Since AT&T has been the exclusive carrier of the iPhone since its launch, it was no surprise that they have pushed that, almost to the exclusion of all other Smartphones. A cursory glance over their lineup shows a noticeable shortage of Android and Blackberry devices, compared to the other carriers. But, according to AT&T’s CEO, now that Verizon is getting the iPhone as well, that’s about to change.
We showed you a metric a few days ago reflecting how light Android is on AT&T compared to other carriers, but Randall Stephenson, CEO, stated “We’re going to be a heavy participant in the Android market this year, so you’re going to see a significant shift in mix.” He went on to say that they will be marketing Android phones “very aggressively” in the near future. When it comes to phone sales, it seems like a lot of the time public perception has more to do with the numbers than the actual feature lists, so perhaps AT&T being a little more open about Android’s capabilities on its network will help keep Android numbers strong as Verizon starts bringing in iPhone sales.
We’re likely to see a lot happening in the next few months as the initial iPhone sales start hitting Verizon, and it could bring some really interesting changes. Glad to see AT&T stepping up their Android game…we’ll see what that leads to in the marketshare battle in the next few months.
[via YahooNews]