It’s official: Lowell McAdam, the president and COO of Verizon, announced this morning that “we’re partnering…with Apple.” The iPhone 4 will be available on Verizon on February 10, and starts at $199 for a 16GB 2-year plan, which is the same pricing as AT&T. Existing Verizon customers can preorder the phone come Feb. 3.
One thing to note: You can’t switch from AT&T to Verizon and keep your same phone. AT&T runs on a GSM network (think: SIM cards), and Verizon runs on CDMA, so the devices themselves are not interchangeable. The devices will run on Verizon’s 3G network (not the 4G LTE), and because of the way CDMA works, customers won’t be able to use voice and data simultaneously.
So, PopWatchers: Does this mean there’s an iPhone in your future? Or a carrier switch?
First
i heard apple is partnering with 5 hour energy drink! They are releasing a new drink called 5 second energy, all the power of 5 hour bottled into 5 seconds. It’s pretty much like a “Yipppppppppppp” and then your done.
Would you guys drink that?
sounds like a decent, yet quick, high.
Yay! Hopefully so many people will get them that they really won’t be that exceptional and status-symbol-y anymore.
Big whoop. Get a superior Android phone instead. The HTV Evo is a much better piece of equipment. Apple drones make me chuckle.
oh but Apple products are just sooo much prettier!!
So you enjoy your feeling of superiority with your phone, and I’ll enjoy playing with my pretty one, and we’ll both be happy, ok?
People with such fervent brand loyalty to any phone make me chuckle. Give me something I can use to call my friends and check movie times and don’t charge me an arm and a leg for it. I don’t even care if it says Omni Consumer Products on the back.
Android drones make me laugh. You wouldn’t have the Android if it wasn’t for Apple.
The product speaks for itself. You can hate, but that’s all it is, hate for the sake of hate. I know people who’ve been resistant but love the iPhone once they got it.
Apple makes a superior product and that’s why the iPod is joing Kleenex and Chapstick in terms of name brands being used to identify the product.
It’s not “hate” or a feeling of “superiority.” The iPhone is a nice product, but it has its downsides. I’ve messed with my friends and family’s iPhones for a couple of years. But after doing some research and deciding to go with the Android Evo, I’ve found that it is a much better smartphone.
my phone, all I can do is make calls and text. That’s all you need. Everything else is unnecessary.
I agree
You have no idea how many times I needed to look up a store number, locate something by use of gps or find movie times, theater locations and not be anywhere accessible to a computer. Thank god I have my iphone, can call and text as well.
Thanks Gramps. Motorola is coming out with a rotary cell phone you might be interested in. “Operator! Operator! Get me the Moviefone!”
There is an iphone in my future. Hopefully, my crappy LG will hold out for the next 30 days.
Amen to that.
I wonder if it will be available with my “new every 2″ which is up next month…
Same! My LG is terrible – the touch screen hasn’t worked in six months and it autodials EVERY TIME I put it in my pocket! I am so getting an iphone when my contract is up on Feb 20.
Androids SUCK! I have had 3 different kinds in a year, and they are all slow and they have all kinds of problems. It’ll freeze, turn off randomly, and the cursor will move around independently while I am typing a text message. I am so effing happy Verizon is getting the iPhone!!!
Can you and Dean do a point/counterpoint for the rest of us? I personally am trying to dump my Blackberry. Any input would be helpful.
I have the HTC Evo…Android powered…and I love it. It is farrrrr superior to the Blackberry I used to have.
On the simplest level, Slimer, if you ask that question, you almost certainly will be happier with an iPhone than an Android. People who are better off with Android like tinkering with their phones, and they already know Android is superior for them. This enormous chasm of design philosophy is what makes advocates of both platforms so passionate.
iPhone is designer beautiful, has a design that has been thought through to the tiniest of details, and has far more and better quality apps. As a physical design and a piece of software that is a delight to use, iPhone wins by miles.
Android phones are generally not as attractive, have designs with numerous rough edges and problems, and have a app marketplace filled with poor apps, fraud and danger.
Android gives you and your phone carrier freedom to modify the device as you see fit. Often the carrier or phone manufacturer takes this freedom away from you in the phone’s design, so watch out. You may want to buy only Google-branded devices, which give you back this freedom.
If you just want a working phone that gives you cool apps, you may not want this freedom. It comes with heavy potential prices in terms of reliability and ease of use. If your priority is for your phone to have first-class usability, get iPhone.
The Android design philosophy is free and open, meaning you can install any software you want on the phone, while Apple offers a curated experience. This means Apple checks software available for iPhone to make sure it works, is not offensive, and has some kind of value to it before allowing it to be sold. Android does not do this.
This is an advantage, in that you can get Android porn software if you want it. It is a disadvantage, in that you are not sure if your Android porn software isn’t making its money by calling 900 numbers on your dime. Android advocates note that you should check requested privileges through a dialog clearly displayed during the app loading process. This is true, but as we have seen all too often in security, most people don’t understand or check this information even when it’s displayed very clearly to them.
It’s very easy to mess up operation of your Android phone, by (for example) running too many background apps. Again, Apple doesn’t allow that and therefore keeps you out of trouble.
Upgrading Android phones is a horrible mess that you don’t even want to think about unless your are an expert. Even then it’s difficult to keep your phone upgraded. If you buy the wrong phone – i.e. one that was not powerful enough, or wasn’t successful enough in the marketplace – you may never be able to upgrade. As long as you have an iPhone two or fewer generations old, upgrades are free and periodically offered whenever you plug in your phone.
The main advantage of Android is that you can tinker with the guts of your phone, running system-level apps that cannot be offered on iPhones because they don’t want anything inadvertently messing up your phone. People who like tinkering with the system-level guts of anything should by all means buy an Android phone because they will like it a lot better than iPhone.
For anyone who isn’t interested in that or doesn’t care, iPhone is by far the better product. So basically, if you have to ask the question “Do you want iPhone or Android?”, you want iPhone.
Hope that helps.
D
This is entertainment news how?
You’re wondering why a device you could be entertained by and is part of pop culture is being mentioned on this website? Are you sure you’re in the right place?
I read EW on you my iPhone. I watch TV on my iPhone. I access Netflix on my iPhone. See a trend?
Yeh, you should consider buying a television.
So I should also see EW report on the latest Sony 3-D HDTVs?
I guess im the turd in the punchbowl! whoops
Um….hell to the yes! Been waiting for this for years!!!!!!!!!!!
There is definitely one coming for me. I have wanted one for a while, but wanted to stay on the Verizon network. So, yay!
This will definitely be my next phone, it’s just a question of when I make the upgrade.
Didn’t renew my AT&T contract in the hopes that this would happen. Very ready to get rid of my piece of shit 3G phone! AT&T sucks.
I have an iPhone and have been waiting for this announcement for awhile. Not because I want to immediately jump ship to Verizon, but because I want to see if others do en masse. If so, I hope that the AT&T network gets freed up a bit that it will be worth to just stay with them. If not, then I have to weigh my options. In addition, the announcement that Verizon’s iPhone will only run 3G and on CDMA (no dual use of voice & data), is a big blow in my opinion. Won’t help with me switching. All in all… I’ll wait 3 months to see what will evolve and act then. Be smart consumers!
I agree. I think Verizon will be swamped for a while. AT&T will clear up, but really, I don’t have any problems. Talking on the iPhone is maybe 5 or 6th on my list. On the flip side, Apple was never going to give Verizon an iPhone4 2.0. So, it was always going going to be the same features on CDMA. However, I would imagine the iPhone 5 will have a path to 4G. It pretty much has to have it to compete with Android.