Rumors abound that the iPhone may indeed be heading to Verizon or a different network in January 2011.
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Based on a recent Morpace Omnibus study, it is clear that if the iPhone does become available on the Verizon network, it will impact the phone and carrier intentions of many consumers. The study found that nearly a third of consumers are very likely or somewhat likely to purchase an iPhone if it is made available to Verizon.
The survey reveals that Verizon iPhone intenders come primarily from current Verizon customers. However, intenders are also drawn from current AT&T customers as well as from other carriers. Current AT&T iPhone customers are also interested in a Verizon iPhone.
Recent rumors of the iPhone availability on Verizon or another carrier may also be impacting the number of upgrades seen for the iPhone 4. Nearly all 34 percent of AT&T iPhone owners who have not yet upgraded to the iPhone 4 say they are waiting for the iPhone to become available through another mobile carrier before upgrading.
Conclusions
• The impact on other Verizon smartphones that have not previously had to compete directly with the iPhone may be significant if Verizon begins to carry the iPhone. It could drastically impact the purchase of other phones.
• There may be concerns over how the Verizon network will handle the bandwidth demands of iPhone users.
• The shake-up of unlimited vs. tiered data plans will continue and become a key element of customer choice. The mobile networks will need to carefully develop their business strategies.
• The impact of Android phones, a current favorite among Verizon customers, has yet to be determined and could be the key to understanding future market share if Verizon and Apple develop an agreement.
Morpace understands how consumer preferences for handsets, mobile carriers, and data plans come together to affect the success of new products and services in the complex mobile market. With our guidance, companies can develop a “go to market” strategy that is supported by existing consumer trends and changing consumer perceptions. In the case of Apple’s iPhone and Verizon, mobile carriers need to recognize what they need to do now if and when a partnership is formed.
A total of 1,000 consumers were surveyed July 15-20 as part of the Morpace Omnibus study.
Source: Morplace Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve been saying all along: Android’s claim to fame is its toehold in the U.S. where Apple iPhone is currently exclusively tied to AT&T Mobility. Once iPhone goes to multiple carriers in the U.S., the Google Android dream will instantly turn into a nightmare. People want iPhones. Android’s “popularity” is artificial and this is not the first survey to show it (see related articles below). Verizon customers are currently settling for an inferior imitation with Android devices, and many of them seem quite cognizant of the fact that they are settling as the majority of them clearly want iPhones. When Apple finally does deliver iPhone to multiple U.S. carriers, Cupertino and their new carrier partner(s) had better have many millions of units on hand and ready to sell as demand looks to be intense.
<- hates AT&T. Bring on the Gen5 with Verizon!
I think the sample of 1,000 respondents is a bit too small to be valid enough, but it may as well be at least indicative of the sentiment. If anything, it is inline with what I’ve been saying before.
An average, ignorant consumer WANTS an iPhone, because everyone on their favourite TV show has one, and everyone is talking about them. Apple’s brand awareness here is simply unmatched. So, this average consumer walks into a mobile carrier (or Best Buy, or Wal-mart) store and asks for an iPhone. Unless he walked into an AT&T store, and they actually HAVE iPhones in stock, he will soon be convinced by any reasonably skillful salesman that an Android phone is just as good, even better, than an iPhone. If all he had before was a cheapo dumb Nokia flip-phone, he’ll be thrilled. When his friends ask him “Did you get an iPhone?”, he’ll say “No, but the guy at Verizon said this is even better!”.
This is the only reason Android is picking up and catching up in the US. Apple simply can’t make iPhones fast enough to satisfy the hungry market (Verizon or no Verizon; they aren’t even available in the AT&T stores!). Ordinary, ignorant people trust sales people. They go to them for advice and recommendation, and they end up with an inferior product, while Google ends up with a disproportionately high market share.
Whether these Verizon rumors are true or not is pointless. There are 4 major carriers(AT&T, Verizon, Sprint & T-Mobile), on two networks(GSM, CDMA). When Apple ends exclusivity with AT&T, it will go to all carriers. Steve doesn’t want just another slice of the pie. He wants everyone in his pocket. I just don’t get why people don’t see this.
I hope Verizon’s network will be able to cope with the network demand when the iPhone is released. Also will the CMDA network be faster enough? LTE is only in a few cities so coverage will be limited.
Android is definitely a challenger to the iPhone. They are clearly selling a lot of phones and maybe even making some money for the phone manufacturers.
However it will be a mess in the end. Multiple OSes, poor compatibility, viruses and trojan horses will combine to diminish the user experience. Google have developed a great way to get into everyones face but the quality issue will backfire in the end.
This future surge on the iPhone would damage the strained availability to their existing markets and is most likely why Apple will hold off on Verizon until they can catch up on their existing customer demands. Or as long as they can.
Again, how many will Apple sell is answered by how many can Apple get made. Wouldn’t one of the car companies love to have this problem!
A sample of a 1000 is big enough to predict a USA presidential election, it’ll do for iPhone on Verizon.
