Thursday, August 2, 2007

Here's Why Wireless Stores Dislike the iPhone

Verizon, Sprint, T Mobile, heck even AT&T brick and mortar wireless shops dislike the iPhone. Why?


Simple.

If you can buy a cellphone then take it home to (immediately) activate it, why do you need a wireless store?

You don't.

One (huge) side story to the iPhone is the removal of the middle-man in the activation process. There is no question this will become the standard way to activate phones, and it's going to happen very quickly now. Watch and see.

Days are numbered for the brick and mortar wireless stores, and the employees know it. Order your phone online, or buy it at a Best Buy, a Target or a Walmart. Activate at home.

That's why wireless stores dislike the iPhone.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I was in the local AT&T store today - I had to get a replacement SIM for my iPhone - and I have to say that I was glad to have had them in the area.

Applecare could not help (my first location for help) and the genius bar at the local Apple Store could not help (my second location for help).

My point is, the local phone store may not go away - instead it will need to evolve its business model to fit a new reality.

By the way, the people in the store that were interested in buying new phones were ALL wanting the cheap phones. Not iPhones, not blackberries, not Treos.

Anonymous said...

As soon as it was announced how the iPhone was to be activated, I posted that this was the big news. It was not the iPhone. iTunes was the killer app. I can't believe it's taken someone this long to write about it.

Anonymous said...

I bought my last phone from Amazon, and activation on T-mobile went very smoothly.

Don't know if I resist the iPhone until the end of my contract...

Anonymous said...

Now THIS is cool. FSJ is copying FGM!

http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/08/frigtards-at-at-stores-wont-sell.html