7th grade has been using tech all year to support LA and Science…today was a day to kick back and talk about all the amazing things that happen in the world of technology.

Today we talked about the mighty battle between Verizon and AT&T.  AT&T has the iPhone, and pays Apple money for the right to have this cool device on their network only.  Verizon has the best customer satisfaction rating for service (according to Consumer Reports) as well as a much larger 3G network in the USA.  AT&T is mad about Verizon ads that point this out, so they are suing Verizon and they also made some new tv commercials starring Luke Wilson that say “AT&T is better”.

We talked about tons of interesting marketing ploys, competitive negotiations, and operating system constraints. The most lively discussions focused on:

  • Cell phone companies have claimed colors as their own – Sprint=Yellow, T-Mobile=Pink, Verizon=Red, AT&T=Blue&Orange
  • Cell phone companies are really becoming data service companies – most people use their phones for way more than just making calls
  • Verizon just introduced Droid, a new phone that is supposed to compete with the iPhone.  It runs Google’s Android 2.0 operating system.

Verizon attacks AT&T’s 3G service coverage

AT&T fights back