Kwality analysis.
Please note the K!
Who else could it be but Rob Enderle!
AT&T has been cited as the primary reason people return the iPhone. The combination of being unable to get people into service in a timely way and how they treated the customers who were left waiting was one of the worst execution practices I've ever seen.
Well, it was pretty bad, but the Macalope knows you'll give AT&T a run for its money, Rob!
The other problem -- and likely more problematic if the iPhone is going to continue to set an industry pace -- was that expectations were overset for how many iPhones could be sold.
Not overset by Apple, of course, but by other goofballs.
This set a foundation for the device to set sales records and still be seen as a market failure. Apple's valuation paid the price when AT&T announced how many iPhones had been attached to its service -- a number that was a fraction of what folks expected to hear.
Rob neglects to mention that Apple's stock quickly recovered its losses and then some after Apple announced iPhone sales well above AT&T's activation numbers.
Surely he knew about that. Strange he didn't bring it up.
The lesson, in this instance, would be that buyers continue to prefer devices that are optimized for a distinct use over all-in-one products.
On the other hand, if the iPhone outsells the iPod, the reverse will be true.
Genius.
Remember, people actually pay for Rob's analysis. Really. It's true. He has actual clients. Hard to believe, the Macalope knows, but it's true.
I'd bet on the former, but the latter could clearly be true.
Way to go out on a limb there, Rob.
Apple is executing at an incredible level, and Apple employees -- all of them -- have a reason to be very proud of what they have accomplished.
Here, in the parlance of poker, is the tell. By offering an olive branch to Apple's employees, Rob reveals he tried and tried and tried but he couldn't come up with anything really bad to say about the iPhone launch other than that AT&T screwed up and some analysts were guilty of over-exuberance. Rob, here, is basically saying "I got nothing."
How that's different from anything that comes out of Enderle's mouth is simply as it relates to his own perception.