Computerworld - AT&T Inc. and Apple Inc. are considering adding new features in an iPhone update before year's end to give users alerts when they are about to go over their voice minutes and an option to disable voicemail greetings, according to reports.
The changes under consideration are based on customer feedback, according to Apple Insider and other reports.
The overage alerts would be in the form of a push notification from AT&T either with a message or a sound to warn users they are in danger of going past their monthly anytime minute allocation, to avoid costly surcharges, according to reports.
The new voicemail options would allow users to disable custom voicemail greetings on an iPhone as well as AT&T's standard introduction. Users also could bypass the automated instructions on an iPhone when placing calls to other AT&T customers.
But one analyst, Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates, said the moves, if they occur, seem almost like desperation by AT&T, which is likely to lose its exclusive deal to sell the iPhone next year and is trying to keep its iPhone customers while showing investors that it is serving those customers well.
The overage alerts and voicemail options "sound like lipstick on a pig to me," Gold said in an interview. "They may be considering these things to deflect from concerns about losing exclusivity."
AT&T today would not comment on the possibility of its losing exclusivity in sales of the iPhone or on the latest reports about new iPhone features, but it is widely rumored that the company may no longer be the sole wireless carrier of the iPhone by next year.
"And frankly, it makes sense, since they've had the iPhone for more than two years," Gold said.
The FCC is conducting wide-ranging inquiries into the cell phone industry, including whether exclusive deals serve the public.
The report about possible new iPhone features came only four days after AT&T reported it was enabling MMS in the iPhone 3G and 3GS through an iTunes update starting Sept. 25, three days later thatn a deadline it set in June when the iPhone 3GS was announced.
Last week, AT&T also said it still has not enabled tethering for the iPhone, and has not set a firm date to do so.
While the voicemail options might seem minor to many customers, they would eliminate a problem that has provoked outrage by New York Times columnist David Pogue and others who compalin l that added voicemail messages by carriers only prolong the amount of air time to the benefit of carriers and their revenues. Pogue launched a "Take Back the Beep" campaign to complain about 15-second mandatory voicemail messages.
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