DMGAT&T Choking on Their Own Success
The Wall Street Journal says that AT&T has squandered the opportunities offered by the iPhone, and the New York Times notices that AT&T's network isn't keeping up with iPhone data usage.
John Gruber nails it: "They charge a premium for crummy service, still don't offer tethering or MMS, and the problems are getting worse, not better."
When I look at what's happening, I see a culture clash between Apple and AT&T. For a telephone company, having a super-popular new product is success. In the tech sector, it's a wave of opportunity that has to be met with concerted, focused effort to keep up with rapidly-scaling demand.
Michael Mulvey speculates that AT&T expected iPhone users to act like New Year's resolution gym members, guzzling data at first, then getting bored with their new toy and going back to just making calls and occasionally checking their email.
Whatever the reason is why the iPhone is causing such trouble for AT&T, I think this is a powerful example of why user interface is profoundly important. There are plenty of other phones that do what the iPhone can do. But it's the iPhone that people actually use, and in enough volume to choke a major telecom's network.