Skip to main content

Apple Nearly Dumped AT&T over iPhone Disputes

at&t apple iphoneAll the iPhone faithful who have cursed AT&T’s poor reception, dropped calls and shoddy customer service, take heed: Apple feels your pain. And were it not for the gobs of money the company collected from its seemingly incompetent but well-heeled spouse, the two would have divorced years ago.

Like a techie version of an E! True Hollywood Story, a new article in Wired details the uneasy relationship behind the scenes at both AT&T and Apple. Apple CEO Steve Jobs plays the tyrannical Type A wife, AT&T CEO Ralph De La Vega the hapless buffoon of a husband, and the iPhone – the young Hollywood starlet of a child that kept the odd couple paired together in a relentless quest for cash.

Recommended Videos

According to Wired, Apple considering splitting from AT&T several times, going so far as to send reps to Qualcomm to feel out the possibility of a CDMA iPhone on Verizon. Ultimately, the prospects of a costly hardware redesign from the ground up and legal action from AT&T over its exclusivity agreement kept Apple from ever penning its goodbye note and slipping out into the night.

But there have been some spectacular blowouts.

For instance, after the success of the very first iPhone model began to tax AT&T’s network, carrier reps approached Apple with the prospect of switching YouTube to a Wi-Fi-only feature to ease up the load on the network. Apple’s response: It’s not our problem, and we’re not crippling our product to fix it for you.

The early disagreement seemed to set the every-man-for-himself tone of future battles. Other disagreements have stemmed from Ralph De La Vega’s premature announcement of tethering, Apple’s choice of broadband chips for the iPhone, which hadn’t been proven in the United States, and even how the iPhone should be displayed in the AT&T store (it deserved its own pedestal, Apple insisted).

According to Wired, neither company would say a bad thing about the other through its PR channels for the story, and neither has made an official comment in its wake.

Nick Mokey
As Digital Trends’ Editor in Chief, Nick Mokey oversees an editorial team covering every gadget under the sun, along with…
Apple Sports app serves up an ace of an update for tennis fans
And you can download it now from the App Store
A live tennis match in the Apple Sports app

The Apple Sports app is getting a Grand Slam of an update, and it's one which will please tennis fans who are looking forward to the start of Wimbledon.

A relatively new iPhone app, Apple Sports quietly launched in February 2024 and while you don't hear much about it, we heartily recommend downloading this app if you're a fan who likes to keep a keen eye on the latest scores.

Read more
The iPhone 17 Pro Max could pack a curious battery update
A vapor chamber cooling system might point to a new level of performance
The back of the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The iPhone 17 launch is (almost certainly) fast approaching, and while the iPhone 17 Air is the phone getting the most coverage, a new rumor has emerged about another Apple device that’s intrigued me.

The word on the virtual street is that the iPhone 17 Pro (and Pro Max) are going to get a vapor cooling chamber, which would reduce heat from the phone in a new (and presumably more efficient) way.

Read more
Adobe made the best iPhone camera app you haven’t tried yet, and it’s free
Indigo camera core controls.

A year ago, a rather interesting camera tool came out from the house of Lux, makers of the fantastic Kino and Halide apps. The tool is called Process Zero, which essentially ripped the images of Apple’s computational adjustments and delivered a pristine photo. 

I even compared the current-gen iPhone with the iPhone 6s and realized the ills of computational photography. What I noticed repeatedly was that algorithmic processing makes the photos look sharper and more colorful, but they aren’t always accurate. And in doing so, they lose their natural charm. 

Read more