Verizon

After turning down the iPhone, Verizon has been confident in their abilites to combat AT&T but they have recently extended their campaign of global domination, err, continuing to be America’s leading wireless service.

AT&T, can you hear me now? Good!

Blogged On My iPhone

First post of my challenge, wasn’t too bad, just a small post and according to my Spell Checker only Verizon is spelled wrong.

I’ve been a Verizon wireless customer since 1997. Yep, 10 years. And now I’m about to say good riddance. Bitter? You bet. Why? Well, here are my reasons why I can’t wait to switch away from Verizon:

1) Fees, fees, fees. You start off with a 24.99 plan that ends up costing 60 bucks somehow. Its always been like this and I’m sick of it.
2) No innovation: Verizon has these horrible locked-down interface on their phone. Sure, you get a Razr...but you get one with a craptacular Verizon interface.
3) More device selection. Of course this doesn’t matter now with the iPhone but Verizon has always lagged behind in device selection.
4) Sticking it to the arrogance of Verizon for passing up on the iPhone.
5) Getting back at them for not letting me upgrade a phone 1 month before my 2 years even though I was having problem with my phone, and had been a customer for 8, yes 8 years.

Sure, I know AT&T will probably be a pain from a plan standpoint. And yes I know that all the cell carriers in the US… more...

Jim Cramer of the popular “Mad Money” TV show thinks Ivan Seidenberg, the CEO of Verizon shpould get mad props. In his show, according to his website, TheStreet.com, Cramer said, “Seidenberg should take Verizon even higher and deserves the benefit of the doubt.”

But when Cramer then asked Seidenberg about how the iPhone would impact Verizon, thats when the real propping came out. In this case, it was Seidenberg propping up Verizon’s flexibility, advanced network, and breadth of choices as reasons why Verizon can counter AT&T and Apple’s iPhone.

The iPhone is going to create a lot of buzz and add “sizzle” to the industry, Seidenberg said. He believes that people will go to Apple and AT&T stores and then compare the product with what Verizon has to offer.

Although I believe that Verizon does indeed have a more dvanced network and greater flexibility, there is no way in hell people will take the time to compare options between Verizon and AT&T. Why? Well, mostly because those who are interetsed in the iPhone are caring more about the “sizzle” than anything else.… more...

Verizon always said they would respond to AT&T and their iPhone. But I think most people (me included) figured that would mean some “wickedly uncool” Motorola phone or a novelty Chocolate phone or something. Never in a million years did I expect Verizon would sell the fabulous LG Prada: perhaps the closest thing to an iPhone in the world.

According to TheStreet.com, Verizon’s answer to the iPhone is the LG Prada phone retailing for $600, one honey more than the iPhone. In my opinion this is the smart thing for Verizon to do. The Prada phone is already out in the market and has gained a lot of exposure for its luxury brand name and iPhone like features.

Maybe Verizon Wireless will retain some customers after all.

[Via Network World]

Another consumer cell phone survey and yet another vote of confidence for the office marked, “iPhone Team” in Cupertino. In a new study by ChangeWave, “9 percent of respondents are “very” or “somewhat likely” to buy the iPhone in June while another 7 percent are likely to buy the iPhone as a gift.”

And if the iPhone gets discounted (as rumored) to under $300, an aditional 10% of respondents have said they will jump on the iPhone bandwagon as well.

If all of this true, service providers like Verizon Wireless could get burned as existing customers migrate to Cingular. But on the other end of the losing stick will be manufacturers like Motorola, who in this study, is predicted to lose up to 17% of its marketshare.

[Via Mad 4 Mobile Phones]

The market research firm, IDC announced this week that Verizon Wireless has overtaken the lead for number of wireless subscribers. This top position previously belonged to Cingular WIreless. The announcement lists Verizon Wireless with 56.8 million subscribers and place Cingular with 56.3 million.

But will Verizon Wireless maintain top position for long? There is no word on how many of the reported 1 million interested iPhone buyers are existing Cingular customers or even Verizon Wireless customers? Well, consider this: if half of that million (500k) are non Cingular customers who end up becoming subscribers by buying the iPhone, Cingular would be equal to the number of subscribers that Verizon boasts. And if any of those 500k are Verizon customers, the pendulum swings further towards Cingular dominance.

So why is this important? The leader in wireless subscribers can single handedly change the standards in the industry. That is, of course, if the lead is big enough. Consider the power of a momentum shift in subscribers.

[Via InformationWeek]