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BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Feb. 10 (UPI) — Verizon Wireless stores across the United States open at 7 a.m. Thursday, 2 hours early, to handle a likely rush for Apple’s newly available iPhone 4.
The second-largest mobile telecommunications network expects a Black Friday-like frenzy as it starts selling the multimedia-enabled touchscreen smartphone on its network, previously available only through AT&T Inc.
AT&T — which activated 15.2 million iPhones on its network last year, 25 percent of them from new subscribers — said it was not concerned about losing its exclusive U.S. hold on the phone.
“We’ve been planning for life after exclusivity since we signed the first contract” with Apple, David Christopher, AT&T’s chief marketing officer for mobility and consumer business, told The New York Times.
“That playbook still includes selling tons of iPhones,” he said. “They are an incredibly important part of our go-forward plan.”
Verizon iPhone reviews have generally found it drops fewer calls than the AT&T version, the Times said.
Verizon said last week it pre-sold all the iPhone4s it had set aside for current customers last Thursday, declining to giving a figure. But it said sales surpassed all its previous smartphone debuts, including big releases such as the Motorola Droid and Droid X.
Analysts said Verizon would probably sell as many as 9 million iPhones this year, although most could go to existing customers, the Times said.
The Yankee Group information-technology research firm estimated 1.9 million AT&T iPhone owners could switch to Verizon this year, or about 2 percent of AT&T’s 93 million wireless subscribers.
The iPhone — also available at Apple’s retail stores and online — lists for $199 for the model with 16 gigabytes of storage and $299 for the 32-gigabyte model. Both rates require a new two-year agreement. The full retail price is $649.99 and $749.99 for the two phones, the companies said.
Verizon also has a buyback program covering part of the early-termination penalties AT&T iPhone owners would pay to switch to Verizon. The money is put on a gift card that can be used toward the purchase of a Verizon phone, Verizon said.
One in two Americans is expected to own a smartphone by the end of the year, research firm Nielsen Mobile said. Three years ago the figure was one in 10.
This means more Americans, for the first time, will own smartphones than regular-feature cellphones, Nielsen said.
From www.upi.com
