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More Confirmation Verizon iPhone to Launch on January 11th
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You signed a contract. Are you saying you want out of the contract? Pay the ETF then resign. No one forced you to sign the contract. Just honor it.
In this case, life is fair, you got exactly what you signed up for. Just your timing (and sense of entitlement) sucks.
Verizon already announced their new data plans for the next year or so. $15 for 150mb and $29.99 for unlimited. It's a smart move if they keep the unlimited plan if you ask me.
I've been reading this thread for the past few days. Usually I'm a lurker and not a poster because I'm pretty sure nobody really cares about my input. However, this post has driven me to throw out a few of my ideas. So here is my - admittedly way too long - first post.
In the interest of full disclosure, I retired early and bought into a Verizon Wireless franchise. Fortunately we are one of the few allowed to sell the iPad and we are hoping that this will continue for the iPhone. That being said, I do not have blind allegiance to VZW. They do plenty to upset me on a daily basis. As part of being as prepared as possible for work, I have tried every network and every phone platform. I decided many years ago that Verizon was the right network for me. I also understand that it is not the network for everyone. It is nice that we have a choice in carriers. Which is a lot more than I can say about my cable company.
I am also a BlackBerry fan. Blasphemy on this forum, I know. But I have had a BB since they first came out and I will continue to use them. The BB does things that work for me. I also have an android phone (yes I'm a dork and I have 2 phones. BB for work and Android for personal use) and I really like the android platform. It does some amazing things and the ability to customize is really nice. I will miss the ability to have email alert tones of my choice on the iPhone. But I do live the iLife. I love my Apple products like the iMac, iPad, MBP, iPods, etc... I'm an apple fan and will trade the android phone in for the iPhone when it lands on Verizon.
I have not heard anything internally from Verizon to confirm this rumor. We never do. We didn't receive any iPad communication until it was already announced. However, I'm very convinced that the 1/11/11 event will be the iPhone announcement. I'm blown away by the people on this site that continue to maintain that Verizon will never get the iPhone. Wow.
As far as release cycles or the Verizon customers being upset if an iPhone 5 comes out on AT&T a few months after they purchase, a few things. First, from my experience in our stores, I think that many Verizon customers will be happy with whatever iPhone is available to them. Hell, that's how I feel. I have been wanting an I phone for so long, I would take a 3G right now if it were Verizon compatible. Also, if you look at the back of any CDMA phone, you will see a sticker or an imprint similar to "CDMA by Qualcomm." My understanding is that Qualcomm has a hand in every CDMA phone that is manufactured. Their CDMA chips go into every phone. I dont know if Apple will be an exception As a result, Verizon is usually the last to get any phone. The BB lineup is a prime example of this. AT&T had the pearl, world edition, curve, bold many months before Verizon. Even the first Android phones were on TMobile - tho VZW has really lead the charge with Android in the past year. My point is that Verizon CDMA phones typically lag behind those of other carriers. Verizon customers are used to this. So it would not be a surprise, or out of the realm of possibility to have an iPhone 4 or some variant thereof for a February release. I know full well that Apple marches to the beat of their own drum and has previously released the iPhone in the summer. But that doesn't mean they wont release a VZW iPhone in Feb. As many have pointed out, it actually makes sense. This allows Apple to spread things out. It actually makes a lot of sense to have a different cycle. Will customers get mad if they get an iPhone 4 and 5 months later, the iPhone 5 is launched for AT&T? Maybe. But it is no different than the android lineup. People bought up the Incredible when it was launched last summer. Now the 4g Incredible HD or Thunderbolt is due out within the next few months. Are people upset? Maybe some. But this is the world we live in. The update and advancement of phones is happening quickly. In a world of 2 year contracts, it is hard to think your phone won't be obsolete within the first year of that contract. So to me, it doesn't seem outlandish that we will see a version of the iP 4 now even if there is a new version slated for the summer. And that new version most likely will not be for CDMA anyway. I predict a 3G iPhone in Feb and an LTE iPhone next Feb. And really, LTE on a phone doesn't impress me nearly as much as the Internet cards/mifis. Things load on my android almost instantly. I can't see LTE making an earth-shattering difference.
