November 25, 2009, 1:31 AM — Much of the storyline about the relationship between Apple and AT&T has focused on the latter's exasperation with the former. The iPhone, the story goes, is bedeviled by the weakness of the AT&T's network, the only carrier for Apple's most prominent product in its own country. But AT&T's attitude towards Apple isn't uncomplicated either. I mean, if it weren't for those data-hungry iPhone users, AT&T wouldn't behaving so much trouble with its network, which makes it look bad in front of the other carriers!
The latter fact has become a particular point of contention now that Verizon is actively taunting AT&T for its poor network performance in ads. AT&T has struck back with a lame effort starring Luke Wilson, who is not particularly well known for his wireless networking savvy, but has appeared in popular films:
This ad frankly makes the "Seth the Blogger Guy" spot look like Citizen Kane. And thus, just as profits from the iPhone have kept AT&T Mobility afloat financially, so too Apple has had to use its own advertising prowess to defend its network partner:
It's certainly a slicker effort, isn't it? It manages to focus on the things that make AT&T and the iPhone better than Verizon without coming across as petty. I mean, sure, it doesn't show you all the times your call drops in the middle of the conversation, but still.
What's interesting to me about this is that Apple has essentially been forced to advertise not its own product, but a service from one of its partners. That can't be very fun for the folks at 1 Infinite Loop, who are accustomed to being in charge of their own destiny. I am reminded of a cynical quip made by the German general von Moltke, on seeing in the opening days of World War I just how badly the army of Germany's ally Austria was performing: "We are shackled to a corpse."
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