AT&T, the exclusive service provider for the Apple iPhone, said on Thursday it has hired 2,000 temporary store workers to handle its much-hyped introduction of the iPhone, the first cell phone from iPod music player maker Apple.
The biggest U.S. wireless service provider by customer numbers will be the country's only carrier to offer the device when it goes on sale June 29. AT&T and Apple said they plan to start selling the device starting at 6 p.m. local time in cities across the country.
AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said the company hired the extra summer staff for its 1,800 stores in anticipation of "significant demand" for the device. AT&T's wireless division employs a total of about 58,000 people.
AT&T sales staff have received a total of 100,000 hours of training to sell the device, at "the high end of the normal range" with an average of 6 hours per employee, said Mr. Siegel.
Apple, which plans to start selling the phone in all of its 162 retail stores on June 29, did not disclose any plans around training or staffing for the launch.
Apple will also start selling the phone online on the launch date, but AT&T will first launch only in its stores."This is such an important product we want to make sure people are fully informed," when they buy it, said Mr. Siegel.
AT&T stores will close locally at 4.30 p.m. on that Friday to prepare for the launch, then reopen at 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. that night, according to Mr. Siegel.
"We want to free people from the rush of what they would normally encounter on a busy day," he said.
AT&T, which is requiring iPhone shoppers to sign up for a 2-year contract, has not yet revealed the service fees it will charge iPhone customers. The price of an iphone will be either $500 or $600, depending on the storage space in the phone.
Bottomline:
Both AT&T and Apple are working in overdrive to make the new Apple iPhone a smashing success. If Apple iPhone does not takeoff as anticipated, it would definitely not be because of lack of planning, preparation and execution. Rather, it may fail if the consumers do not adopt it by the masses and if the much touted Internet, Music and Video features don't live up to the expectations. Is the AT&T network ready to handle the type of data traffic that an iPhone user will exploit on a daily basis when they are downloading iTunes, Video from YouTube and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and browsing the Internet on the powerful Safari browser? There is also the small matter of texting using the touchscreen - this may involve a user behavior change that most layman users may not be ready to adopt or adapt. Remember Palm and the Graffiti. It never took off since the users were not ready to change the way they write their abc's. There is also the prohibitive cost of the Apple iPhone itself at $499 or $599, the monthly data services cost, and the inherent cost of switching carriers if you are stuck in a contract. All these costs can add up significantly, and can dampen the iPhone launch. However, if AT&T and Apple score high on these potential hiccups, they will launch a home run that will rival the success of iPod. Ten million iPhones may very well become a thing of the past by the end of 2008.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is one of the top 20 innovators of The Innovation Index, and is the number one innovator for 2007 from among the Top 50 Innovative Companies in the world as per BusinessWeek.
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