In terms of release dates, early February makes perfect sense. I don't see Verizon announcing an iPhone and then having a release 5 months later. As it is, the rumors are killing us. Sales, for our stores at least, have been down because customers who are eligible to upgrade are waiting for the iPhone. I have to imagine this phenomenon isn't limited to my stores. In fact, I have spoken to several other people about this and find that it is the case in many outlets, retailer and corporate. So I think that Verizon would want to get an iPhone into the stores as soon as possible after the announcement. Otherwise, phone sales would suffer for the next 5-6 months.
The flip side to that is the people that purchased phones during the holiday season. They are still within their 30 day return window. By the way, in addition the getting rid of the annual upgrade, Verizon is shortening the return period from 30 to 14 days beginning on 1/16. Nonetheless, if an iPhone is launched mid January, there would be a ton of android returns. So an early February release date makes sense. It allows time for training, and it falls outside of the holiday return window and doesn't cause too long of a drop in sales. The company leadership isn't stupid. They know what they are doing. It's funny to read some of the comments posted here regarding what is or isn't fair to customers, and what Apple would or would not want to do, etc... It's clear that not everyone has a grasp on how business works. Which is perfectly fine. I have no idea how to fix my car or perform an appendectomy. That's the beauty of a diverse country and we should embrace that diversity. The bottom line is that Apple and Verizon(kind of) are publicly held companies. They are going to do what makes them money. They will do what they need to do to answer to their boards of directors. That's the way the world works and that is OK. It's foolish to think otherwise.
As far as carriers go, Verizon works for me where I live and travel which is primarily between Florida and New England. I have actually purchased an iPhone in the past and found that AT&T worked fine in Southern New England but I didn't have service in my house in Florida and coverage was spotty in New Hampshire. NYC was a nightmare with the iPhone. Thankfully I had old faithful, my BB Bold. As a result, I returned said iPhone within the 30 day window. Sadly, it took 3 months of fighting with AT&T customer service to adjust my bill for the 17 days of service I actually used and to remove an early termination fee that shouldn't have been charged to begin with. So that left a bad taste in my mouth. But that's me. I'm sure AT&T works for plenty of people. It's the blind faith to the carrier that I don't understand. An extra 11 million iPhones in the US on Verizon can only help apple and other iPhone users. As mentioned in this thread it allows for the development of more applications. Competition is almost always a benefit to the consumer. I'm a huge Apple fan and although they have plenty of money already, I'm glad that they will make more money on a Verizon iPhone. This allows Apple to keep doing what they have been doing. And let's face it, they have done some amazing things. So who cares if the iPhone is also on Verizon? It's a good thing!
What I wish is that Verizon would make available the plan that they were testing in Texas. It was a single line plan, 450 minutes, 5 friends and family numbers, unlimited messaging and unlimited smartphone data for 69.99/ mo. Family plan was the same but 10 friends and family and 1400 minutes for 129.99. Each additional line was 19.99 and all lines included unlimited data and messaging. If you look at verizons rate plans and atts, thet are almost identical. This smells of collusion to me.
So that seems to be the end of my rant for today. I think we will see the iPhone on Verizon in the next month and I am very excited about it for many reasons.
In the interest of full disclosure, I retired early and bought into a Verizon Wireless franchise. Fortunately we are one of the few allowed to sell the iPad and we are hoping that this will continue for the iPhone. That being said, I do not have blind allegiance to VZW. They do plenty to upset me on a daily basis. As part of being as prepared as possible for work, I have tried every network and every phone platform. I decided many years ago that Verizon was the right network for me. I also understand that it is not the network for everyone. It is nice that we have a choice in carriers. Which is a lot more than I can say about my cable company.
I am also a BlackBerry fan. Blasphemy on this forum, I know. But I have had a BB since they first came out and I will continue to use them. The BB does things that work for me. I also have an android phone (yes I'm a dork and I have 2 phones. BB for work and Android for personal use) and I really like the android platform. It does some amazing things and the ability to customize is really nice. I will miss the ability to have email alert tones of my choice on the iPhone. But I do live the iLife. I love my Apple products like the iMac, iPad, MBP, iPods, etc... I'm an apple fan and will trade the android phone in for the iPhone when it lands on Verizon.
