U.S. Cellular Said No To The Almighty Apple And Their iPhone

U.S. Cellular's CEO Mary Dillon definitely is one who looks out for the best interest of her company and shareholders. On the company's third-quarter earnings conference call Ms. Dillon explained the reason why U.S. Cellular turned down Apple's offer to sell the iPhone. It simply came down to the numbers not making good sense for U.S. Cellular. More specifically, Apple's terms were "unacceptable from a risk and profitability standpoint," Dillon said.

Apparently, U.S. Cellular is not concerned that the iPhone would put too much strain on their network because they would be open to carrying the iPhone in the future. Again, when the numbers don't work out in the company's favor they are not going to jump on the iPhone and carry a device if it could jeopardize profitability.

It is surprising that everyone is making a big stink about U.S. Cellular's decision in light of the fact that regional carrier C Spire Wireless has began to carry the iPhone. One must remember these are different companies with differing objectives. As the cliche goes, "if everyone else is jumping off a bridge...does that mean you should too?"

Consumers may not like U.S. Cellular's plans for 2021 when they will be introducing tiered data plans. This can cut either way and hopefully on the side that is not skewed towards company revenue.

Tiered data pricing "will not only help us on monetizing the data growth, but that will also, in combination with lower-cost smartphones, allow customers to move from feature phones to their very first smartphone," Alan Ferber, U.S. Cellular's executive vice president and chief strategy and brand officer, said on the call.

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