The iPhone
made a huge splash on the smartphone market when it landed
on AT&T's network in 2007. Since then, the iPhone has been an
AT&T-exclusive; that is until now. Verizon officially announced that it
will sell a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 next month.
"Today
we're partnering with a giant of the industry, and that's Apple," said
Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell Mcadam. Despite earlier
reports that suggested that it would be Apple CEO that would join the
Verizon stage to tout the iPhone 4, it was actually Tim Cook that carried the
torch for Apple during the press conference.
“We are pleased to
introduce millions of wireless users to the industry leading iPhone 4 on the
nation’s most reliable network,” said McAdam. “This is an important step for
the industry as two great companies join forces to give wireless customers one
of the most important technological additions to the mobile landscape this
century.”
“Verizon Wireless
customers have told us they can't wait to get their hands on iPhone 4, and we
think they are going to love it,” said Apple COO Tim Cook. “We have enormous
respect for the company Verizon has built and the loyalty they have earned from
their customers.”
Hardware
changes are minimal, and all the same features of the GSM version of the iPhone
4 (dual camera, retina display, A4 processor, etc.) are still found on
Verizon's iPhone 4.
Verizon
Wireless executives were also quick to point out that it has built out its
network with enough backhaul capacity to support the iPhone 4 and the data that
the device consumes. It appears that Verizon Wireless doesn’t want a repeat of
the strain that iPhones have put on AT&T’s fragile network.
Existing
Verizon Wireless customers will be able to pre-order the iPhone 4 on February
3. Everyone else will be able to purchase the device on February 10 when it is made publicly available. Prices are the
familiar $199 for the 16GB iPhone 4 and $299 for the 32GB iPhone 4. A nice
addition to the Verizon iPhone 4 is that it will act as a 3G “Personal Hotspot”
for up to five devices (another nod to Verizon Wireless’ confidence in its
network's reliability).
