Let me apologize. I know, this is a BlackBerry enthusiast site. However, it is news worthy, there are a lot of customers unsatisfied with their existing smartphone, be it an Android, BlackBerry, or other device. Even if I was an iPhone kinda person, I still wouldn’t run out and get this on release day, and I’ll explain why.
This is not the iPhone 5. Apple is expected to announce/release their next phone this summer, as they have every year since the first iPhone. Why would I pay $200 for a phone just to get what’s currently available and have the next, biggest and baddest thing show up in less than 6 months? I wouldn’t even be halfway through my 2year contract and would be feeling inadequate next to the others.
The only thing that has changed inside is to support CDMA. The antenna was moved, but Apple will downplay that and claim it was to adjust it for the CDMA hardware. However, the outside buttons have moved around because of this change. That means cases and accessories have to be redesigned to support this. Careful, don’t buy an AT&T iPhone case when you meant to get a Verizon one!! (Didn’t Steve Jobs once talk about “fragmentation”? This seems like fragmentation to me.)
Nothing is known about the data plans at this point. They kept comments back on that, most likely because there will be a rate hike and they wanted this announcement to be free from negativity.
Rumors from the floor staff are that a white version will be available this spring on Verizon, after the black one has been out.Let’s see what the other carriers and manufacturers do to compete, and let’s see how the influx impacts Verizon.
Like I said. I don’t foresee buying an iOS device anytime soon, however if I was an iOS kinda guy, I wouldn’t jump on the iPhone 4 VZW bandwagon just yet. I do feel many will defect from BlackBerry to iPhone, but I also feel many will defect from Android to iPhone as well. However, this will only happen because they originally wanted the iPhone but couldn’t/wouldn’t get it on AT&T.
This is all good for us, because it means RIM will step up their game even more. Perhaps we’ll see Super Phones sooner rather than later? Maybe we’ll get to see something like the Titan TK1.5 or Titak TK2 concepts? Time will tell, but competition is good for the consumer!