AT&T sales and service flop with the iPhone

An article from the AP in San Francisco says the following: "AT&T attributed the problems to overloaded servers as large numbers of customers tried to activate their iPhones this past weekend. After being hit with the initial onslaught, AT&T made technical adjustments to its activation system so that new users wouldn't face the same delays." said Michael Coe an AT&T spokesman.

Did Apple forget to tell AT&T that they were introducing the iPhone? Was the introduction of the iPhone a well kept secret? Have key people at AT&T not watched TV or read a newspaper in the last six months? While all of the above could be true, the fact is that AT&T simply dropped the ball as the exclusive provider for iPhones. Their PR statement, as quoted above, is nothing more than corporate rhetoric for a significant sales and service strategy debacle that left many iphone buyers feeling disappointed and irritated.

What AT&T should have simply said was: "We made a mistake and underestimated the sales and service impact of the iPhone introduction." That of course would be a refreshing departure from the sales rhetoric designed to somehow make us feel better about the fact that AT&T wasn't prepared for one of the largest mobile communication introductions in the last 10 years.