AT&T doesn’t seem to content to merely be the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple’s iPhone; the company has unveiled plans that see it capitalizing on the iPhone platform to integrate the handset with its U-verse and Internet services. The move could increase the appeal of the iPhone—and AT&T product and service bundles—to folks who have been uncertain whether to go with an iPhone, or who are perhaps mulling a BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, or Symbian smartphone.
At an event showing developing technologies, AT&T demonstrated technologies that enable the iPhone to be used as a remove control with the company’s U-verse digital video service, as well as interact with their televisions using the iPhone in a manner similar to a game controller. One demo had a user waving an iPhone to fling virtual tomatoes at the TV screen.
AT&T also suggested customers would be able to access Visual Voicemail from their televisions, as well a download recorded video programming to their iPhones.
AT&T implied some of the services may reach U.S. consumers by the end of 2008, but also noted the technologies are still in development and the company has not yet decided when, or if, they’ll be taken to market.
