It seems the end may indeed be nigh for AT&T’s status as the exclusive provider of the iPhone. Bloomberg reports that the wireless retailer has begun increasing shipments of other smartphones and has begun to retrain staff to emphasize sales of other devices over the iPhone. So far the plan seems to be working, as AT&T has managed to sway roughly half the customers interested in an iPhone over to other devices.

“AT&T clearly has tried to diversify themselves away from the iPhone, and that’s probably the right strategy since they’ve relied so heavily on the iPhone these past few years,” said Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analyst Chris King. “This handset strategy could shelter them from some customer losses.”

Current rumors suggest that Verizon will begin selling the iPhone in January, making this the last holiday season in which AT&T can rely on Apple’s smartphone to bolster sales. Still, it looks like under the current strategy AT&T is already trying to diversify customer interested and lead consumers toward Blackberry, Windows or other phones.

For their part, AT&T is denying that they’re planning for life after the iPhone, but rather are trying to provide consumers with the most comprehensive information and best available selection for their smartphone needs.

“We made a conscious decision to give our customers a choice and let them decide what is best for them,” said AT&T devices senior vice president Jeff Bradley. “We’re probably there now, at a critical mass.”

Complimenting this new strategy is a new training program for employees which will teach them the finer points of each smartphone the carrier stocks, rather than only the virtues of the iPhone. Stores are also being rearranged to de-emphasize Apple’s phone and shine a spotlight on other models. After years of trying to steer every smartphone customer to one specific device, this is a major change as the retailer looks to encourage sales of multiple brands.

Though the strategy is a sound one it’s strange to see AT&T seemingly concede defeat to Verizon before the competitor even begins to offer the iPhone. While Verizon may indeed offer better pricing or service, it’s not like no one will ever come to AT&T wanting to buy an iPhone again, so why try and steer them away? It will be interesting to see what Verizon has to offer when they begin carrying the product, because if they can truly offer a better experience then they may become the de facto exclusive carrier. We can only wait and see how it all pans out.

[via Bloomberg]

In an attempt to cash in on the “check in” craze created by Foursquare and its ilk, the NBA has announced Turnstile, a new app which will allow fans to alert their friends when they’re attending a game in person or watching on television. Those who consistently check in may be eligible to receive discounts or loyalty rewards at local venues.

“We see location based services as just the tip of the iceberg,” says Bryan Perez, senior vice president and general manager of NBA Digital. “The more we can integrate people’s location information at games, the more opportunities there are for things like sponsorships,” he says, adding there are no sponsorships for Turnstile in place currently.

The move places the NBA in line with MLB, the NHL and some NFL teams who are all using some sort of social media check in platform to increase fan engagement and interaction. While most of these other leagues are utilizing Foursquare for their social media, Turnstile is being built from the ground-up exclusively for the NBA.

The app is planned to launch in concert with the start of the NBA regular season later this month and will be available for free on the iPhone, Blackberry and Android. Just keep in mind that if your Cleveland friends see you checking into a Miami Heat game you may well find your house vandalized or on fire when you return home.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

Speaking as a former Yahoo! employee, I’ve watched them make stupid move after stupid move the past few years. Their biggest, of course, was laying me off last year . For a struggling company it was odd to see them put so much money and time into projects that the everyone watching them just knew would go no where.

So it was with great relief today to see that Yahoo! made, what I think is a smart move today. They are reducing the scope of their mobile applications development to just the iPhone. They will no longer develop applications for Blackberry, Windows Mobile, or Java devices. Instead moving all of those devices and any other than the iPhone to their mobile web.

Yahoo! is going from having to support 300+ devices and dozens of different networks (each with different requirements and licensing fees) to just 1 device without the need to worry about the networks and their extended approval times of up to 6 months or more. This, hopefully, will save them a lot of money.

Yahoo currently has 4 applications released for the iPhone. For the list, check after the jump.

Continue reading Yahoo! Makes a Smart Move, For Once. »

Apple today reported their quarterly results — you can see the full PR here. The important thing to see is that they shipped 6.9 million iPhones in 1 quarter! Wow, that’s huge for a cell phone. This also means they shipped more phones with a single model and carrier than RIM did with multiple models and carriers for it’s Blackberry devices.

Very impressive.