How OK is Apple
AT&T
Observers will rightly point out that AT&T has long done business with handset suppliers not named Apple. Jobs hasn't complained about the carrier's associations with Nokia
Because Google is the enemy, that's why.
Jobs badmouthed The Big G at a recent employee meeting, taking aim at both its yet-to-impress Nexus One smartphone and professed company motto, "Don't Be Evil." Ever since, Jobs has publicly treated Google as he once did Microsoft.
Frankly, this shouldn't matter much. Maybe it won't; Apple's fiscal-first-quarter iPhone sales were brisk, thanks in part to deals with China Unicom
Investors still need to watch this relationship with eyes wide open. Taken together with other recent events, including AT&T's joining the Wholesale Applications Community -- a group that hopes to nurture more smartphone apps, and whose roster doesn't include Apple -- it's clear to me that Mr. Jobs and Ms. Bell aren't as close as they used to be.
And they're going to keep cheating on each other.
How soon will Apple introduce an iPhone with another U.S. carrier? Make your voice heard using the comments box below.