AT&T and Verizon At War Over the iPhone

In case you’ve been skipping commercials with your Tivo, Verizon and AT&T are now at war. It all started when Verizon began an ad campaign against AT&T’s 3G service, specifically targeted at iPhone users. The “There’s a Map for That” ads mimicked the “There’s an App for That” iPhone ads, which are Apple ads, not AT&T. But the point of the Verizon ads is that they have more 3G coverage than AT&T.
AT&T isn’t happy about the attack, and fired back with legal claims against Verizon. The basis for their claims is that the maps Verizon shows don’t take into account the 2.5G Edge network. In fact, the original ads even showed non-3G areas as “out of touch,” which isn’t true.
Of course Verizon’s Droid ads are also a direct attach on Apple and AT&T, using the work “iDon’t” to point out the features that the Droid phone has that Apple’s iPhone doesn’t. And to round out Verizon’s attack, they have an “Island of Misfit Toys” ad which also pokes fun at the iPhone’s flaws.
AT&T is not just striking back legally. They have just launched a new ad comparing “3G Experience” between AT&T and Verizon, touting the iPhone’s 100,000 apps as one reason.
While not really having any immediate effect on iPhone users, this competition may push both networks to add features and better service in the near future. We can hope. It also gives us a clue that perhaps Apple and Verizon are not preparing to partner on future iPhone deployment or a wireless service for tablets or MacBooks. Certainly seems that Verizon isn’t doing anything to please Apple, at least.
Apple’s been busy fighting its own legal battles as the push-and-shove between Apple and clone-maker Pystar continue. This week Apple won a summary judgement saying that Pystar is indeed violating copyright laws in including Mac OS X with its computers.