Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Verizon iPhone Pointless: Should I Wait For iPhone 5?

As you and the whole world knows, the Verizon iPhone is becoming a reality which will see release on the 10th of February and will command a price tag of $200 for the 16GB and $300 for the 32GB version. Which means the iconic iPhone will now be available from two US carriers.

The Verizon iPhone is of course CDMA while AT&T’s iPhone is GSM and the differences between the two according to a Mashable report are basically that GSM/UMTS is broadly used across the globe and thus people with GSM SIM devices can switch carrier fairly easily while CDMA doesn’t use a SIM and is thus a lot more difficult to switch to another carrier.

Which basically means if you opt to purchase the Verizon iPhone you are basically going to have to stay with Verizon, on the other hand as AT&T is the only other option in the US for the iPhone you don’t really have a great choice in the US like we do over here in the UK.

Furthermore does the Verizon CDMA iPhone offer more than the AT&T GSM iPhone? Well not really but it does bring 3G mobile hotspot; however we may see that 3G mobile hotspot come to the GSM iPhones when Apple release iOS 4.3 as reported (here).

There is also what appears to be a new positioning of the iPhone antenna with the Verizon iPhone having the infamous gap of death positioned at the top of the device rather than at the bottom which may avoid all the issues with what become known as the “Death Grip.”

The Verizon iPhone can also tether with up to 5 devices which means Verizon iPhone users can use the device to send data to their Apple iPad , laptop, PC or other device, you can check out these by viewing the Verizon iPhone hands-on video we posted previously by hitting up (here).

However, the Verizon iPhone may only have a short life as Apple should push out the next generation iPhone, currently being referred to as the iPhone 5 later this year. Once the iPhone 5 is released both the AT&T and Verizon iPhone 4 becomes somewhat redundant, especially if the iPhone 5 brings a lot more new features and perhaps the ability to play nice on 4G.

Having said that, no doubt the Verizon iPhone will be a big success and AT&T may well lose a large lump of custom to the rival carrier as many have waited to be able to pick up the Verizon iPhone.

But with the upcoming release of the iPhone 5 it kind of makes the Verizon iPhone pointless, so should people opt to grab the Verizon iPhone now or just wait until the iPhone 5 hits? Fell free to voice your opinions in our comments area below…many thanks.

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