For years, a good portion of Apple’s commercials have been dedicated towards boosting the rep of the hated AT&T. “The Nation’s Most Popular Carrier” was often cited, as was it’s ability to handle both voice and date simultaneously. Apple, despite knowing otherwise, wanted it’s reality distortion field to spread to the realms of AT&T. It was somewhat successful… after all, the iPhone’s done pretty well in the past few years if I might say so myself. But the consensus was that this wasn’t because of AT&T, but in spite of AT&T. Voice and data be damned. Not even Apple could boost AT&T’s rep.

At the same time Apple was airing it’s pro AT&T ads, Verizon was stuck in a position where they had to convince customers that buying their second-rate phones with their superior network was a better experience than buying the best phone with a second-rate network. Their initial strategy was to bring AT&T’s reputation down so low that even Apple couldn’t sell phones on it’s network.. So they introduced a campaign called “There’s a Map for That”, using Apple’s trademark slogan “There’s an App for That” to point out the disadvantages of AT&T’s network.

Millions of sold iPhones later, they realized that customers would tough out a sub-par network for the best phone. So now what? Simple… bring down the phone. They introduced parody commercials dedicated to highlighting the inefficiencies of Apple’s popular product.

Once again, they failed at bringing down the iPhone. So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right?

Right.

Now Apple has no need to promote AT&T’s network anymore… they have the best of both worlds. The customer no longer has to be forced to be on a network they don’t want, they simply have to choose what phone they want. Victory for the consumers! Apple can now sit back, relax, promote their phones, and let the customers decide which carrier they want. What does Apple care? As long as they’re making money on hardware, they could care less who’s buying it. Victory for Apple!

Verizon, after a difficult four years of waiting, and being forced to attack the phone they new all along was the best, is now in a position where they can rightfully praise the product that they’ve wanted all along. So much for the iPhone having glaring deficiencies… to them, it’s now the second coming of Jesus Christ. Victory for Verizon!

Poor, poor AT&T.

What’s incredible is that two companies, Verizon and Apple, can completely reverse their public opinions on an issue… and nobody will notice! For years, Verizon adamantly said that the iPhone was useless, unnecessary, even inferior to their own offerings, and now that they have access to it they suddenly are able to pitch it as though the world is changing forever. Apple has always taken a neutral stance, focusing on the phone, but occasionally it would highlight the benefits of AT&T in order to silence the Verizon critics. Now? Apple suddenly loves both carriers, both Verizon and AT&T are great, and no matter where the customer buys their phone, everyone in the Apple universe will be happy.

Do customers notice these things? Do they notice that Verizon has hated the iPhone for years and now treats it like the Arc of the Covenant? Do they notice that Apple has always uplifted AT&T and now puts it on a completely equal level with Verizon? And if they do notice…

Do they care?

CLEAR Wireless Internet