The iPhone 4: Verizon vs. AT&T

By Aman Judge

With the recent news of Verizon Wireless selling the iPhone 4, the question arises if other iPhone users will make the switch from AT&T to Verizon. Although the iPhone 4 was exclusively on the AT&T network, Verizon had been toying with the idea of selling the iPhone as soon as AT&T’s exclusive contract ran out. Now, its dream has finally come true, and AT&T is no longer the only network for the iPhone 4.

What is AT&T doing to keep its customers from switching to the most-used cell phone network in the nation? For starters, advertising.

In a recent ad, AT&T promises its customers that they can surf the Internet while taking a phone call. The ad plays off of relationships and the human ability to forget things, but in essence, the ad tries to one-up Verizon.

According to a New York Times blogger, Verizon’s network isn’t capable of allowing its iPhone 4 customers to multi-task. This includes, but is not limited to, the ability to surf the Internet while taking a phonecall. Some may ask what is the point of having a smartphone, let alone an iPhone, if it lacks the ability to access data while talking on the phone, and AT&T is taking full advantage of its technological superiority. Verizon explains that a customer can surf the internet while taking a call, but only in its “Wi-FI hot spots.” Although this is helpful, these “hot spots” do not cover the all of the areas serviced by cellular data plans.

The idea of accessing the Internet while talking on the phone is something that smartphone users do on a regular basis. As long as Verizon can’t offer this feature on its iPhone, it might not make sense for consumers to make the switch from AT&T to Verizon.

AT&T is also taking advantage of the negative attention Verizon is receiving due to its smartphone limitations. As most know, smartphones vary from cell phone service to cell phone service, but AT&T is advertising both its new smartphone, which allows multi-tasking, and its strong system.

This has placed Verizon in a tight spot. The Verizon flagship store in New York only had eight people waiting in line to purchase this much anticipated product, but Verizon remains optimistic. Verizon realizes that it has a different market to appeal to in the Mid-Northwest area of the United States, which AT&T doesn’t serve well. Not only does Verizon serve these parts of the country neglected by AT&T, it continues to have a stronger service and quality of calls throughout the nation. While AT&T has begun to compete with Verizon’s service, it still falls short.

Both networks continuously battle for customers, and to do whatever it takes to hold on to the customers they have. Although both networks have their downsides, Verizon seems to be winning in this battle, especially when it comes to customer service and quality. Now with the introduction of the iPhone 4 into Verizon, AT&T has to fight harder to compete. So far, it has experienced victory with the low turn-out of customers outside of Verizon stores, but this is just the beginning.

Will Verizon still continue to compete with AT&T or will its popularity suffer with all of this negative attention?

My Phone=My Life

Most of us can’t get through the day without our cell phones. We feel naked and separated from society; we have to consistently be in the know. We constantly use them in the car, walking down the street and working out; we even attempt to discretely mess around on them in restaurants.

Some are so in love with their cell phones that they are taking them to the grave. An article posted on The Huffington Post, revealed some people are taking cell phones, BlackBerrys and Wii consoles with them when they are buried.

Isn’t this a little ridiculous?

Most of us use our cell phones for basic features: phone calls, texts and e-mails. In this generation, however, we use cell phones for much more. We have to immediately be aware of anything posted on Facebook and Twitter, and thousands of apps are now available for free. From ESPN to Urbanspoon, at the tip of your fingers, you easily find apps capable of providing any kind of information.

Multimedia has officially consumed our lives, and it’s becoming very clear that some people just can’t seem to live without it. According to a study released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, teens between the ages of 8 and 18 devote an average of seven hours and 38 minutes over the course of a typical day to media use. This includes cell phone, iPod, video game and TV use.

As PR majors, we are encouraged to have multimedia on our mind every second of the day. We are taught to be aware of the news and to be accessible to all forms of social media.

Are we leading ourselves into a black hole?

The PR industry has turned into a 24/7 job. We have to be available to the public any time of the day. But when it comes to managing our time, when is it okay to step away and take a break from technology? What if a crisis takes place when we are separated from our smart phones? As with many jobs, you have to find balance and know when it’s time to put the phone down.

As much as we would all like to deny that phones aren’t vital parts of our lives, I think that would be difficult to do. Cell phones are a huge convenience, and without them, life just wouldn’t be the same.

By Paige Niewerth

What’s your social media poison?

As college students, we throw around the word “addiction” when we’re referring to our BlackBerrys, iPhones, iPods, Facebook and Twitter pages, YouTube and other media; we’re social media “junkies,” and we fall apart when our crops die on Farmville. But, is social media addiction a real sickness? Studies show social media addiction is very real, and students at the University of Maryland, College Park have made the first step to recovery: admitting they’re addicted.

Two hundred students at the university participated in an International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) study accessing the level of media addiction among college students. After 24 hours of media abstinence, students blogged about their experience, their emotions and their failures. Together, the students wrote more than 110,000 words describing their day without media.

