How I Learned To Quit The iPhone And Love Google Voice
At the end of July I declared my intention to quit the iPhone and AT&T, port my mobile phone number to Google Voice and use any mobile device that I pleased (or lots of them at once) in the future. Like others, I will no longer blindly follow all things Apple.
Context & Ripple Effects
The breakup has been building for two years. GigaOM's 2007 iPhone confession captured the early honeymoon-with-caveats phase, and last month TechCrunch's own broadside against AT&T's network failures turned consumer frustration with the exclusive carrier into open revolt. Days ago, CNET reported that Google Voice would be retooled as a Web app for the iPhone after Apple kept the native app out of the App Store.
What changes with this column is the exit mechanism: instead of waiting on Apple's approval or AT&T's goodwill, the author ports his mobile number itself into Google Voice — making the number, not the handset or the SIM, the durable layer of identity.
First-order effects
- The author, and readers who follow the same playbook, can now swap handsets freely while keeping one number routed through Google Voice — breaking the assumption that quitting AT&T means losing your phone number.
- AT&T loses a marquee iPhone customer over the very network complaints and contract terms (including binding arbitration clauses) that fueled the summer's criticism.
Second-order effects
- Apple's App Store gatekeeping backfires as a product lever: every rejected or delayed native app pushes users toward browser-based alternatives like the Web-app version of Google Voice, eroding the store's role as the only distribution channel.
- Carriers' traditional moat — number portability friction — weakens once a third party sits between the user and the operator, forcing AT&T to compete on service quality rather than switching costs.
Third-order effects
- If porting numbers to cloud services becomes routine, control over a consumer's telephony identity shifts from carriers and device makers to internet platforms, reshaping where loyalty (and regulatory attention) lands in the mobile stack.
- Exclusive handset-carrier deals like the iPhone–AT&T arrangement face pressure when the cost of leaving falls this low; the pattern points toward an ecosystem judged on openness rather than lock-in.
The trend: Mobile identity is migrating from the carrier-owned phone number to platform-hosted services like Google Voice, letting users treat devices and networks as interchangeable.