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The clock struck midnight and February 10, 2011 was born, but apparently no lines materialized at Verizon retailers. Why?

We heard a lot of hoopla surrounding the supposed "event everyone has been waiting for." Verizon made a special commercial with clocks just about to strike midnight and people in anticipation of being able to get an iPhone on the Verizon network. Jon Stewart was exuberant, claiming "a spring in my step... a certain twinkle in my eye" about the iPhone Verizon announcement. Apple even made the "Twins" commercial showing an iPhone on an AT&T and Verizon network simultaneously. So where are all the Verizon iPhone customers?

According the Daily Finance, 75 Verizion stores were polled and they recorded Ho-Hum sales... and yet Verizon claims having a record first day in sales? How can this be?

Well this author believes that there are two things going on.

First not everyone gets out of their two-year contract on February 10th (or since the announcement late in January). This means to "switch to Verizion" from another carrier it may cost extra money, and many aren't willing to pay this penalty to switch right now. Instead they will just wait or their contract to end before switching.

Second, Verizon customers have been trained for nearly four years that "iPhone= bad". Verizon claimed it offered other phones that were just as good or cheaper than that iPhone thing. Now in an instant everything is different. "iPhone = good". However, Verizon customers have also been trained to not pay for their phones or "buy one and get a second one free". The iPhone doesn't work that way and paying $99 or $199 or $299 for a phone may come as a shock for Verizon customers.

That said, we believe the single carrier model was the largest road block for the massive iPhone adoption. Now that iPhone is on the two largest carriers in the U.S. time will tell if the new Apple-Verizion partnership succeeds.

1 Comment

1. Bill ~ February 26, 2011 05:09
   With iPhonw now on Verizon if I had it and wanted an iPhone and my contract was up I would wait for [iPhone] 5. I expect sales will completely dry up the closer we get to to [iPhone] 5.

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