Mixed Messages from AT&T and Apple on iPhone Apps

Dec 9, 2009 5:23 PM

AT&T's iPhone site, which highlights the
phone's video-sharing feature.
Source: ATT.com

Here’s another case of “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” An AT&T executive suggested during a conference today that the company might, in the long term, implement “some sort of pricing scheme that addresses the [heavy] users” of the iPhone, because, according to ComputerWorld, AT&T says only 3% of its smart phone users—mostly of the iPhone—are responsible for 40% of its total data usage.

Most of that heavy usage is audio- and video-based. Yet, both Apple and AT&T encourage iPhone owners to use more of those bandwidth-hogging features. If you’re shopping for an iPhone, for example, and want info on all the cool things you can do with it, you'll see that one of the highlights is viewing YouTube videos.

Then there’s the new built-in video recording capability on the latest iPhone. Users are already sending videos from their iPhone to friends and family, something AT&T is encouraging.

iPhone users: How do you feel about the possibility that AT&T might charge you more for viewing videos or listening to music over its 3G network?

—Donna Tapellini