I have not heard anything internally from Verizon to confirm this rumor. We never do. We didn't receive any iPad communication until it was already announced. However, I'm very convinced that the 1/11/11 event will be the iPhone announcement. I'm blown away by the people on this site that continue to maintain that Verizon will never get the iPhone. Wow.
As far as release cycles or the Verizon customers being upset if an iPhone 5 comes out on AT&T a few months after they purchase, a few things. First, from my experience in our stores, I think that many Verizon customers will be happy with whatever iPhone is available to them. Hell, that's how I feel. I have been wanting an I phone for so long, I would take a 3G right now if it were Verizon compatible. Also, if you look at the back of any CDMA phone, you will see a sticker or an imprint similar to "CDMA by Qualcomm." My understanding is that Qualcomm has a hand in every CDMA phone that is manufactured. Their CDMA chips go into every phone. I dont know if Apple will be an exception As a result, Verizon is usually the last to get any phone. The BB lineup is a prime example of this. AT&T had the pearl, world edition, curve, bold many months before Verizon. Even the first Android phones were on TMobile - tho VZW has really lead the charge with Android in the past year. My point is that Verizon CDMA phones typically lag behind those of other carriers. Verizon customers are used to this. So it would not be a surprise, or out of the realm of possibility to have an iPhone 4 or some variant thereof for a February release. I know full well that Apple marches to the beat of their own drum and has previously released the iPhone in the summer. But that doesn't mean they wont release a VZW iPhone in Feb. As many have pointed out, it actually makes sense. This allows Apple to spread things out. It actually makes a lot of sense to have a different cycle. Will customers get mad if they get an iPhone 4 and 5 months later, the iPhone 5 is launched for AT&T? Maybe. But it is no different than the android lineup. People bought up the Incredible when it was launched last summer. Now the 4g Incredible HD or Thunderbolt is due out within the next few months. Are people upset? Maybe some. But this is the world we live in. The update and advancement of phones is happening quickly. In a world of 2 year contracts, it is hard to think your phone won't be obsolete within the first year of that contract. So to me, it doesn't seem outlandish that we will see a version of the iP 4 now even if there is a new version slated for the summer. And that new version most likely will not be for CDMA anyway. I predict a 3G iPhone in Feb and an LTE iPhone next Feb. And really, LTE on a phone doesn't impress me nearly as much as the Internet cards/mifis. Things load on my android almost instantly. I can't see LTE making an earth-shattering difference.
In terms of release dates, early February makes perfect sense. I don't see Verizon announcing an iPhone and then having a release 5 months later. As it is, the rumors are killing us. Sales, for our stores at least, have been down because customers who are eligible to upgrade are waiting for the iPhone. I have to imagine this phenomenon isn't limited to my stores. In fact, I have spoken to several other people about this and find that it is the case in many outlets, retailer and corporate. So I think that Verizon would want to get an iPhone into the stores as soon as possible after the announcement. Otherwise, phone sales would suffer for the next 5-6 months.
The flip side to that is the people that purchased phones during the holiday season. They are still within their 30 day return window. By the way, in addition the getting rid of the annual upgrade, Verizon is shortening the return period from 30 to 14 days beginning on 1/16. Nonetheless, if an iPhone is launched mid January, there would be a ton of android returns. So an early February release date makes sense. It allows time for training, and it falls outside of the holiday return window and doesn't cause too long of a drop in sales. The company leadership isn't stupid. They know what they are doing. It's funny to read some of the comments posted here regarding what is or isn't fair to customers, and what Apple would or would not want to do, etc... It's clear that not everyone has a grasp on how business works. Which is perfectly fine. I have no idea how to fix my car or perform an appendectomy. That's the beauty of a diverse country and we should embrace that diversity. The bottom line is that Apple and Verizon(kind of) are publicly held companies. They are going to do what makes them money. They will do what they need to do to answer to their boards of directors. That's the way the world works and that is OK. It's foolish to think otherwise.
