Verizon's iPhone: What's The Fuss?

"Man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion."
--William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, 5.4

It's been a couple days now since Verizon Wireless announced that they will be carrying Apple's iPhone. In that time I've grown increasingly perplexed: what the hell is all the fuss about?

Oh, it's a good thing for Apple; the technology firm sold 15.8 million iPhones to AT&T customers in 2010, and estimates put Apple's 2011 US sales (AT&T plus Verizon) somewhere around 20 million units. At USD$600 a pop (the $200 you pay initially, plus the $400 subsidy the carrier fronts for you), the additional 4.2 million phones Apple will potentially sell this year represents an extra $2.5 billion in Apple's coffers. And that's just for the hardware -- it doesn't include the monthly revenue-sharing agreement between the carriers and Apple, which some estimates put at $18 per month per customer.

(Ever notice how casually we throw the term 'billion' around these days? Damn you, AIG.)

The iPhone introduction is a good thing for existing Verizon customers -- they can finally get iPhones (duh). If Verizon had offered the iPhone 18 months ago when our contract with them expired, we'd have probably opted to remain a VZW customer. But they didn't, so we went to AT&T.

It's kind of a 'meh' thing for AT&T; some analysts suggest that as many as 2.5 million AT&T users will defect to Verizon this year. I suspect, though, that when the catfighting and name-calling is done, both wireless carriers will enter 2012 in pretty much the same positions they greeted 2011 -- neck and neck.

But for the rest of us? I don't know about you, but I don't expect Ed McMahon to show up at my door with a check for any of this moolah. (Or at all. Ever.) Short of that, I just can't get excited.

Don't get me wrong -- I think the iPhone is a fabulous device, and it's well on it's way to becoming my most-used computer. But let's face it -- iPhone 4 has been around for seven months now. The iPhone Verizon introduced yesterday isn't anything new. Yeah, it offers an ability to act as a mobile WiFi hotspot, but that plus is negated by the slightly slower speed of Verizon's data network. And it can't transact voice and data simultaneously, a feature I use with some regularity.

Numerous reports have panned AT&T's reliability and customer service, but honestly, I haven't found that to be the case (nor have a number of other iPhone users I've spoken with informally). Yes, there were problems in New York and San Francisco for a while, but the tech media is concentrated in those two cities and my feeling is that the issue may have been reported a little more loudly than was actually the case. Whatever antenna issues exist with AT&T's version of the iPhone are fairly easily corrected by slapping a case on the device, which the majority of people do anyway.

Verizon's pricing has yet to be announced, but their current voice, data and messaging plans are roughly equivalent to AT&T's and I see no reason to expect that to change (though it'd be nice if they got into a pricing war). Customer service? If VZW's customer service is on a par with their landline cousins, don't look for any over-the-top rave reviews.

The marketing from here on out will be mildly interesting, as the competitors try to bitch-slap each other in primetime. I'd expect Apple to step back a bit on iPhone marketing, preferring to let the carriers handle it (and to avoid showing favoritism). Possibly they'll throw their excess advertising dollars at iPad 2, Apple TV and even the Mac.

But to me, it all appears to be a wash. No new technology, no deep discounts. Big companies make money. We all wait for iPhone 5. Meanwhile (I'm talking to you, mainstream news outlets), aren't there important things going on in the world?

As my friend and colleague Bob Rabner says (channeling his inner Bard), "It's much ado about nothing."

return to Quinn-Pulver.com

All content copyright ©2010-2011, Bill Pulver, and may not be reproduced without permission.