Home Phone and Internet $60/moVerizon COO: 'iWhatever'
What do you do when your main competitor is about to unleash the most hyped gadget ever to the cell phone-toting masses? Give said gadget a mocking nickname in a memo to employees.
The Thursday letter to Verizon Wireless employees from Chief Operating Officer Jack Plating is delicately titled "iWhatever." In it, Plating acknowledges the incessant iPhone hype and assures employees that AT&T can't match Verizon's service, choice of phones and extras, like music.
"A day hasn't gone by over the past two weeks when someone hasn't asked me what our response to the iPhone is. I meet each of these opportunities with enthusiasm, because the iPhone is simply a response to you and what Verizon Wireless has achieved," he writes.
In his pep talk, he calls AT&T's iPhone "yet another attempt to stay competitive with us," but adds that he's "not ready to dismiss the impact of the iPhone" on Verizon. Moreover, he says, AT&T's data network speeds are half that of Verizon's. And, he says, "a device is only as good as the network it's on, I expect AT&T to ignore the network service completely and focus squarely on the device."
Verizon is not letting AT&T completely dominate the day today--the company said its stores will be open until 9 tonight with special deals on some devices.
Jack your enemy isn't Apple Inc. remember? Put the word
"iWhatever" in the memo? What kind of message are you sending
to the public? That you're AT&T rival? Or, an Apple rival?
You can do better than that Mr.iWhatever!!
the iPhone.
Game over, Verizon, you lose.
to say but bash the competition.
coverage when raving about its speed. Possibly because the size of
the network is miniscule compared to AT&T, regardless of how fast
it is. Step out of Verizon's northeast region for a minute and you'll
think wireless hadn't been invented yet. True, a device IS only as
good as the network it's on - but it's not only as good as the
"speed" of it's network.
How many of you know that AT&T has been working to improve the EDGE network and that will benefit all AT&T EDGE network customers. By the way the AT&T BlackBerry devices use this same network.
The iPhone cannot survive on wireless alone. Just as in other PDAs/Smartphones, the Wi-Fi feature is a supplement to using the wireless network.
were Apple's first choice but to dumb to recognize a tipping point
when they see one. For this Verizon's "Captn Jack Plating" should
be fired!
If Verizon had chosen to offer the iPhone AT&T customers would be
waiting in line today for a Verizon contract instead of the other way
around.
- HILARIOUS
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by shizenmeister04
June 29, 2007 4:05 PM PDT
- This is hilarious!
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See all 31 Comments >>The only reason they turned down the iphone was because they couldn't put the crappy red bars on it!