As far as carriers go, Verizon works for me where I live and travel which is primarily between Florida and New England. I have actually purchased an iPhone in the past and found that AT&T worked fine in Southern New England but I didn't have service in my house in Florida and coverage was spotty in New Hampshire. NYC was a nightmare with the iPhone. Thankfully I had old faithful, my BB Bold. As a result, I returned said iPhone within the 30 day window. Sadly, it took 3 months of fighting with AT&T customer service to adjust my bill for the 17 days of service I actually used and to remove an early termination fee that shouldn't have been charged to begin with. So that left a bad taste in my mouth. But that's me. I'm sure AT&T works for plenty of people. It's the blind faith to the carrier that I don't understand. An extra 11 million iPhones in the US on Verizon can only help apple and other iPhone users. As mentioned in this thread it allows for the development of more applications. Competition is almost always a benefit to the consumer. I'm a huge Apple fan and although they have plenty of money already, I'm glad that they will make more money on a Verizon iPhone. This allows Apple to keep doing what they have been doing. And let's face it, they have done some amazing things. So who cares if the iPhone is also on Verizon? It's a good thing!
What I wish is that Verizon would make available the plan that they were testing in Texas. It was a single line plan, 450 minutes, 5 friends and family numbers, unlimited messaging and unlimited smartphone data for 69.99/ mo. Family plan was the same but 10 friends and family and 1400 minutes for 129.99. Each additional line was 19.99 and all lines included unlimited data and messaging. If you look at verizons rate plans and atts, thet are almost identical. This smells of collusion to me.
So that seems to be the end of my rant for today. I think we will see the iPhone on Verizon in the next month and I am very excited about it for many reasons.
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I still bump in to people that will tell me that the verizon iPhone will never com out, but with all this going on it sure looks like it is
CDMA iPad? No way would Verizon waste a "special event" for that. No one wants a CDMA or 3G iPad when you can just jail break a phone for a WiFi iPad. Plus, Verizon already offers the iPad over the MiFi hotspot. So an iPad wouldn't be news at all.
I just hope it's an iPhone announcement, to end these ridiculous predictions. I'm sure Verizon is hosting this event only because they have some extras included for an additional price in the iPhone: VZ Navigator, VCAST, Live TV. That way Verizon still makes the extra money they wanted.
Plus, who knows, this whole event hosted by Verizon could mean the first LTE iPhone, but I wouldn't think Apple would release that until LTE is fully functional everywhere.
I just want the President of Verizon to talk nonsense in the beginning then steal Jobs' line "oh, one more thing" and Steve walks out on stage. That would be cool.
You might be right, at least this summer. I expect that eventually the release cycles will be synced. Does Verizon want to remain second fiddle to AT&T when it comes to getting the latest iPhone? However, the problem is you could be wrong. Then again there's the possibility that the iPhone introduced for Verizon on Tuesday is the next iPhone (4S?) in which case I and any other informed Verizon customer will be very happy. Unfortunately or fortunately if you're Apple, many Verizon customers just want to walk on the street with an iPhone in their hand, any iPhone and don't care/know about sites like this.
So you will have to
(A) either pay full price or an ETF,
but
(B) afterwards will still have a valuable slightly used iPhone,
which you can then
(C) sell for a nice price to cover a large portion of (A).
You might even be able to make a profit off of not being eligible.
So your problem is???
Same here. I find that the people who rave about AT&T customer service and say they will never go to Verizon because of customer service are full of it and either never had Verizon or experienced an issue a long time ago.
AT&T is by far worse than Verizon when it comes to CS. That's from my experiences, a whole bunch of people I know who have AT&T now, and my experience with Verizon. I had the same issue when I returned my iPhone for full refund and had AT&T customer service refuse to remove the ETF and adjust my bill. I was a business customer and I even had the business CS reps calling the regular CS reps stupid (the regular CS dept handles ETF issues). It was ridiculous and took weeks of filing complaints to get the ETF taken off.
