At 20 Feb 2008 09:55:22 -0800 SMS wrote:

> If you have any citations that dispute the citations which have been
> posted here repeatedly, then come forward with them. Of course you
> won't.

I doubt many disagree with the facts you point out-just the over-the-top
conclusions you draw from them.

Yes, Apple probably approached Verizon first. Perhaps they approached both
simultaneously to get "feelers" as to whether further pursuit was useful.

Personally, I believe they approached Verizon first to "get it out of the
way." Verizon'shistory of crippling handsets made them very unlikely to
play well with the iPhone, and I suspect Apple didn't expect much from
Verizon, but gave them a shot and realized quickly further talks were
pointless.

> The facts about retail subscribers are public documents,

Yes, and the difference in customers between the top two carriers, either
retail or total, is relatively negligible- within 10%. This really
eliminates neither carrier as a desirable choice.

> and the surveys on network quality are available from the publishers
> and no one has disputed their accuracy based on anything other than
> their own sour grapes statements.
>

While true, and while I agree Verizon has a stronger network, it's not by
anywhere near the margin you suggest. If Verizon was as superior as you
believe, why haven't the 50+ million "retail" AT&T customers jumped ship
yet? All contracts run out eventually, so why does ANYONE re-up on AT&T's
"inferior" network.

The fact that T-Mo, the carrier with the weakest network, consistently
ranks at or near the top of customer satisfaction surveys points out that
even their network is satisfactory.

Now if I want to close with an SMS-like conclusion from the above, I could
suggest that the Verizon customer service experience must be pretty
lackluster if their superior network doesn't give them a commanding lead
over T-Mo and their inferior network in satisfaction surveys like J.D.
Powers'!

Or, I could give a Navas-like conclusion and simply type "Rubbish." ;-)

Either way, you're blurring the distinction between "fact" and "unsupported
conclusion drawn from fact."