Verizon iPhone to Launch February 3rd?
macrumors.com
macrumors.com
At this point, even if this is announced, I'd rather wait the additional month for one of the devices announced at CES yesterday. Probably the Motorola Bionic, it looks pretty neat.
February 3rd, 2011. Just Another Day. You'll Never Forget. Again.
Now, when a Verizon customer needs a new phone, they'll have a choice between Android devices and the iPhone. The iPhone, with all its allure and emotional value attached to it, against a dozen Android devices all running different versions of the OS, all with different capabilities and different advertising campaigns. Everyone knows what an iPhone is. Few people can name more than 1 or 2 Android devices unless they're a geek.
If AT&T were some regional wireless company serving just the South East or something, I could see this. If the iPhone were 12 months into its life and subscribers were rolling out of plans and looking to upgrade, then sure.
Instead AT&T is a nationwide mega-carrier, and the iPhone has been out for years. Outside of the customers already with them, they had a massive influx of customers who went to AT&T simply for the iPhone (hence why AT&T paid big dollars to be exclusive).
Millions on its first weekend? Even the most optimistic analyst has lowered their forecast for the iPhone post adding Verizon to be "marginally more than if its AT&T exclusive". The only significant change that will bring is that AT&T will lose customers, but the net will level out.
The need is already serviced. The customer base is set. Most people who want an iPhone long ago moved to AT&T.
The iPhone, with all its allure and emotional value attached to it, against a dozen Android devices all running different versions of the OS, all with different capabilities and different advertising campaigns. Everyone knows what an iPhone is. Few people can name more than 1 or 2 Android devices unless they're a geek
You're resorting to some tired early 2010 material here. You need to move onto the "Of course Android is winning because there are dozens of devices" approach that is the current propaganda.
The only way the iPhone is going to significantly rebound is an accelerated iPhone 5 that really blows the world away (though damn, they have their work cut out for them if you've watched CES news), or if they use their position to get carriers to stop the subsidization game (as Google attempted) and introduced a very low end model like a iPod Touch+ or something.
Verizon getting the phone, however...who cares.
No, he's resorting to looking at what happens everywhere that iPhone and Android phones compete head to head in the same stores.
Since July of last year Android's marketshare has more than doubled. The Desire Z is making a particularly big impact, along with the Galaxy S variants.
That's the case around the world. June 2010, or thereabouts, represented the peak of iOS saturation virtually everywhere. Since then, through the world it has been on the slide with Android being the beneficiary.
So again, those numbers are pulled out of fantasy land. This Verizon/AT&T situation exists nowhere else, yet still iOS is falling. Weird, no?
I would put money against any bullshit notion that millions would line up on a weekend to get an iPhone but just on a different carrier. It is a preposterous proposal.