Agency Babylon is taking a step outside its normal scope of topics to pose this question, which has rolled around my head since yesterday’s Apple iPad announcement:

Will Apple’s over-reliance on the AT&T mobile network for iPhone – and now iPad – connectivity become its Toyota gas pedal fiasco?

The parallels between these two business events aren’t entirely tangible – probably more theoretical. Toyota has long been the darling of automotive consumers and the envy of competitors. It has a well-deserved reputation for building high-quality, extraordinarily reliable and thus high-value vehicles for decades. It would appear, however, that in its rush to propel itself to the top of the industry it began to make compromises in quality control that have led to the largest recall in the company’s history. And this is just any old recall. It affects eight of Toyota’s most popular models, spans several production years back and has halted their ability to sell millions of cars now in inventory.

Now to Apple’s situation. Like Toyota, Apple is a come-from-behind success. The underdog company with stellar products and service that is forging ahead in the marketplace on numerous fronts. The iPhone is smart phone category leader by any measure. The iPod in all its variations has an insurmountable market share (so long as the category itself continues to matter). Now there’s the iPad, Apple’s tablet device that takes aim at a cross-section of devices, from dedicated readers like Kindle to cheap netbooks. Detractors notwithstanding, the iPad will likely be a marketplace success. But wait. As they enter the marketplace, fully connected iPad models (those that don’t simply rely on available wi-fi connections) are supported only by AT&T Wireless. Yes, the very same AT&T that’s in a pitched battle with Verizon over the ubiquity and reliability of its 3G network.

Apple has hitched its wagon once again to a mobile carrier that is groaning under the weight of its own success. The heavy use of bandwidth by iPhone and other smart phone users on its network has prompted anger, frustration and even defections in the marketplace. People love their smart phones, and it seems that iPhone users as a group are guilty of obsessive love. They are loving their mobile access to endless sources content not quite to death but definitely to enfeeblement. (Whoa! It just occurred to me: Might AT&T’s reliance on Apple devices for a large measure of its success become its Toyota gas pedal fiasco?)

Now there are rumors that the iPhone and presumably the iPad will be available on Verizon before long – likely by mid-2010. So these words of caution might be academic before long. But the observations are still worth making as consumers and businesses ponder the choices they and as business like Apple and Toyota ponder their decisions.