iPhone now carried by Verizon Wireless
COMPARE (Flickr 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) Yutaka Tsutano)
With Verizon Wireless claiming to have produced record sales with the release of the new iPhone 4 last Friday, it’s official release to non-Verizon customers has yet to come out.
Verizon had more requests in two hours for the iPhone than in a full day for any other previous phone launch, said the company. They did not mention how many orders had been placed, but while they stopped taking orders at 8:10 p.m. last Thursday, they started taking more this morning at 3:01 a.m.
Verizon’s supply of the new iPhone are said to be tight, according to a release from the Associated Press last Friday. Until now, AT&T has been the iPhone’s sole carrier, activating more than 15 million phones last year.
Analysts estimate than anywhere from 5 to13 million iPhones will be activated through Verizon, but what looms over the horizon is the possibility that many users will jump from their current carrier in favor of Verizon.
“For 2010, the iPhone 4 is the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone,” said Greg Joswiak, vice president of iPhone product marketing.
The iPhone 4 includes retina display, “FaceTime,” high definition video recording and editing, a 5-megapixel camera, and more.
Bob Mansfield, senior vice president of hardware said the new iPhone will have 4 times the pixels as the previous iPhone.
But the biggest shortcoming on Verizon’s new iPhone is that Verizon users will not be able to surf the web and talk at the same time, like AT&T user’s iPhones.
Recently, AT&T attacked Verizon’s new commercial, featuring a man hurriedly trying to make dinner reservations while speaking to his significant other on the iPhone. Verizon was quick to respond with another ad, addressing a common complaint for AT&T’s network, that it “stinks,” according to an article in the Daily News.
But when the commercial aired during the Super Bowl XLV, their slogan “I can hear you now,” failed to be clear.
However, Verizon will have an added feature AT&T doesn’t: a built-in ability to use the iPhone as a wireless hotspot, and to connect it up to five additional devices, according to http://CNNMoney.com.
Verizon is offering trade-in rebates for customers, lessening the effects of having to break AT&T’s contract. “For instance, it’s offering $212 for a 16-gigabyte iPhone 4 in good condition. AT&T’s fee for breaking an iPhone 4 contract early is $325, but that’s pro-rated by $10 per month,” according to a story written by the Associated Press.
While customers ordering the phone online were able to start at 3:01 a.m. this morning, the iPhone will make its appearance in stores tomorrow as early as 7 a.m.
A 16 GB iPhone with Verizon (including a 2 year activation and data package) will cost roughly $200 plus tax. The 32 GB (with the same requirements) will be charged $300 plus tax.