The Seattle Times have had a chat with Glenn Lurie of AT&T, the man working closely with Apple on the iPhone. It seems that Lurie has picked up a lot from Steve Jobs while on the project, not least the famous secrecy: He carries an iPhone, but refused to take it out for a photo shoot.
In the interview, Brier Dudley, Seattle Times columnist, asked the tired old question we have come to expect: Will anyone buy a $500 phone (Dudley: "That price gap is why I've been skeptical about the iPhone's prospects.") but also pulled out a few gems from AT&T's iPhone frontman: "There are other things — you have the widgets, some of the Google applications that are coming..." said Lurie. Yes, applications, plural.
Whether this means that Apple are opening up the iPhone to 3rd party developers remains unknown. It could just be that they are working in partnership with preferred companies like Yahoo and Google. But the promise of more applications is something to look forward to at the phone's launch: It's unlikely that Jobs would let this one go without his trademark "One more thing".
Interestingly, AT&T are planning to push unlimited data plans onto iPhone customers. This makes sense. If there is anything Apple likes it's simplicity. Getting everyone on the same plan will minimize customer confusion, and the extra revenue will offset the costs to AT&T when people stop using their proprietary services in droves.
Leading the charge on iPhone [Seattle Times via Engadget]
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