“Verizon’s iPhone 4 will be available for pre-order Feb. 3 for existing Verizon customers, and will be generally available for pre-order beginning Feb. 10. Verizon executives said the 16-gigabyte version of the phone would cost $199 with a 2-year contract, while the 32-gigabyte version will cost $299 — the same as AT&T’s pricing. It said pricing for data plans had not yet been determined,” Jenna Wortham reports for The New York Times.
“The highly anticipated arrival of the iPhone on Verizon ends a five-year agreement of exclusivity between Apple and AT&T,” Wortham reports. “The partnership between Apple and Verizon is multiyear and non-exclusive, executives at both companies said. And it is likely to throw the smartphone market in the United States into something of a tizzy.”
Wortham reports, “Analysts say that the move could both double Apple’s smartphone market share and seriously hinder the rise of phones running Google’s Android software in the United States… In countries where the iPhone has been available on multiple networks, it tends to take over the bulk of the smartphone market share.”
Verizon “iPhone users would be able to tether up to 5 Wi-Fi devices to the phone so they can piggyback on its cellular data connection, although it declined to provide specifics on pricing for that feature,” Wortham reports. “The company did not say whether it would modify the pricing structure for its data plans, which currently allow customers to buy unlimited data. AT&T, by comparison, requires that its users pay for metered data plans.”
MacDailyNews Take: Pricing plans will follow, as usual, in order to generate a double dose of free publicity.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What we wrote two months ago works well enough today: “We’ll watch these numbers with interest as the current (calendar fourth quarter 2010) quarter will have strong U.S. multi-carrier iPhone rumors and subsequent quarters may have actual U.S. multi-carrier iPhones. You may be seeing the Android’s high water mark for OS market share in these numbers as market realities, not to mention court cases, change to work in favor of Apple iOS. After all, why settle for a fake iPhone when you can get the real thing?”
And the water is wet.
And, the earth will continue to turn. Where is the news?
They didn’t announce pricing plans? Why not?
@ Cowboy
The pricing plans are the exact same for all of Verizon’s smart phones. There is no reason to announce pricing plans, since there is no change. It’s just a new phone model available to their customers.
Except it’s not “just another phone model”. It’s the iPhone 4!
I don’t really care about Verizon. I have great AT&T coverage where I work/live.
But, as an AAPL investor, it’s great news! 😀
After the hype fades away Android will continue to gain Market share look at the rest of the world and what Android is doing in India and in China. How is Apple going to compete with $100 dollar androids without a contract? Android will destroy Apple in market share, availability, pricing, and production are all behind Android. Apple won’t care it shouldn’t care because it will make the most profit.
Perhaps their pricing plans won’t be too popular with all of us who want to switch. So they will have positive worldwide press coverage today and several weeks in the future. Once things settle down they will hit us with the pricing. But today is all good news for Verizon. Nothing negative. I just watched their president and he sidestepped pricing,LTE and the inability to multitask while you are connected with a call.
You’ve tried the rest. Now try the best.
I for one predict that after the first year AT&T will see a rise in the number of VZ costumers switching to their network for iPhones, due to VZ’s CDMA network and the inability to use voice and data simultaneously.
Sure, you’ll be able to tether up to 5 wifi devices to share the phone’s internet, until the phone rings, then it’s “everyone out of the pool”.
Android is the only option available to companies like HTC, Motorola, etc. which make handsets but have nothing to do with OS development. Windows charges too much and is too demanding on hardware to compete with the iPhone, and there are no other real options.
That’s why Android is being pushed so hard – it’s the only real hope for these companies to compete in the smartphone market. If Android distribution was shut down tomorrow (say, by a patent infringement lawsuit or Google just stopped it), several companies would die shortly thereafter. Why do you think Motorola split itself into a phone handset company and everything else company?
How is android best? It’s just a copied version with viruses of iOS.
Flea alert !!!
@peter
I think Apple favors profit over market share as any good publicly traded company should. Even if Android gets all of the “market” not owned by the iPhone, they still lose because its not a sustainable model.
