rural' excuse or 'NIMBY' excuse. Hell, I have trouble getting an AT&T signal near the AT&T facility that's 10 minutes from here.
If I'm on the phone while driving (legally 'hands free' via bluetooth, TYVM) I tell my clients that I may lose them and that I'll call them back if I do. There are certain spots on highways around here that I know I'll lose calls once or twice within a mile or two.
Re:stockholm syndrome? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ignorance (Score:5, Informative)
You're asking us to choose from two quotes, that you've put in quotation marks, that you've made up yourself.
The answer behind the stupid question is that the Flash browser plugins crash browsers on OSX. They don't crash the OS.
(nvm that other OSes do fine when Flash goes bonkers)
i.e. The same story as OSX.
Re:Not surprising.... (Score:5, Informative)
Android users come from a more diverse population who are probably not loyal to any one thing but want good 'product' in a smart phone but have no tying factor to the platform.
Let's just say this BS is right. That doesn't change the fac that *80 percent of them* don't believe Android is "a good 'product'". Ignoring how customers feel about competing products, if that isn't an indictment of the Android platform, I don't know what is.
That is 80% of AT&T Android users. AT&T only sells gimped Android phones.
Re:Ignorance (Score:1, Informative)
He probably didn't know about the fact that Apple users are better educated, earn higher wages, and are less gullible than Windows users. Those pesky Nielsen ratings... ;)
http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/10/microsoft-users-gullible-advertising/ [techcrunch.com]
Re:Ignorance (Score:2, Informative)
Oh no, you're not getting away so easily with that one. Here, a word from the messiah [apple.com]: "We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash."
And the story with supposed impressive stability goes on for a long time (and is featured in Apple marketing - so quick to forget "Hi, I'm a Mac..."?)
Re:translation (Score:1, Informative)
A lot of people are more capable than they give themselves credit for
No, in fact the exact opposite is true [wikipedia.org].
Re:It's an iThing. (Score:5, Informative)
I'll laugh my ass off, though, if the iPhone comes to Verizon and it drops calls constantly. If it doesn't, I'll be pissed that, for some reason, every other phone manufacturer can handle weaker coverage but Apple can't.
FWIW I live in europe and have an iPhone which I've used on several networks (and countries) and it performs the same or better as the other phones I've had (last phone was a SE-550.) YMMV, sample size of one and all that.
Re:Ignorance (Score:4, Informative)
Oh no, you're not getting away so easily with that one. Here, a word from the messiah: "We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash."
And the story with supposed impressive stability goes on for a long time (and is featured in Apple marketing - so quick to forget "Hi, I'm a
Flash will cause Safari/Firefox to crash but it doesn't bring down OS X, at least not in my experience. I've had OS X crash on me a few times for all kinds of reasons but never because of "Adobe Flash" of all things. As of it's latest iteration even Safari doesn't even crash on you anymore because of Flash. It just throws up a dialog box [ignorethecode.net] informing you that Flash has had yet another one of it's familiar brian farts and gives you the option of sending a crash-report to Apple. You can wheel out some badly worded comment by Saint Steve but it doesn't change the fact that you are just plain wrong.
Re:Meaningless statistic (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not surprising.... (Score:3, Informative)
Mod parent post up. Most people don't realize AT&T carries Android phones that don't compete with the iPhone. The 20% speaks to those phones, not phones like the HTC EVO [sprint.com], which is so popular it's sold out.
Fine print: I work for Google and these opinions are my own, not theres.
Re:Proof that Google has fanboys too. (Score:1, Informative)
I'm guessing you've never actually programmed for Android, as differing screen sizes is no issue to cater for. Instead of using pixels, you use DPI. Very simple.
Re:All depends on where you are and what you do (Score:3, Informative)
They cobbled their network together from a bunch of smaller ones. It varies in quality depending on where you are in the country. Any arbitrary user may be in a great area or have no coverage at all. They are the newest carrier in spite of the old name.
San Francisco is a special case. It's a very small city, but it is made up of 11 hills that are hard to cover, it was almost all built in 1906 after the earthquake, most of the city is only 2 stories tall, the infrastructure is ancient, and there is a political movement here to get rid of all the cell towers, and failing that to slow down or stop new ones from going up, because as you know they are irradiating our kids.
I thought maybe AT&T was getting the runaround since they are from Texas, but I looked into it and they provide same sex partner benefits and were honored by HRC as being one of the best places to work if you are GLBT, and have many diversity-oriented awards so they probably get treated well by the government here. But it was even hard for Google to come in here and get things done when they were trying to do municipal Wi-Fi, so it is probably just a tough town for infrastructure.