We all know that T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere isn’t afraid to voice his thoughts when another carrier does something that he doesn’t agree with. Just last week we saw AT&T raise their activation fees for their customers and Legere was the first one to let them hear about it on twitter. Well today AT&T announced that they will have an exclusive on the upcoming Amazon Smartphone. Guess who wasn’t a big fan of that announcement? AT&T is no stranger to exclusives on devices, with them being the first carrier to sell the iPhone back in 2007. They were also the first carrier to sell the HTC First, HTC’s Facebook device. Mr. John Legere took to his Twitter account to let the folks over at AT&T and Amazon know of his disapproval of this big announcement.
Mr. Legere has a pretty good point about exclusivity, as it makes it a lot harder for consumers to get the devices that they want. Legere pointed out that when one big company like AT&T and an even bigger company such as Amazon get together in an exclusive partnership it makes the industry feel small and gives fewer options to consumers. To get into the device they want consumers in this case now have to consider switching carriers, even if they are okay how their current carrier is treating them. Another thing that Legere pointed out in part of his five tweet rant, is that AT&T hasn’t had the perfect track record with exclusive devices. The HTC First was probably AT&T’s worst device launch in a few years, selling about 15,000 units. Now that’s not to say they have had a horrible time with devices launches, as the Apple iPhone brought a ton of new customers to AT&T. The fact that T-Mobile and Amazon are Washington companies is also a little upsetting for Mr. Legere, as he claims they are showing no hometown love!
Now in fairness, there is really no way to tell if this exclusivity will work out for AT&T and Amazon. Amazon seems to be depending on the success that the iPhone had when it first launched on AT&T’s network. However, the mobile industry was a lot different back then, with not as many players in the game, as there is today. I am sure we will be hearing a lot more from John Legere on this matter, stay tuned!