@Predrag
I’m a Verizon customer and some fellow Verizon cusomers I know have been told by reps at Verizon stores that Verizon will get the iPhone.
Of course they have been hearing this almost as long as the iPhone has been available, so why they continue to believe this I don’t know.
In the name of all that’s good & pure in the world, Apple needs to tell Verizon to go get f*cked.
After all the crap that Verizon put Apple through with the iPhone, Verizon should be the *absolute* last carrier that Apple EVER ‘partners’ with… no forgiveness, no reprieve.
Any other US carrier (T-mobile, preferably) would be better than Verizon. Ivan Seidenberg can eat crap and die. Yeah, I understand Seidenberg was just playing ‘hard-ball’ with SJ at the time, but the success of the iPhone dictates that Apple now holds all the cards. Apple can now make the rules.
Let Verizon beg for forgiveness. And let Apple tell them ‘no’.
Verizon’s treatment of Apple was merciless. Let Karma return the favor.
I’ve been saying since winter/spring that the best thing Apple can do to slow down android would be to get on Verizon in the US. It would show all the Apple haters just how small their numbers really are when a Verizon iPhone kills the market for Android phones.
@ Predrag, assuming no biases in the survey, the error is approximately +/- 3%. Given the graphs are accurate, I’d say the survey is very telling. A sample size of 1,000 is enough. Who really cares if it is 48% or 54% of the current Verizon smart phone users that want an iPhone. Either way that’s a huge number of iPhones to sell.
There is a fly in the ointment for Android. Oracle is suing Google for rippling off Java. This is the modus operandi of Google: steal somebody intellectual property and when got caught try to say “sorry”. Well it will be a very very expensive “sorry” when it comes to Larry Elison whose legal victories is legendary. Oracle also has deep pockets. Google remember this timeless adage: “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”
“It’s just like an iPhone”
http://scottworldblog.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/its-just-like-an-iphone/
Here is the list of Android phones on all carriers in the United States. The list was compiled from LetsTalk.com:
Samsung Vibrant
Samsung Captivate
Sony-Ericsson XPeria X10
Motorola Droid
Motorola Droid X
Motorola Devour
HTC Aria
Motorola Backflip
HTC Evo 4G
Motorola Droid Incredible
HTC Hero
Samsung Intercept
Samsung Moment
T-Mobile MyTouch Slide
Motorola CLIQ XT
Samsung Behold II
Garmifone
Motorola i1
LG Ally
All in all, 19 phones on 4 carriers. Pretty much EVERY single one of the phones is exclusive to the carrier that sells it. All of these together, compared to a SINGLE iPhone model, on a single carrier.
I know one guy with an Android and he said it was because of AT&T
Predrag is right. And Apple’s biggest challenge is producing enough iPhones to meet demand. And the limiting factor in production may not even be factory capacity; it may be availability of key components from suppliers, such as for the Retina Display.
If there really is a significant number of current AT&T iPhone users holding back on upgrading to iPhone 4 to wait for iPhone to appear with a different carrier, that’s going to cause a huge surge in demand somewhere down the line.
Apple needs to clear off those waiting lists and get “on-hand” inventory at all the current distributors. Unless that happens first, increasing the distribution channels by adding another carrier will NOT help sell any more iPhones.
Don’t forget that a new factory in the interior of China is being built and will go on-line in Dec. 2010 to produce an iPhone and it is speculated that this will be the CDMA iPhone. So, adding Verizon (or any of the other CDMA carriers worldwide) should not effect the GSM iPhone availability. The only question is what kind of CDMA iPhone will this be? CDMA/GSM world phone? LTE capable? CDMA only? Which carrier(s) will get it? Still lots of unanswered questions.
Of course 50% of Android users want a iPhone. They’re the 50% that actually think they can use one just like an iPhone. Only t.o find out that they crash like 10 X more than iPhones are archaic compared to iPhones in many ways still.
@Predrag: So true, I have noticed that myself…consumer comes into store very curious about the iPhone that they’ve been hearing about, and the salesperson adroitly steers them to another smartphone that is “similar to an iPhone, but even better!”
Android is swamping iOS 4. Play ostrich as much as you like the reality is that thing blocking the sun in the apple walled garden is a tidal wave of android smartphones come to swamp apple. Sad but true.
Verizon doesn’t solve the main problem with the iPhone. That problem is the bad service provided by all cellular companies. The best handset in the world,(the iPhone)can’t counter the bad service and coverage of the phone company.
Brulek, you’ve mixed so many metaphors there, I think I’ll need an app from the Marketplace that helps me decipher what you’re saying!
Pity the Marketplace doesn’t have one. Back to Apple’s walled garden I go. It has apps for pretty much everything. And they’re usable.
@Reg
in simple terms: the article is crap. Android is not going away. It is getting bigger all the time. 200,000+ activations a day. Scary numbers, But apple will fish the deep end of the pool I imagine and maintain profitability with the iphone, despite a likely massive reduction in marketshare (because of expanding market).
This was not a surprise for me.. iphone is the top .-
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