From what I understand they just want to start a line of AT&T smartphones (since they referenced the iPhone as "a third-party device that takes advantage of AT&T services") and have all of them run on one platform, and are looking at Symbian to do so (wise choice IMO).
Sort of. Not really. Obviously it will be better to provide customer support (ala VZW) but the article says they are doing it to ease application development. It also says they plan to use an open source OS, so it shouldn't be locked down.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
I wouldn't worry, it's not like this affects Blackberry users. Anywho, how many "AT&T branded" smartphones does AT&T have? Only 1 that I can think of. The AT&T Tilt, and it's not even their phone, HTC made it.
I don't understand this whole "provider branded" phone attempt. Unless the provider, AT&T in this case is designing and manufacturing the phone from the ground up, they technically can't put 'AT&T' in front of the model name, like the HTC Tilt. Right?
I can see how it would make application development easier but... wouldn't this mean AT&T would have to create their own R&D department to develop their own phones and OS platform? That would be a lot of money and years of development.
Isn't Google already doing this with the G1? They've created a new kind of platform, the "android", right? I agree that the benefit for the provider to develop their own OS platform for phones would make it a lot easier to create applications that would cater better to customers, IF done the right way. So now it would seem that by announcing this new project this would put them in a place to compete with Google, RIM, and Windows in the phone software & OS department.
wouldn't this mean AT&T would have to create their own R&D department to develop their own phones and OS platform? That would be a lot of money and years of development.
The article says they are looking to use Symbian, which is already developed and quite popular.
