At a press conference in New York City recently, Verizon and Apple teamed up to announce an exciting new development for Apple iPhone lovers.  Apple COO Tim Cook and Verizon COO Lowell McAdam met at the Lincoln center to announce that Verizon will begin carrying the Apple iPhone starting on February 10, 2011.

Fans of the iPhone, Apple’s extremely popular touch screen smart phone, have been buzzing with excitement at this news as it signifies the end of the monopoly in iPhone service which is currently benefitting the well-known telecommunications company AT&T. Many current iPhone users are looking forward to having the opportunity to choose a new service for their favorite mobile device, and are hoping for some improved performance.

Industry analysts agree that the Verizon iPhone, using the CDMA network rather than the GSM  network, could very well lead to greater stability and reliability of service. iPhone users are looking forward to the possibility of fewer dropped calls and more responsive customer service.  The competition is expected to ignite a struggle for the hearts and minds of consumers as AT&T attempts to hold on to its lead and Verizon looks to build its customer base of iPhone users.

AT&T has begun its response by severely cutting the prices of its older generation iPhone models, and is also planning to begin aggressively marketing its services to possible new customers.  Verizon, for its part, has arranged to offer it’s iPhones with a brand new feature that allows users to connect their phone to up to 5 Wi-Fi devices, which will turn the iPhone into a personal Wi-Fi “hot spot”.

Verizon is also planning to build momentum for its first steps into the Apple iPhone market by allowing its existing customers to pre-order the popular smart phone a full 7 days in advance of it going on the market on the 3rd of February.  The offerings on plan include a 16 gigabyte model which will retail for 9.99 if the customer elects to purchase a two year contract or a 32 gigabyte model for 9.99 with contract.  4G capabilities are not yet forthcoming; however, it seems likely that such capabilities could become available by as early as the summer of 2011.

Opening up this popular mobile device to new competition seems to many to be the logical step for Apple to take in this market.  The Apple iPhone has already garnered a lot of attention for its innovative and beautiful design, it’s extremely responsive and easy to use touch screen, wonderfully sharp screen resolution, and the plethora of applications available to truly turn the iPhone into a multi-function device.  It’s ability to take pictures and videos and then to manipulate them as desired and send them to friends at any whim has made this smart phone an extremely fun to use device, and fans of the iPhone are quite excited at the prospects for new competition.

How the new competition will play out is uncertain, but what we do know is that it’s bound to provide incentives for both companies to woo customers with improved prices as well as a focus on customer support and service.  It’s a winning situation for iPhone lovers.

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