iPhone from AT&T to offer subscription music, Satellite Radio, on-demand streaming video??

The folks at The Boy Genius Report have done it again, they seem to have got their hands on an internal memo released by AT&T to its staff regarding critical information on the iPhone and its launch in June. If the memo can be trusted it reveals interesting features that will be available on the iPhone from AT&T for music lovers which were not announced by Steve Jobs in his Keynote address.

The most interesting part of the memo was the mention of the "Your music, Your Way" strategy of providing customers access to music in a method of their choosing. I was under the impression there was just one way & not "your way" to listen to music on the iPhone and that was to download music with iTunes and then sync it to the iPhone from your desktop or laptop.

I did some digging and found this (snippet pasted below) about "Your music, Your way" strategy in one of AT&T's press releases titled "Cingular 8525 Pocket PC Gets New Features, New Name":

"AT&T boasts the largest Push to Talk network in America and its PTT service includes several differentiating features, including "availability" icons, quick group-calling and the ability to easily switch a PTT session to a regular wireless voice call.

To turn downtime into playtime, the AT&T 8525 provides access to AT&T Mobile Music — an integrated, on-the-go music experience that delivers "your music, your way" by providing simple access to the most robust collection of music content available today, including XM Satellite Radio, which comes pre-loaded on the device. 8525 users can easily access and enjoy 25 commercial-free music channels from XM Satellite Radio through the XM Radio Mobile service.

With AT&T Mobile Music, AT&T 8525 users can connect to a one-stop shop for everything music on the handset, such as full-track songs, music videos, ringtones, music news, MusicID, music chat rooms, streaming music and more. AT&T is the first U.S. carrier to offer subscription music to the handset, including music from leading online retailers, Yahoo! and eMusic.

The 8525 will also feature AT&T's on-demand streaming video service, Cellular Video. Customers can watch a large selection of video clips of their favorite television shows, sports, news and weather, entertainment and premium content, including such hit HBO programs as "The Sopranos," "Entourage," "Sex and the City," and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and exclusive mobile content from World Wrestling Entertainment."

Does this mean other than the music or videos downloaded from iTunes, we will also be able to access subscription music, Satellite Radio & on-demand streaming video service with the iPhone?? I am not complaining, but not sure if Apple will allow that as it would considerably limit the sales of songs & videos available on their iTunes store and make it that much more competitive for themselves. Remember they made us buy the Radio remote to have the radio functionality in the iPod after almost 5 years after the iPod was launched and most competitors already had the radio built-in.

After looking at these possibilities I would probably question the authenticity of the internal memo as from an Apple point of view it does not make sense.

Please feel free to let me know your thoughts and views in the comments below.

The other details of the memo was that AT&T was quite categorical in stating that the iPhone will not be pre-sold and that it will be available on the first come first served basis and that AT&T will be the only wireless carrier in the US launch and have exclusivity for the foreseeable future.

The exact statements as per the internal communication were:

• iPhone release date will be  sometime in June. The exact date has not been announced, specific dates should not be provided to customers.

• Sales for the iPhone will be on a first come, first served basis. No wait lists of names will be taken and NO pre-selling is allowed.

• Two models of the iPhone will be available, a 4GB will retail at US$ 499 and an 8GB will retail at $599. If asked what the price will be, answer that the prices have been announced as $499 for the 4G and $599 for the 8G, respectively.

• There should NOT be any additional speculation/discussion about pricing.

• AT&T will be the only wireless carrier in the U.S. launching the iPhone and will have exclusivity for the foreseeable future.

There were also some mention of the already known features of the iPhone so there were no surprises there.

If the internal memo that is circulation in the blogging circle is for real, then AT&T, in my opinion seems quite jittery about the iPhone launch as there seems to be quite a few memos doing the rounds to its employees of late on how to handle questions related to the iPhone launch. Shouldn't this have been addressed on Day 0 of the iPhone announcement??

Lets hope it is true as it will us (the customers) who will be the winners.