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No iPhones for North Dakota

Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 4:55 PM - by

There are no Apple retail stores in North Dakota, and AT&T service is not offered there. So residents of North Dakota will not be able to use an iPhone, according to KFYR-TV in Bismark.

When a technology device is as popular as the iPhone, it's easy to assume that everyone in the U.S. will be able to buy and use one. However, Bill Scheffler, a Macintosh computer specialist at Minnesota State University, Moorhead, has pointed out that a lot of people there [ND] want an iPhone and "they're not happy it`s not available in the area."

The closest Apple retail store is near Minneapolis. Still, without AT&T wireless service, the device would be worthless in North Dakota. Mr. Scheffler is hoping for changes in future iPhone models that might work out some of the kinks.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:42 pm

There is no AT&T service in Montana either, and I believe that's also the case with South Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho as well.

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Sir Harry Flashman said:

member since 08 Feb 2007 with 792 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:00 pm

Sparsely populated and expensive to build cell towers when there are not enough subscribers to pay for the infrastructure.

I remember reading a few months ago that the Governor of one if the Dakotas wanted to bring more cell service to the state by floating a balloon with cell equipment across the state from Montana. The line-of-sight to the balloon would not be affected, much, by terrain features and the curvature of the earth. The balloon would be brought down at the eastern border and the equipment would be used again, there would be a reward for returning the electronics. The article said that it would be much cheaper than building towers all over the place even with the loss of some equipment.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:43 pm

Same for Northwestern California (a mere couple of hours drive from 1 Infinite Loop), Southwestern Oregon, Idaho, and most of Vermont.

Hmmm... GSM/AT&T only, what a great way to get your product out there.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:00 pm

Apple approached many carriers, only ATT agree with there demands. Mainly not having the carriers logo on the phone and not to disable and of the phones feature. Another one was that it was not allowed to be available at retail locations only independent store, and as a lot Verizon store are in Circuit City, that did not fly. Plus going with a carrier that uses GSM instead of CDMA technology, they can release it to the rest of the world without changing a thing... A Hugh savings on cost.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:38 pm

Guest wrote:
Plus going with a carrier that uses GSM instead of CDMA technology, they can release it to the rest of the world without changing a thing... A Hugh savings on cost.

Not to mention a huge INCOME savings as well.

Seriously, I keep hearing this argument over an over again, "the rest of the world uses GSM so tough it out." Well, the 130 million or so of us who happily use CDMA in the USA beg to differ! This is unbelievably STUPID! The advantages of being able to sell your product to a vastly larger audience outweighs any trivial savings from not developing a CDMA version (the two radios aren't THAT different). The loss will be Apple's in both reduced income and iPhone market share.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:47 pm

No iPhone for Montana either. The closest AT&T or Apple store is in northern Idaho for western Montana or Minnesota for eastern Montana. Oh well, I guess I'll wait for the widescreen iPod.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jun 29, 2007 12:30 pm

Guest wrote:
Same for Northwestern California (a mere couple of hours drive from 1 Infinite Loop), Southwestern Oregon, Idaho, and most of Vermont.

Hmmm... GSM/AT&T only, what a great way to get your product out there.

Have you bothered to look at the terrain in Southwestern Oregon? Besides being sparsely populated (the cities of Medford, Ashland, and surrounding, are covered), it's very mountainous. There are lots of places in that area where you cannot get FM radio reception, despite a lot of repeaters scattered around.

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