Quick Cancel that Verizon iPhone Order!

Unreliable networking?  Bogged down data flow?  No simultaneous voice and data features?  The iPhone 4 version for Verizon is a 3G CDMA phone?!  What, exactly, does that mean?  These are the many questions and concerns for the anxiously awaited release of the Apple iPhone 4 for Verizon.  Should you be worried?  Well yea, you could say that.

The Verizon iPhone 4 pre-orders have sold out!  Why is a smart phone, which will be outdated in a matter of weeks and is almost a shiny black dinosaur upon its launch, doing so well?  I’ll tell you why:  Verizon is one of the nation’s biggest phone companies, and their customers have been grinding their Tyrannosaurus-like teeth in anticipation of swallowing one of Apple’s most innovative, useful and popular pieces of technology to date:  the iPhone.

For all of the antsy Verizon customers who want to take a plunge and grab the iPhone 4, you should know the lofty cliff you are diving from, in other words you should know the key differences between the Apple iPhone 4 for AT&T and the iPhone 4 for Verizon that is about to released.

To start, many claim that AT&T has downright bad phone and data service.  While it is true that AT&T has had myriad problems in the past, especially in the New York metro area (which is no small blip on the map), the company has invested millions every year into improving its oft criticized network since it first acquired the iPhone, and AT&T has drastically improved to nearly match Verizon’s service.  AT&T will be launching a 4G network this year; 4G is significantly faster in the download and upload times of data, and Apple will almost certainly unveil its newest version of the iPhone for AT&T that will utilize the much faster data speeds.  Verizon will not.

Apple’s iPhone 4 for Verizon will remain a 3G CDMA phone, which means that it will merely be a holdover for impatient Verizon customers who cannot wait until 2012 for an iPhone that is above the slow-to-average network speeds.  Does this matter?  Well there are millions of iPhone users constantly plugging away at their awful “American Idol” Apps, and this will significantly slow a Verizon system that is already outdated.

“What Verizon iPhone owners right now will be getting is a…middle aged phone,” says Paul Reynolds, an editor for “Consumer Reports”, “almost certainly, you’re locking yourself into a two year contract before Apple traditionally rolls out its new iPhone.”  Since 2007, Apple has annually released new versions of the iPhone in June.

What else does the AT&T customers’ iPhone do that the Verizon consumers’ will not do?  As of the launch in February 2011, the iPhone for Verizon will not have global roaming capabilities, meaning that the culture seeking travelers among us will need another phone while wrestling koala bears abroad.

If you are one to talk on speakerphone while you surf the net on your phone, then this iPhone will disappoint you mightily, as it does not do what the one for AT&T does so well.  The one good thing that the iPhone for Verizon has is the ability to make it a wireless hot spot, which allows up to five devices to run the Internet through it; the iPhone for AT&T does not currently do this.

Now for all of the Verizon purists who stayed on and laughed raucously at the AT&T customers whose networks got bogged down or crashed when millions of iPhone users sought online activities, I say this:  it is very possible that with the sold out pre-sale and the overwhelming popularity that the Apple iPhone for Verizon already has that the 3G based Verizon network will become crash happy and/or begrudgingly slow at times of heavy user traffic.

If your 1938 rotary phone’s battery is dying, and you are already with Verizon, then the Apple iPhone 4 is probably still the best smart phone out there, with its unrivaled touchscreen and the sheer amount of Apps available for it.  Personally, I would still wait though.  Better days are ahead.