AT&T CEO Caught Gulping Down a Whole Jug of Apple Flavored Haterade

What an extraordinary flip-flop. Now AT&T has bad things to say about Apple’s App Store? Where was this public bemoaning over the past few years? Where was the outcry while AT&T was reaping the financial benefits of an exclusive relationship with Apple in the US?

Now that Apple has diversified its portfolio with the advent of the Verizon iPhone 4, AT&T’s CEO is caught waffling on his love…

“You purchase an app for one operating system, and if you want it on another device or platform, you have to buy it again,” AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson lamented. “That’s not how our customers expect to experience this environment.”

Now granted, he could in theory be talking about Android as well, but let’s be real about this, when you think of AT&T, you think of iPhone. This is clearly a thinly veiled jab at its one time exclusive business partner.

But why be bitter over things now? It’s not like Apple totally ditched AT&T and went exclusive with Verizon.

Instead, Stephenson is now publicly endorsing WAC, or the Wholesale Applications Community, an “App Store” that is platform agnostic if you will.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, that seems D.O.A to me as well.

What do you think about Stephenson’s words of wisdom? Agree much?

[USA Today]