Meanwhile with Verizon CS I have never had an issue and they have always worked hard to make sure I was satisfied with the outcome.
Agreed, when I was with AT&T and using a Motorola Razor, it broke 3 times in 3 months. So each month they were sending me another phone. After the third time, I told them to just give me a credit of some sort that I could use to get an iPhone (which meant more money for them with a data plan). They refused, told me it didn't matter because I was under contract and I just needed to pay full price for a phone next time I had an issue.
I promptly paid $100 to leave, went to Verizon and picked up a Droid. Verizon has provided great customer service and I can't begin to tell you how many times I've had signal when all my AT&T friends did not. It made me laugh when a friend with an iPhone would go "hey, can I borrow your phone to make a call?"
DollaTwentyFive in Post #455 on page 19 makes a helluva lotta sense.
I'm not sure what's up with all the asterisks at the end of his paragraphs, I kept looking for a footnote but found none
It is my valueless opinion that Tuesday will in fact be the announcement of a February-available Verizon iPhone. I suspect it will be VERY similar to the current AT&T iPhone with the primary exception being the CDMA chipset.
It will remain the current model for Verizon until June/July of 2012.
In the meantime, a new updated iPhone 4GS (or whatever) GSM for AT&T will be announced at a later date and rolled out as usual in June/July 2011. That later date may be the Special Event in the Spring where the iPad2 and Lion are announced.
Come June/July 2012, ALL iPhones will get a major refresh as an iPhone5 (or whatever) and they will be GSM/CDMA capable thereby re-aligining the product cycle for global competition and possible domination.
The U.S. Verizon users of the initial ViPhone from Feb 2011 to June/July 2012 are the lab rats for the rest of the world's CDMA networks.
Verizon customers are largely clamoring for the iPhone and will put up with the various hiccups that occur while the CDMA bugs are worked out. As an added bonus to Apple, it gets to start making a dent in slowing down the leaps and bounds of Google's Droids.
Another thing to think about that I don't think I have seen mentioned yet is investor-expectations and corporate earnings. The stock value of both companies have been climbing in recent days in anticipation of a VZW iPhone. Normally, companies try to squash these rumors either indirectly by a few words to a columnist or analyst or directly by a public comment. They do this to prevent their stock from taking a huge plunge in disappointment. They don't want to set their company up to take a stock price hit. These recent rumors have not be quashed as of yet, and they are whipping up into an incredible frenzy that if true is a fantastic launch, but if not, is a huge crash. Investors do not like highly volatile stocks with huge swings in value. They like steady growth. The more the better of course, but they are not going to enjoy seeing a crash following the public's disappointment if the ViPhone does not come into being.
The only thing I haven't been seeing that bothers me is network testing. In versions past, people have located 'pings' on AT&T cell sites in and around Cupertino that have indicated new product signatures. Nothing about these blips on VZW's network have made their way into the blogosphere and that is a bit unexpected to me.
Anyhow, that's how I see this going down. YMMV.
I'm not sure what's up with all the asterisks at the end of his paragraphs, I kept looking for a footnote but found none
It is my valueless opinion that Tuesday will in fact be the announcement of a February-available Verizon iPhone. I suspect it will be VERY similar to the current AT&T iPhone with the primary exception being the CDMA chipset.
It will remain the current model for Verizon until June/July of 2012.
In the meantime, a new updated iPhone 4GS (or whatever) GSM for AT&T will be announced at a later date and rolled out as usual in June/July 2011. That later date may be the Special Event in the Spring where the iPad2 and Lion are announced.
Come June/July 2012, ALL iPhones will get a major refresh as an iPhone5 (or whatever) and they will be GSM/CDMA capable thereby re-aligining the product cycle for global competition and possible domination.
The U.S. Verizon users of the initial ViPhone from Feb 2011 to June/July 2012 are the lab rats for the rest of the world's CDMA networks.
Verizon customers are largely clamoring for the iPhone and will put up with the various hiccups that occur while the CDMA bugs are worked out. As an added bonus to Apple, it gets to start making a dent in slowing down the leaps and bounds of Google's Droids.
