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Why Verizon Doesn't Want You To Buy an iPhone

Hugh Pickens writes "Sascha Segan writes that although Verizon adamantly denies steering customers away from Apple's iPhones in favor of 4G LTE-enabled Android devices, he is convinced that Verizon has a strong reason to push buyers away from the iPhone. 'Here's the problem,' writes Segan. 'Verizon has spent millions of dollars rolling out its massive LTE network' but the carrier can't easily add capacity on its old 3G network. Since the iPhone isn't a 4G phone, sales of Verizon iPhones just crowd up their already busy 3G network while their 4G network has plenty of space. 'The iPhone is a great device. But it's making a crowded network more crowded. Until the LTE iPhone comes along, to rebalance its network, Verizon may quietly push Android phones.'"

12 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Easy solution by bennomatic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Add an unlimited plan that applies to 4g only. That'll give Android users some bragging rights for at least a few months. Then, when the iPhone gets 4g, Verizon won't need the plan and can drop it, and that'll allow Android users to blame the iPhone for ruining the party.

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    1. Re:Easy solution by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That last sentence is the fault of some dead white guys named Maxwell, Hertz, Shannon, and Nyquist, not anyone at AT&T or Verizon.

  2. A bunch of corporate whining by rsborg · · Score: 2, Insightful

    All I hear is, "we're making money hand over fist, but it's not all perfect...". Meanwhile they paid a negative federal tax in 2011 [1] and are lobbying for even lower taxes and local subsidies.

    The iPhone is their best selling device. The next iPhone will have LTE support (like the iPad today). Verizon just sounds like a whiny child who didn't get *everything* they wanted for Christmas.

    In short, fuck them and their entitlement complaints.

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    1. Re:A bunch of corporate whining by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      When you think that you deserve to have everything, you'll end up talking about whatever you don't have as though it has been stolen from you.

      Unfortunately, the guillotine is out of fashion, so such conduct is allowed to occur unchecked.

  3. Re:Too bad they're not also pushing ... by MtViewGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here's the problem: the Lumia 900 is an GSM/LTE cellphone, not a CDMA/LTE cellphone. As such, the Lumia 900 can be engineered for GSM networks (which is essentially most of the world's cellphone networks!) that have added LTE functionality, for example Australia's own cellphone network with GSM and LTE.

  4. LOL -- as if it matters what Verizon "pushes" by wealthychef · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This article misses a major clue -- people who are buying iPhones are not doing so because their carrier steers them towards them. As many people know about the iPhone as know about Verizon. There are people who wouldn't switch to Verizon because they didn't offer the iPhone. Name another phone that people do that for. The truth is, if Apple pushes people away from Verizon it will make a bigger difference for Verizon than it will for Apple if Verizon steers people away from iPhone.

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  5. Random People on the Internet Writes... by ToasterMonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'll just quote from the source articles and let you make up your own minds.

    http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/03/technology/verizon-iphone-sales/

    Anecdotal evidence is stacking up on chat forums and other outlets...

    http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/03/technology/verizon-iphone-sales/

    A pretty hot story is going around, stoked by CNNMoney...

    [give some facts]

    Maybe those are minor factors, but they aren't the primary reason.

    [reach any conclusion you want]

    MAYBE it's true, maybe it's not, but I fucking hate "new media".

  6. Re:Too bad they're not also pushing ... by Anthony+Mouse · · Score: 4, Insightful

    #7 isn't bad for a phone which nobody wants.

    Yes it is. It's a disaster. Because it's the only Windows phone anybody is pushing. You're basically comparing the entire Windows phone market to specific models of Android phones -- and even by doing that, you end up as #7 rather than #1.

  7. Re:Too bad they're not also pushing ... by jbolden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's one of the reasons carriers are willing to pay a higher subsidy for iPhone users. Apple customers buy more stuff across the board. They buy more services, they buy more accessories, they add more people to their accounts.... Apple focuses like a laser not on market share, but market share among profitable customers. That's why they generally pull 80+% out of markets they often have 10% or less share of.

  8. Re:Too bad they're not also pushing ... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well of course the numbers are larger you silly child there are more accessories for iPhone than for Android. Its a numbers game at that point and not a telling of the markets movement.

    I'll have to remember this one.... Making more varieties of something guarantees you will take all the top sales spots. Brilliant!

    If the #1 selling item does 1 million units and the #2 does 100,000 - then making 8 different varieties of the #1 item and splitting the market 8 different ways will move the #2 guy down to #9 without any change in actual units being sold.

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  9. Re:Too bad they're not also pushing ... by schnell · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There was no intent to "badmouth" CDMA. As you correctly point out, Wideband CDMA ultimately won the day as a technology. Your recap of the technologies' comparative strengths is very well written. But when I spoke of CDMA as having dead-ended, I was referring to the vendor technology path, not the underlying technology itself. Most people are only familiar with "CDMA" and "GSM" as the two competing cellular technology families in the US, without necessarily understanding what that means (other than "one has a SIM card and the other doesn't.") Telling them that their 2G "GSM" is really EDGE - and their 3G HSPA acts more like CDMA than GSM - will for most audiences just confuse the issue. So I stand by my assertion that "CDMA" the technology path is dead, and "GSM" is moving forward, but there's no value judgement on the technologies underlying that implicit in my comments.

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  10. Re:Too bad they're not also pushing ... by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Funny that when I clicked the link it had already fallen to #9, damn that was fast!

    The problem with a "Windows phone' is that the word "Windows" has a VERY specific meaning in the eyes of the vast majority and that is the ability to run Windows programs, aka x86 Windows software. Since neither is the phone capable of running X86 windows software nor does the public want to run X86 Windows programs on a teeny cell phone screen naturally its gonna bomb.

    The smartest thing MSFT can do is when Win 8 bombs (which from the amount of sheer hatred its getting is probably a certainty on non touch screen devices which of course is MSFT's and the OEM's biggest sellers) is to spin off the mobile division so that MSFT and Windows names simply aren't attached to it as the name has too much history and baggage to deal with. if it were me I'd call it "Metro OS" and work to make it easy to sync up with the X360 and PC but other than that and porting some of the big names like MS Office I would let it sink or swim on its own and like in the old days of having the consumer and business desktops be two totally different things so too would mobile and X86 be two separate paths.

    Lets face it the name Windows bring nothing to the table but baggage when it comes to smartphones and ARM based tablets. I saw this first hand last Xmas when a local retailer tried to sell "Windows tablets" based on WinCE and got to take a bath on the returns. When people see something that looks like windows dammit they are gonna expect it to run like Windows and the average user doesn't know ARM from a P4, all they go by is appearance and how big the numbers next to the device are. you see this in X86 with how much AMD is able to sell out Bulldozer chips despite really shitty reviews because people see 8 cores and automatically assume that is better than 4 Intel ones since 8 is better than 4.

    In the end as long as it has the name Windows on it its just not gonna compete with Android or iPhone. Its like when I was helping my dad pick out a cell phone (he chose an HTC Android phone) and when we came to the Windows phones the first words out of his mouth were "Why would I want Quickbooks on my phone?" because that is what Windows is for my dad, MSN Messenger and QB. It frankly wouldn't matter if MSFT put out the best phone on the planet (although if the rumors are true and WinPhone 7 won't get Win 8 I'd say its doing pretty poorly in that regard) because there is just too much baggage with the brand.

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