The results? We’re addicted. Students described the same emotions that patients addicted to drugs or alcohol use when speaking with a specialist: disconnected, anxious, worried, alone, secluded, cravings and more. Many couldn’t go the full 24 hours without experiencing some type of media.

One student in the study said he or she was “frantically craving” technology upon returning home from class. The student “cheated a little” and eventually succumbed to the lure of media.

“At that moment, I couldn’t take it anymore being in my room … alone … with nothing to occupy my mind so I gave up shortly after 5 p.m.,” said the student. “I think I had a good run for about 19 hours and even that was torture.”

In the age of new media, we use social media to stay connected. We use it for news, and we often use it instead of a text message or phone call. It’s one more medium that brings us together — who wants to be a social media outcast?

This study isn’t the first of its kind. When Retreveo sent out a survey to gauge social media use, it found that 61 percent of people under the age of 25 have to check Facebook at least once a day, and 48 percent of people check or update their Facebook or Twitter account right before going to sleep.

Who’s to blame for this constant craving of social media? For many, it’s the iPhone. In a Stanford University survey, as reported on TechNewsDaily, only 6 percent of 200 iPhone-owning students said they were not addicted to their iPhones. Fifteen percent said the iPhone was turning them into a media addict, and 30 percent called it a “doorway into the world.”

I relate to the iPhone addiction; my iPhone is my social media dealer of choice. First thing in the morning, I check e-mail and Twitter before getting out of bed; right before I go to sleep, I check e-mail and Twitter one last time for that one last fix. I check Twitter constantly throughout the day on my iPhone or on a Twitter application on my Mac’s desktop. A day without Twitter may as well be a day without water; if I’m too busy to check my Twitter, I’m thirsty for it the second I’m free.

Is there a place for us social media addicts? Absolutely. The Social Media Addicts Association, founded by “Jerry,” aims to help recovering social media junkies by offering opportunities to recognize their problems and confess on the anything-but-serious Web site. He sells T-shirts warning friends to “Stop writing on my wall,” or defriend him and encourages visitors to sign a petition banning social media.

Although a judge may never sentence someone to 28 days in social media rehab, the addiction is very real. Think about the last time you went an entire day without checking Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace or whatever you consider your poison. How did you feel?

If you’re an addict, and you’re ready to admit it, what’s the next step in recovery? Should we quit cold-turkey or slap on a social media nicotene patch? Should we even quit at all?

In this day and age, social media use is a must for PR people. The key to keeping an addiction from taking control: tweet, Facebook and connect in moderation.

by Allison Cook

Up-to-date in PR? There’s an App for that (or several)

Apple dominates the Smartphone market today because of its 100,000 plus applications, but other Smartphones are catching up. With all the available apps, why not take advantage of the great resources held in your hand? There are apps available for your Smartphone of choice featuring everything from making a to-do list to translating languages, and there are several tools that can specifically help public relations students or professionals. Mobile devices drive much of the value we receive from social media. Being away from the computer doesn’t limit students and professionals who use Smartphones to stay productive.

What are PR professionals using to stay informed, send information and stay on the media’s radar? Of course you have all your social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others, but there are more ways to utilize social media with apps like Asap – Social Media. Asap – Social Media contains predefined news feeds such as Mashable, Soshable and socialmediatoday.com.

There are several apps for recording. Apps such as VR+ are convenient when recording interviews or leaving yourself a reminder on the go. VR+ for BlackBerry and iPhone/iPod Touch can send voice e-mails and share your voice to social networks for play-back on any Mac, PC or mobile device. YouNote makes it easy to take notes with covered–audio, text, and image notes and adds the ability to draw notes and bookmark Web pages with notes. Timewerks features data export and multiple active stopwatches.

A Personal Assistant app allows you to access and manage all online accounts in one place for free. After adding your accounts (such as bank accounts, social networks and online shopping accounts), the app allows users to manage them password-free.

The AP style app features searchable listings for the main, sports, business and punctuation sections. This app is obviously helpful for public relations writers when communicating with the news media because a solid grasp of AP style not only adds credibility to your work but also prevents excessive editing.

Public relations students and professionals should use apps that keep them informed. A good blog and RSS feed reader are great for PR people. Viigo for BlackBerry tweets articles, shares them with contacts, stays connected and receives real-time alerts when keywords you’ve selected appear in your channels. Ping.fm lets you post updates from your mobile device to more than 40 social networking sites. Plenty of mobile apps exist for Web tools, including WordPress for blogging, YouTube for video and Flickr for photos. You can access, create and share content from anywhere, anytime.

The apps mentioned are just a handful of the great resources for a PR person. Browse through the app store and you can find several apps that can make your life easier and keep you on top of the PR industry. Before installing an app, read users’ comments; they can be very helpful and save time if an app isn’t working correctly or isn’t what it claims to be.

What apps improve your PR knowledge?

by Autumn Winsett

Apple v. AT&T: The MMS Blame Game

MMS. Who would have known that one little abbreviation could cause such an uproar in the technology community?

