Verizon Event, Next Week Tuesday
Verizon just announced a special event next week Tuesday. Right after CES, and my gut feeling is this will, at long last, concern an iPhone on Verizon.
Evidence for: limited vacation time for Apple retail employees during January / February, Apple won’t let CES or MacWorld pass without announcing something, and AT&T has been acting a little shifty in the past six months (raising their contract termination fee, lowering the price of iPhone 3GS) as if a competitor will soon arrive.
I don’t think a Verizon iPhone will ignite a wave of AT&T abandonment. The contract termination fee will dissuade many, but additionally the Verizon iPhone will likely be functionally identical to the current iPhone 4. For new features, we’ll have to wait until iPhone 5 in the summer. If this next-gen phone debuts on both carriers, the real switching might commence.
(This Verizon iPhone essentially being an iPhone 4 may be why Apple’s okay with Verizon handling the announcement. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jobs appearing on a special phone call during the event.)
Anyhow, fingers crossed for a Verizon iPhone next week. I won’t be getting one — but the spouse probably will. I hope FaceTime is carrier-agnostic.
Note: Still skeptical? Wall Street Journal article, co-authored by notable Apple reporter Yukari Iwatani Kane.