Apple wades into AT&T-Verizon feud

The last week or so's been pretty rough for AT&T. First, its request for an injunction against Verizon Wireless and those "There's a map for that" ads was brushed aside by judge, and then it faced a wave of ridicule for its hastily produced "Let's compare" commercials starring a haggard-looking Luke Wilson.So perhaps it shouldn't come to a huge surprise that Apple has come to AT&T assistance with a series of new ads touting not just the iPhone itself, but also AT&T's network—and specifically, AT&T's ability to handle both voice calls and data at the same time. AllThingsDigital has both of the new ads(slated to run during "House," "The Daily Show," and "Dancing with the Stars," among other shows) embedded in this post, and both feature the familiar white background, friendly music, and a finger tapping away on the big iPhone interface. In one of the spots, the voiceover says: "Say you're on a call, and your friend wants to know..." (cue the friend) "...what time's the movie?" The finger taps up movie showtimes on the screen, and the voice returns: "You can tell him ... all without ever leaving the call." In another example from the second ad: "Say you're on a call with a client, and he asks..." (here's the client) "Did you get my e-mail?" The finger taps to open the message, and the voiceover says, "You can say, yep, got it right here." After a few more examples comes the capper: "Can your phone and your network do that?" Cue the Apple and AT&T logos. The new Apple ads come just days after AT&T's widely mocked commercials from last week, in which an unshaven Luke Wilson stood in front of a big orange comparison chart, giving points to AT&T its ability to let chatters "talk and surf at the same time" and having "access to over 100,000 apps," while Verizon only got credit for "name that starts with the letter 'V'." But while these latest Apple spots are certainly more polished than the Wilson ad (which, as I wrote last week, was at least a better idea on AT&T's part than its misguided lawsuit was), they still pale compared to Verizon's devastating "Map for that" ads, which feature twin U.S. 3G coverage maps: one practically bathed in red for Verizon, the other patchy blue for AT&T. And besides, while it's nice to be able to make calls and surf at the same time, it's not much use if your calls keep getting dropped.