Verizon iPhone Rumored For Early Next Year 251
Many readers are submitting coverage from around the Net, all based on a Bloomberg piece quoting two anonymous sources who insist that Verizon Wireless will offer a CDMA iPhone in January 2011. No one at Verizon or Apple would confirm, of course, and no one at AT&T would comment. "The iPhone, which has been the sole domain of rival AT&T in the US since June 2007, will give Verizon a boost in its competition for smartphone customers, UBS AG analyst John Hodulik said in an interview. Verizon customers, who numbered 92.8 million at the end of the first quarter, may buy 3 million iPhones a quarter, he estimates. ... 'Apple is going to dramatically increase the number of devices it sells in the US when exclusivity at AT&T ends,' said Hodulik. ... 'It's hard to ignore the quality issues that AT&T has faced.'"
Re:Too bad (Score:1, Interesting)
You forget that no one would accept Apple's level of control they wanted over the iPhone. Remember the ROKR? This is why JObs vowed never to be at the mercy of a phone company ( provider or handset maker ) ever again.
Lets also rememeber that Verizon was offered iPhone first *and* so was AT&T ( who also turned it down ). It was Cingular that said yes, and AT&T just happened to get to the deal by taking over Cingular.
Remember as well, that Apple was preparing to go it alone with wholesale subscriber minutes a la boost etc if no one would commit. What a different future that would have been
Re:Uh huh. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Steve would never do this... (Score:3, Interesting)
Tech companies must know by now that a lot of non-geeks ask their geek friends and colleagues for tech advice - including what new smartphone to buy. Piss off or disappoint the geeks, and they will talk trash about your product - remember Vista?
Case in point: Because I liked my Droid so much, we bought my wife a Droid Eris. I've convinced two of my friends to drop their iPhones when their contracts are up and jump ship to Android (not that it took much convincing - they were getting pissed off about all the things you can't do with an iPhone - no Flash, no ability to have a spare battery, no USB drive access to the phone's memory or SD card) and another non-iPhone-using friend is upgrading from a feature phone to a Droid X soon. Seems like their new policy of not hobbling their phones is working out for Verizon so far.
Re:Uh, Exclusive Deal (And GSM)? (Score:1, Interesting)
Especially since Verizon seems to insist on branding all phones they offer--I don't see how Steve would accept that either.
Yes, but if Verizon wants the iPhone (and I'm sure they do) then they will make an exception. They've been bitch-slapping AT&T for years, and the only thing that AT&T has had to respond with is "we have the iPhone." Verizon would make a deal with Apple to take that away from AT&T, especially if they thought that they could get significant defectors from AT&T to Verizon.
As regards exclusivity until 2012, the article that you link points out that there could be loopholes, escape clauses, or buyouts. Besides, we don't know specifically what the exclusivity contract covered. It may have only covered EDGE and 3G devices, leaving Apple free to shop an LTE device around. One thing is for certain, Sprint fired the first shots in the 4G war. AT&T is way behind on this, and of the big three Verizon is the one that is going to have the most widely available early 4G network. Sprint may be first, but when Verizon launches it will be available in more places. AT&T will eventually get there, but they will be last to the game and Apple will need a 4G network.
By the way, are there any big Apple events in January that they could leverage for this launch?
Re:small impact, android will trump (Score:2, Interesting)
No, I don't have much experience with the iPhone. From what I've heard though, it has a great interface that works very well, and has quality hardware. And Apple's industrial design is second to none - I wish the Android manufacturers would take a hint from Apple and design better-looking phones.
But none of that is really that important to me. To me, it's all about what you can do with it.
The reason I'd never own an iPhone is because of Apple's and Jobs' app store policies, the fact that the iPhone UI is not very customizable, the apps you can get on Android but not on iPhone (old console game emulators are one example, but there are many.)
And most importantly, the features Android phones have that iPhones do not:
- swappable batteries - I've gotten in the habit of hardly ever charging my phone, I just swap out with my spare battery when it gets low. I have a battery charger that cost $20.
- direct USB drive letter access to the internal memory - no drivers needed, no iTunes sync needed.
- cloud backup - all my contacts are automatically synced to Google, and in the upcoming 2.2 release of Android, app data will also be synced. You do need to connect with USB to copy over music and video though.
- USB tethering - iPhone finally has this also I believe.
- ability to change just about any setting I want on the phone. Can use any mp3 as a ringtone. Can change the wallpaper. Can even completely replace the UI with a different one if I want (but I like the stock UI personally.)
- homescreen widgets - on my homescreens, I have: widgets to turn on and off all the radios (bluetooth/wifi/gps), a WeatherBug widget, a battery level widget, a calendar widget so I can see my next appointment at a glance, and many web page shortcuts. Also folders, but iPhone has those now. You can put direct links to any contact on your home screens - when you click on one, it gives you the option to Navigate to their address, call them, text message them, email, Google talk, Facebook, etc.
- Google Maps Navigation - so good that I got rid of my standalone GPS. Plus it's integrated into the phone all over - if you have an address in one of your contacts, it'll give you the option to Navigate there.
- Flash in the browser (coming soon). No, I don't want to play flash games, but there are a lot of websites that I visit that use flash for their video players, like CNN. I wish everyone was using HTML 5 and not flash, but like it or not, flash is very common on the web right now today.
- notification panel - Android has a notification panel at the top that saves all your notifications until you dismiss them. Easy to see at a glance from anywhere that you have new email, voicemails, which radios are on and connected, etc.
- standard USB connections - my Droid uses micro USB, my wife's Eris uses mini USB. All Droids use one or the other. This makes it very easy to buy extra power cords (got a phone charger for $12), and you don't have to buy them from Apple, or pay extra to an approved manufacturer to cover the dock royalty fee.
Re:different systems (Score:5, Interesting)
Up until now, all iPhone complaints seemed to be "ITS ONLY ON AT&T!!!!111!!!!!", including reviews for international readers. Here in New Zealand, I can easily use our iPhones, sold unlocked by Vodafone, on THREE carriers. Overseas, the iPhone is sold EXPLICITLY to be used on any network you choose,
"Buy your iPhone from Apple SIM-free."
"It works with the carrier of your choice.
Buy your iPhone from the Apple Online Store and choose your own GSM carrier. You can change carriers at any time."
"It works internationally.
Because this iPhone is SIM-free, you can purchase a micro-SIM or SIM card and service from a local carrier at your destination. Or check with your home carrier regarding international roaming charges."
From the UK iPhone page http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone [apple.com]
Its practically ORDERING me to beg my UK friends to send me an iPhone 4...
Yes, the entire world knows the tragedy of the AT&T network, and it seems OBVIOUS that the iPhone deserves to be sold on more than one carrier in the USA, just like pretty much every other country in the world.
But please, can we actually WAIT until this happens, instead of whispering overheard rumours?