Another thing to think about that I don't think I have seen mentioned yet is investor-expectations and corporate earnings. The stock value of both companies have been climbing in recent days in anticipation of a VZW iPhone. Normally, companies try to squash these rumors either indirectly by a few words to a columnist or analyst or directly by a public comment. They do this to prevent their stock from taking a huge plunge in disappointment. They don't want to set their company up to take a stock price hit. These recent rumors have not be quashed as of yet, and they are whipping up into an incredible frenzy that if true is a fantastic launch, but if not, is a huge crash. Investors do not like highly volatile stocks with huge swings in value. They like steady growth. The more the better of course, but they are not going to enjoy seeing a crash following the public's disappointment if the ViPhone does not come into being.
The only thing I haven't been seeing that bothers me is network testing. In versions past, people have located 'pings' on AT&T cell sites in and around Cupertino that have indicated new product signatures. Nothing about these blips on VZW's network have made their way into the blogosphere and that is a bit unexpected to me.
Anyhow, that's how I see this going down. YMMV.
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while this may or may not be a VZ iPhone event if so, who's to say it wont launch in June/July, very well could be something like that.
I dont want to hold my breath for it being the elusive Verizon iPhone but...if so, finally.
I dont want to hold my breath for it being the elusive Verizon iPhone but...if so, finally.
Because if that were the case, it would kill Verizon's sales between now and then. Remember, their reps are paid on commission, I doubt they would appreciate going 5 months without pay. This is the reason they announce the new iPhones and release them two weeks later, so it won't kill sales on existing ones.
If this is what happens, I will be as happy as a pig in a blanket. I'll be getting the phone in February, and obviously want it to have as long of a life as possible before being outdated. If the next available version for Verizon is in June/July of 2012, I'd gladly jump on it.
WSJ:
"Verizon, the country's largest wireless carrier, will have the phone available in stores around the end of the month, a person familiar with the matter says."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...7986.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop
"Verizon, the country's largest wireless carrier, will have the phone available in stores around the end of the month, a person familiar with the matter says."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...7986.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop
If you're talking about the iPhone in my signature/info, I don't have it anymore. I'll have to pay full price for this damn phone.
Well if Verizon won't let me use my annual upgrade for a pre-order, I may have to pay full price too. Though I can't imagine not being able to upgrade.
I fail to see how that is any proof. Honestly, since journalists never have to reveal their sources due to the shield laws (and it would never come to that since this doesnt involve a crime), anybody could say this and cite the same mysterious person.
Until this person gets identified on the record (or it is shown to be correct) it doesnt mean much beyond a me too story.
and that is why you will not be getting any special treatment. How much time is left on your contract? You are going to be much better off paying early termination I think.
maybe you could port it over to another carrier, then cancel within the first 30 days and port it back to Verizon. Granted you may have to pay fees up front for setting up the new accounts. Gonna have to do some number crunching if this turns out to be true.
I agree the cycles will be synced and that's why I think they will do it this summer. Otherwise, you'll have AT&T 6 months from iPhone 6 while verizon will just be getting iPhone 5. And the cycle would continue. As for consumers, they realize that tech ages quickly and most don't the realize the unique way apple ages theirs in regards to price point and cycles. I would bet all the money I have that Tuesday is iPhone 4 and this summer both verizon and AT&T get iPhone 5.
Edit: the reason you wouldn't want iPhone 6 un-synchronized between the carriers is b/c it will most likely we another major redesign.....even the average consumer can see that the " new " iPhone looks different. THAT would be bad for business.
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DollaTwentyFive in Post #455 on page 19 makes a helluva lotta sense.
I'm not sure what's up with all the asterisks at the end of his paragraphs, I kept looking for a footnote but found none
:: snippage ::
It's at the end of the post, hidden. It is "*It's a good thing!"
ha ha. Sorry about the asterisks. I composed the post on my iPad in memopad and then when I copied and pasted into the post, it added the asterisks. But I like the suggestion that the footnote was "its a good thing"
Edit: I removed the rogue asterisks from the post
Edit: I removed the rogue asterisks from the post
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