“We lose money on every phone sale but we make up for it in volume.” — Android phone makers motto.
Wait, people want a Verizon iPhone?!?!? Yuck!!! Well so long! Why don’t you leave now so my perfect Att 3G will work even faster.
@ PeterPan
Perhaps you misread this:
“Analysts say that .. In countries where the iPhone has been available on multiple networks, it tends to take over the bulk of the smartphone market share.”
I prefer android operating system, I enjoy widgets, how I can change it anyway I want, and the choices I have. I understand some like the simplicity of an Iphone and the ecosystem that Apple brings, to each his/her own. I own Apple Stock and a few Macs so im all for making money.
The iPhone will immediately put downward pricing pressure on Android phones. When the iPhone 5 is released, the current iPhone will likely fall to $99 and eventually to $49 which will crowd out the low end Android phones.
This is a multi-wave tsunami. In six to eight months, it will totally change the landscape of mobile devices. Expect to see some exit this space.
Just remember that it doesn’t take Android to fail for Apple to win. Apple has already won by selling in volume and raking in the cash.
So when I am using my new Verizon phone as a wifi hotspot for up to 5 devices on their crappy CDMA network, I can’t receive calls….Why is no one asking this question? Come on, voice and data at the same time this should be a given… screw Verizon!
@Peter Pan
Yup, you nailed it. Android will continue to gain market share at the expense of RIM and others. Anyone who thinks Apple will achieve market domination with the iPhone is mistaken — that’s simply not how Apple works! They will maintain a healthy share of the market, and their profits will far outpace other handset makers.
@ PeterPan
Perhaps you misread this:
“Analysts say that .. In countries where the iPhone has been available on multiple networks, it tends to take over the bulk of the smartphone market share.”
________
Go look at India, China and Japan and how fast enjoy is rising same thing with Western Europe Android is world phenomenon not just here in the states. Apple will not be able to compete with Android in developing countries. You know China and India the two countries with the most opportunity to grow a market.
@Peter Pan
It’s okay, we don’t mind if all the Android handset makers compete in a race to the bottom. Apple operates on profits not market share.
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@ Peter Pan: “Android will destroy Apple in market share, availability, pricing, and production are all behind Android”
So what? Android is not a singular entity/market, it’s broken up and used in different segments of the market. Everyone loves to compare a platform/OS (Android) with a single hardware device (iPhone), but guess what? If you want to base numbers off “Android” then you have to compare it with “iOS”, not iPhone.
iOS is on AppleTV, iPod touch, iPad and the iPhone. Give me totals for all these devices (all sold by the same company), and compare them with all the Android devices sold by any other company and I’m willing to bet that Apple is WAY ahead of anyone else in the world regarding platform market share and installed base. I’d even be willing to bet that iOS currently comes out ahead of all Android devices combined.
Didn’t Peter Pan live in Never-Never Land?
Android POS copy of iOS is given away for free to every SmartPhone maker who’s dumb enough to use it. How is that fair competition?
Anyone ignoring market share is misguided. It is important. Developers develop for well represented platforms (which is why there’s no software for WebOS). However, in case of iPhone vs. Android phone battle, market share is not the only determining factor for the developers.
First, iOS is NOT just the iPhone (although at this point, Android is also NOT just the cellphones either). More importantly, while iOS provides a fairly UNIFIED platform for which to develop, Android fragmentation provides significant and real challenges for developers (google it and you’ll find many testimonies to that effect). Second, every iOS device looks and works the same; most Android devices are customised by carriers, with features disabled, menus, appearance and functionality changed and modified. Also, the simplicity of distribution through the App Store can never be matched by any Android market place.
And no, Mr. Peter Pan, in the developed world, wherever iPhone is available on multiple carriers, it is OUTPACING Android by a healthy margin. India and China are clearly exceptions, for very obvious reasons (average income is not nearly enough to justify a $800 iPhone, when a $350 Android device is available).
And, in other news, water is wet…..