Apple sour? Is that what AT&T were left with after they snagged the iPhone.

AT&T’s exclusive right to be able to offer the Apple smartphone, over the last two years, may well have attracted numerous new customers and did initially improve the phone company’s image. It’s now wondered whether the benefits have been worth the considerable costs both in the short and in the long term.

Investors and federal regulators who investigate such exclusivity deals, are considering some factors. Although AT&T have disclosed at least 10 million successful activations of iPhones since the launch in mid 2007, only around 40% of those were actually new. Source – online.wsj.com