AT&T released Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, for Apple iPhone users on September 25, 2009, allowing customers to send pictures and videos through text messaging. It seems like good news, so what is all the fuss about?

According to the Apple Insider Web site, Apple announced iPhone’s capability to support multimedia messaging in June, but the actual service would not be available for use until “late summer” through iPhone’s only carrier: AT&T. Most iPhone users assumed “late summer” meant July or August, but those months came and went without the slightest hint of MMS availability.

Since then, AT&T and Apple have endured harsh criticism from customers, bloggers and technology enthusiasts about such a delayed release of a feature that has been promised since June and available in most other smart phones for years. Some customers have even gone so far as to file lawsuits against AT&T and Apple for breach of contract and deceptive and illegal trade practices.

But the real question remains: who is to blame for this mess, Apple or AT&T?

Most customers seem to blame AT&T for their MMS distress. While Apple announced the MMS capability in June, it was AT&T that delayed the release until three months later to ensure their service would be compatible with the new iPhone MMS software and could handle the increased data usage.

Customers sued AT&T for deceptive practices when sales representatives made false assurances about the availability of MMS to customers who purchased iPhones. AT&T customer Kyle Irving of Minnesota claims AT&T sales representatives assured him the MMS service on his new iPhone would work by the end of July, when it actually became available only last week.

Clearly, AT&T is in the middle of a public relations crisis. But they are not shying away from the criticisms and challenges.

On September 3, AT&T released a YouTube video featuring “Seth the Blogger Guy” to respond to the negative criticism surrounding the delayed MMS update. The video explained that AT&T is aware of the negative criticism surrounding the company and dealt with the negativity “head-on.” In the video, Seth, an AT&T employee, addressed the technical problems associated with the new service, including the recent dramatic increase in smart phone usage that is pushing the system to its limit and the complexity of updating the network to support MMS for the iPhone.

Although AT&T may be the likely contender for blame in this situation, one thing is certain: AT&T is not backing away from the challenge of saving its public image. Not only did AT&T release the YouTube video, but the MMS update launched successfully. I have already sent numerous MMS messages on my iPhone without a single glitch. While AT&T’s public relations battle is far from over, the company continues to take steps in the right direction.

by Jessica Boyd

Financial Crisis or Moral Crisis?

USA Today recently pointed out that corporate apologies are becoming more and more rare in the face of the current economic crisis. The article argues that CEOs see admitting blame as a sign of weakness, even though the article claims that “In 2004, professors from the University of Michigan and Stanford University found that companies that accepted blame for poor performance in annual reports were more likely to outperform the market the following year.”

The most recent public apology in my memory was when Jose Canseco expressed regret over the effects of his book, “Juiced,” an exposé on steroid use in Major League Baseball. Unfortunately for Canseco, his apology is too little too late. An investigation into steroid use in baseball has tainted the reputation of the sport and many of the players mentioned in his book as steroid users have had their reputations, careers and Hall of Fame chances destroyed by Canseco’s claims.

When will an apology be too little too late for the major firms involved in the financial crisis?

Linda Stomato of the Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution defines an apology simply in the Ivey Business Journal article “Should Business Leaders Apologize? Why, When and How an Apology Matters”:

“An apology can acknowledge that an injury or damage has occurred. It may include acceptance of responsibility for the mistake; express regret, humility or remorse in the language one chooses; explain the role he, she or they played; ask for forgiveness; and include a credible commitment to change or a promise that the act won’t occur again.”

Stomato also claims that “Apologizing by admitting a mistake—to co-workers, employees, customers, clients, the public at large—tends to gain credibility and generate confidence in one’s leadership. Acting defensively, on the other hand, undermines it.”

If an apology and a place to lay blame restores trust when made in a timely fashion, would that not restore the missing confidence that is tearing the economy apart?

The issue is, understandably, a legal one for the failed firms. Admitting a mistake may not bode well for the company if legal action is taken as a result of the ongoing investigation into the cause of this crisis. This is where a firm’s values come into play, leaving each one with two options:

1. Apologize, admit any mistakes, accept responsibility and outline a plan that will not allow it to happen again. This option risks future legal action, but holds promise of increased consumer confidence and a resulting upswing in the economy.
2. Don’t apologize, avoid litigation and ride out the disaster.

Should a firm work for the social good or for the avoidance of legal action?

Johnson & Johnson’s apology for the 1982 poisoning of Tylenol made the company a PR legend and gave it a socially responsible image. Steve Jobs’ apology to consumers who bought a higher-priced iPhone when the price was cut and his subsequent rectification of the situation proved that Apple is a consumer-oriented corporation. Apologies in the past have been good things.

When will we see an apology, anyone willing to accept responsibility, for the financial crisis? Maybe never. Maybe too little, too late.

Until then, consumers are left to conjure confidence in the economy from somewhere else, but I have yet to see anything that warrants it.

Jessica A.