It can’t be fun to be No.3 or No.4 in a market and have your larger competitors step on your head one more time. A survey just out shows that a number of cell service customers will consider shifting to AT&T (T) Wireless when the Apple (AAPL) iPhone comes out. Given that some Wall St. estimates are for service programs to cost $100 a month on top of the $500 phone, that is a lot of demand.
About 11,000 cellphone users surveyed by M:Metrics Inc showed pockets of people who might move from their current provider to AT&T. Among T-Mobile subscribers, the No.4 provider in the US, that number could be as high as 12%. Among Sprint (S) customers, the number is about 8%. Sprint has over 50 million customers, so losing 4 million of them would probably hurt.
The Wall Street Journal quoted one cell executive’s reaction: "This kind of innovation ultimately benefits all wireless consumers," said Cole Brodman, chief development officer at T-Mobile. That is pretty much the words used by all armies in rapid retreat.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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