AT&T PR Strategy Re: the Verizon iPhone

The news today on Bloomberg that AT&T would lose exclusivity on the iPhone in January triggered a small market reaction today, but the larger impact will be felt in the future when the Verizon iPhone is actually revealed.

Losing hold of the LeBron of Smartphones will probably lead to one of the below responses from the company…

“We knew this day would come, no biggie.”

“We broke up with them first.”

“Ya know, it’s actually a good thing, we’ve been meaning to get rid of that extra 20 million subscribers for awhile now.”

“But we still have some hot phones – the Nokia 9900R, the Samsung BB-V78, the LG E-88…”

“It’s just a phone, you guys.  It’s not like people use AT&T just for the iPhone!”

“Fine but our network is still better than…oh wait, you’re from New York City?  Sorry.”

“We still have that exclusive deal for the DellPhone aka the Beige Brick.”

“Fine, switch to Verizon, but just know that Steve Jobs is listening to all of your calls, bro.  And reading your texts.”

“Hi, Research in Motion?  It’s us, AT&T.  Sooooo, you wanna hang out later, catch up?”

Good luck with that, guys.