The official release date for the long awaited Verizon iPhone has been set for Thursday, February 10. Beginning on February 3, all existing Verizon customers can preorder the iPhone 4 ahead of general availability.
"We've been looking forward to this day for a long time... All of Apple is very, very excited to serve Verizon's 93 million customers." said Tim Cook.
The wildly popular smartphone will launch in Verizon and Apple stores with pricing set at $199.99 for 16GB and $299.99 for 32GB. One big plus for Verizon customers is the "Personal Hotspot" included in the cost of service, which means that up to five Wi-Fi devices can tether to the phone and share its data connection. The CDMA version of iOS 4.2.5 features a built-in "Personal Hotspot" feature that ships with each device.
However, Verizon declined to announce whether their existing smartphone data plans will also apply to the iPhone, saying only that it would announce data package pricing at a later date. Current unlimited data plans on Verizon are $30 per month with unlimited texting for an additional $20. Individual unlimited voice calling plans currently cost $70 per month.
The wireless giant also revealed that their CDMA ready handset will not offer the ability to use voice and data at the same time -- unlike the GSM version on AT&T. Apple's Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook offered his own spin on the bad news.
"I think people place emphasis on different things." said Tim Cook, "They want this phone, and they will be willing to take certain tradeoffs to get it"
While many were fantasizing that Verizon's iPhone might be running on the company's faster 4G wireless network, chipsets for LTE require larger device real estate, which make it difficult to fit the electronics within the current form factor of the iPhone 4.
"Existing LTE chipsets would have forced design compromises the company would not make," said Tim Cook "Customers have also said that they want the iPhone now."
Also, the juicy rumor of a great white Verizon iPhone 4 launch turned out to be totally bogus as I had suspected. It was a painfully obvious rouse aimed at the "iphone for dummies" crowd. We'll have to wait a tad longer for ol' whitie.
Now that the news is finally out, are you planning to jump on the Verizon iPhone bandwagon, or are you waiting it out to see what revisions Apple offers with the potential upgraded iPhone 4 expected this summer?
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