ATT Launches two Stars in search of ubiquity

Implications: - ATT has been earnestly branding themselves attempting to become a collective company as smart, insightful and successful as Cingular
- ATT desires to emerge as the market leader with this well thought-out handset support
- Another instance of Cingular trumping T-Mobile with A-GPS and Motorola's Instant Messaging


Analysis: Att's deployment of the Pearl and Palm Treo 680 is impressive.  Att's ability to push these popular products through their Acceptance Testing was ultra fast for this large multi-RBOC organization.  It is my opinion that ATT Mobility, once Cingular, will use their larger presence and negotiating power to offer the most innovative and stylish EDGE and 3G handsets.   The market shall witness the results of this innovation when Att Mobility launches VideoShare, based on 3GSM Combinational Services, in this upcoming quarter.

Yes, Att Mobility now has 3G presence in over 100 markets and growing.  Will the applications to fund this build-out justify the expense of the recently deployed IMS infrastructure that will support Combinational Services deployed over their 3G RAN? 

A bit of perspective, as of December 31, 2006 Orange estimated that 2.1 million subscribers would have signed up since the inception of it's 3G deployment across Western Europe.  I was stunned to learn that some 3 million actual 3G subscribers had signed up since inception resulting in 900,000 additional subscribers through the end of 2006.  Att Mobility will see similar take-up rates here in the US surprising analysts and substantiating this interesting acquisition. 

Will 3G supply "the new Att" with greater Voice ARPU and Data ARPU?  Will applications like VideoShare and Assisted GPS drive handset sales and reduce handset subsidies while retaining their customer base?  I think I know the answer but we shall see.....