I am a dog person. I like dogs because they actually tend to fare better when given commands and they’re slightly much less manipulative than felines.

In my life right now I have a very odd relationship with my two PDAs. On the one hand, I have my dog. We’ll call him BlackBerry. On the other is my cat. Let’s call her iPhone. Sound ridiculous? Hardly.

Characteristics of my dog, BlackBerry

• Reliable (thank you, Verizon).
• Loud enough to tell me that something is happening, sometimes obnoxiously so to the chagrin of officemates.
• Can keep up with my hectic schedule and willing to go where I go (again, thank you, Verizon).
• Gives off the impression that it wants to be touched and managed.

Characteristics of my cat, iPhone

• Reliable when it wants to be…
• Can not stand to be touched when it’s not in the mood.
• Never available when someone calls it; not even the owner.
• Gives off the sleek impression of something sexy that wants to be touched only to leave user frustrated.
• Can’t handle the data I try to give it, then whines when it’s not being managed well.

With the launch of the iPhone 2.0 / 3G today, I hold hope that the iPhone, which is downright fun to have, becomes more reliable and able to handle the workload. It’s not the iPhone’s fault, mind you; they’re just made that way and they’ve been partnered up with a dog of a network. (Trouble from the get-go).

AT&T needs to understand that the 3G service will only go so far to tackle the true shortcomings of any device on their network. More bars in more places? Not anywhere I’ve been in the past 3 months. Most reliable network? That goes, hands down, to Verizon.

If I were able to whisper in the ear of one Mr. Jobs, my broken record approach would be to force AT&T to look into the coverage grid as a follow-up to their recently touted 3G upgrades.

Enhanced data speed is great (and sexy), but I just missed a call from my client.

C’mon, BlackBerry, let’s get to work.

iPhone? We can play later. If you’re in the mood.

In 2005, based on the information from this article in AdAge (from the source of Brand Keys brought to you by some other sponsor and now a major motion picture in Technicolor), Cingular was tied in first for brand loyalty and engagement with Verizon.

As of September 2007? Fourth place.

In January, I wrote a post about how disgusted I was at watching AT&T dump the MUCH stronger Jax persona to go with the old/new world logo and brand assignments.

Some of the thoughts that keep a marketing executive awake at night are return on investment and brand loyalty. While AT&T is still (very slightly) winning the wireless customer war, they’re not exactly the most well-respected brand. The one thing I can point to that will have the most positive residual effect is that they were chosen by Apple to sell their product. That doesn’t mean, however, that they a) support it very well, or b) have as reliable a network as they claim. They don’t. On both fronts. I’ve been a subscriber before and left them for greener pastures (wrapped in a horrible matrix of bad customer service but better coverage with VZ), and reluctantly returned due to my acquisition of the iPhone.

AT&T should have stayed as Cingular. The AT&T that the Boomers and the Gen X-ers know is one of monolithic legend, tearing through any Baby Bell it can find in an effort to dominate world communications (poorly, I might add).

Will AT&T overcome this horrid representation? Will they be able to do, as is suggested, create an AT&T 3.0? Will it matter?

How Apple Can Help

If, as expected, Apple released the GPS version along with a new SDK, it won’t matter what AT&T does since it’ll be about the second wind of the device, not the service. True, having true signal reliability will go a long way to help the company’s perceived brand promise, but it won’t matter if they not only go with the natural progression of the iPhone, but embrace other open-source devices as well.

Apple is in the unique and powerful position to bend AT&T as if they’re playfully and lazily waving their magic money wand back and forth to a hypnotized AT&T line of executives.

This isn’t such a bad thing, so long as Apple keeps their promise of opening up their device a little (and, really, they’ll only open it a little).

Steve strikes again.