I hate to keep picking on AT&T — actually, I don’t — but I found this excellent blog post by Fake Steve Jobs talking about a recent call between Apple and AT&T regarding the iPhone. His Fakeness wrote:
And when I say that “we” have a hit on our hands, I’m really giving you way too much credit, because let’s be honest, the success of iPhone has nothing to do with you. In fact, iPhone is a smash hit in spite of your network, not because of it. That’s how good we are here at Apple — we’re so good that even you and your team of Bell System frigtards can’t stop us. You know what it’s like being your business partner? It’s like trying to swim the English Channel with a boat anchor tied to my legs. And yes, in case you’re not following me, in that analogy, you, my friend, are the f&*(&*g boat anchor.
That’s just awesome stuff.
Steve Jobs is awesome!
ATT is a boat anchor!
That was one of the best articles I've read in a long time. Everyone needs to hit the "source" button and read it. It's great.
My favorite part is at the end where AT&T pretty much sums up their views on network growth:
"I stopped, then. There was nothing on the line. Silence. I said, Randall? He goes, Yeah, I’m here. I said, Does any of that make sense? He says, Yeah, but we’re still not going to do it. See, when you run the numbers what you find is that we’re actually better off running a shitty network than making the investment to build a good one. It’s just numbers, Steve. You can’t charge enough to get a return on the investment.
Now there was silence again. This time I was the one not talking. There was this weird lump in my throat, this tightness in my chest. I had this vision of the future — a ruined empire, run by number crunchers, squalid and stupid and puffed up with phony patriotism, settling for a long slow decline.
“Okay,” I said. “Nice talking to you.” Then I hung up."
Brilliant. Sad, but brilliant writing. Looks like our future is going to be plenty haunted by the ghost of Ayn Rand.
-M
I just noticed the iBong in the pic.