Verizon Activates 8.8 Million Smartphones in 4Q 2013, Stops Announcing iPhone Numbers

[simonappheros]

This is a great point. Verizon doesn't want the iPhone. They only sell it because they were losing customers to the carriers with the iPhone. Verizon wants devices that they control - meaning Android devices where they can mandate carrier-specific apps on the phone. Ever notice that every Verizon commercial on TV is pushing a 2nd-tier Android phone? They make the most profit on those, so they push them aggressively. Plus, some manufacturers pay Verizon to get featured. For example, Samsung pays huge amounts of marketing money to carriers and carrier stores in order to push the Samsung devices above all others.

You are absolutely correct my friend.

 

[sixrom]

With the current subsidies the carriers extend to customers, they make very little selling iPhone's. That's in addition the massive inventory that Apple requires them to buy up front. Apples the master of grabbing everyone's money, it's quite the phenomenon.

 

[kdarling]

I'm not a big Verizon fan; most of it has to do with the fact they're CDMA, which is exclusionary in that you can't move an unlocked phone to another carrier.

Yep, and it can also cause a long wait to get the latest device sometimes.

However, if a person is used to Verizon call reliability (which is greatly due to using CDMA), that person would never switch US carriers anyway.

Ironically, Verizon was often the better choice if you wanted to take your phone overseas... assuming you bought one of their dual mode phones... as they would unlock the GSM side without hassle, so you could buy and use local SIMs from another country. US GSM carriers often liked to keep their phone locked to their own SIM to get roaming charges.