“iIPhone 4. Verizon. It begins,” proclaims Verizon’s website after last Tuesday’s announcement.
The iPhone, which has previously only been available to AT&T customers, will be available to the Verizon network starting in February.
“I am very excited about the Verizon iPhone,” junior Derek Hubbard said. “I’ve been a fan of the device since it debuted in 2007, but I have had Verizon since then and I wasn’t switching to AT&T.”
While the AT&T and Verizon models are nearly identical on the outside, Apple had to create an entirely new version to work with Verizon’s technology.
However, there are some downsides to switching to “America’s Most Reliable Network.”
The Verizon iPhone will not be able to work in as many countries as the AT&T version, and users will not be able to check e-mail while on a call. It will also run on the 3G network instead of the faster 4G, according to a New York Times article.
“I was going to switch [to Verizon] until I found out that it wouldn’t do data and voice at the same time,” sophomore Sarah Whitaker said.
Whitaker has been an avid user of her AT&T iPhone, but was looking to make a change to a new network.
Other Verizon customers are not concerned with the data limitations and think that Verizon’s model actually has a lot more to offer than the original AT&T version.
“That’s not a problem for me because that’s how all of Verizon phones are setup. On another note, the Verizon model will have mobile hotspots to allow you to connect to other Internet ready devices,” Hubbard said. “Apple has also slightly modified the casing and build of the Verizon iPhone to fix that snafu that happened with the antenna of the iPhone 4 last year. Therefore, I think connectivity will be much greater with Verizon.”
Pricing of Verizon’s model is the same as AT&T, though the data plan pricing is yet to be determined.
Apple predicts nine million iPhones will be sold this year for the Verizon network.
Sprint and T-Mobile are also expected to follow quickly on Verizon’s heels. The technology used for the Verizon model could be easily adapted for either network.
Current Verizon users will be able to pre-order the iPhone 4 starting Feb. 3 and will be available to the public on Feb. 10.
