The Verizon event on Tuesday has been confirmed by the Wall Street Journal to be the announcement of the Verizon iPhone. For those who may not know what the Verizon vs. AT&T iPhone "argument" has been about, what will a Verizon iPhone give you?Since Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, people have clamored for a Verizon iPhone. AT&T's network has been criticized for its inability to handle the heavy data traffic of the iPhone. Meanwhile, Verizon's network is known for reliability. While there is no empirical evidence that the Verizon network can handle the iPhone any better than AT&T's, that's what has been assumed by many consumers.
It's also been used as a Verizon advertising tool.
New users on the Verizon network will have to remember a few things, however. The Verizon network is based on CDMA, which differs technologically from AT&T's GSM network. For one, CDMA technology does not support simultaneous voice and data transmissions. That would mean, for example, you couldn't be talking to a friend and look up movie times at the same time. That could come as a shock to those who just saw multi-tasking come to the iPhone with iOS 4.
There have been advances in the CDMA specification that allow simultaneous transmissions, but that hasn't been rolled out anywhere yet. Additionally, Verizon has rolled out LTE recently, and that technology will allow simultaneous transmissions, in areas where it exists, but it would appear to be unlikely that the iPhone will have LTE. For one, Apple tends to eschew brand-new technologies. Additionally, Verizon hasn't released an LTE handset yet, so it would seem unlikely that the Verizon iPhone would heave the technology embedded in it.
In fact, the Verizon iPhone is almost certain to be the iPhone 4, tweaked to run on CDMA. Buyers need to keep that in mind, as that will mean they are locked into a contract and won't be able to buy the iPhone 5 (or whatever it is called) when it arrives in June or July. The WSJ believes the Verizon iPhone will be available in stores at the end of January; earlier rumors pointed to Feb. 3 - 6 as launch weekend. That actually makes more sense, as Verizon likes Thursday device launches, and that weekend would be a prime time to use for Verizon advertising: Super Bowl weekend.
Either date, however, would mean Verizon iPhone buyers would have only 4 - 5 months before a new iPhone model is announced. After all these years of waiting, perhaps waiting a few more months for a brand new model is a good idea, particularly since it's more likely that model might have LTE, or at least be a Global Verizon phone.
