Article first published as Why Apple Would Be Crazy To Announce A Verizon iPhone on Technorati.
They think I’m crazy. My colleagues that is. Several of them are iPhone users and to bring up the idea that Verizon would be crazy to sell the iPhone causes bewildered looks on faces. Are you serious?? It’s a little like saying that Mother Teresa was self-centered and selfish.
But hear me out. There are more articles written on this subject than you could possibly read, but one article I would like to mention is by Wilson Rothman on MSNBC Technolog at http://tinyurl.com/2emva9y .
He argues that Apple must sell the iPhone on Verizon, and now. My opinion is that Verizon and Apple are crazy if they do this. At least not until Verizon’s 4G LTE network is fleshed out and covers the majority of their customers. Here’s why:
A Verizon iPhone would be wholly different than an AT&T iPhone. Full disclosure here… I have been a Verizon customer for years, and I currently have the Droid Incredible, and I have never owned an iPhone. But what most people don’t know, that us geeks do know, is that Verizon’s CDMA 3G network is fast for sure, but you can’t use your phone to talk and use the internet connection at the same time. With AT&T’s GSM 3G network, you can. So, for example, I can’t be talking to my friend on the phone about which movie to see and then pull up my Flixster app (which uses the data connection) and check out the movie times.
Apple and AT&T of course have created commercials for years touting this fact, and it’s true. GSM technology allows this to happen whereas CDMA technology does not. Now, I have simply learned to live with this over the years and I guess you could say that we ‘don’t know what we are missing.’ But actually, we do.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Verizon’s fast ubiquitous network. I wouldn’t even consider a move over to AT&T’s crappy network. But it would be nice to be able to use my data connection and voice connection at the same, like AT&T iPhone users have done since the beginning. Do you get my point?
When Verizon iPhone users can’t use their iPhones like AT&T users have, there is going to be some backlash. There is going to be some confusion. ‘What about those neat commercials I have been watching all these years about what I will be able to do with my iPhone??’ Yeah. They ain’t gonna be happy.
Yes, when 4G is rolled out to all Verizon’s customers this won’t be an issue. But that is still a ways away, as they say. Apple needs to wait for that to happen. They are crazy if they do otherwise.
