So today’s big news from Verizon is the long anticipated announcement that they will begin carrying Apple’s iPhone. My reaction: Disappointed…
As I’ve mentioned on my Android page, I gave up waiting for a Verizon-badged iPhone about a year ago, and picked up a Motorola Droid. Jeannette has also gone with an Android phone, the Samsung Continuum, but with a backup plan — we have another upgrade coming up in February. She’s been happy enough with the Continuum that she’s not sure that she still wants to switch to an iPhone, even though she uses a MacBook, an iPad, and an iPod or two…
So why am I disappointed? When I saw that Verizon was starting to carry the iPad, I was certain that the iPhone was on their horizon. Since the rumors of a January announcement coincided with Verizon’s roll-out of there shiny new LTE 4G network, I assumed that the timing was intentional, so that Apple could be one of, if not the first, 4G LTE smart phone for Verizon. Since one of the common complaints from AT&T iPhone users is slow data network speed, I assumed that Apple was interested in expanding to Verizon’s market not only because of their large customer base, but also because of their network infrastructure, and their 4G network speed.
However, in the details of today’s announcement were a number of disappointments. First, the Verizon iPhone would only be compatible with CDMA technology for Verizon’s current 3G network. In fact, Verizon has said that their 4G network is currently only for data, not voice, so you can’t use only LTE at this point. Full voice and data capability isn’t expected until 2012. While that’s a long time to wait, the next problem is that by the time Apple and Verizon have everything ready for LTE, early adopters of Verizon’s initial iPhone offering will only be half way through their two-year contract, so they will likely have almost another year to wait for high-speed 4G…
I used to work in the cell phone industry, so I have some understanding of cell phone subsidies and early-termination fees, but its become frustrating as a consumer that the life cycle of most new handsets is now only a few months, while the time to complete the contract is 20-24 months. This leaves most of us with “antiquated” technology for nearly 75% of the time. The Droid that I have now was introduced in about November 2009, and was replaced by the Droid X and Droid 2 in about April 2010, as I recall, only a couple of months after I bought mine.
By the time my 20-month commitment to my current Droid is over, both of those newer models will also be history, probably by 2 or 3 newer models. Maybe by then there will be an LTE capable iPhone available. Maybe by then I will have decided to just stick with Android…