The long-awaited announcement this morning of the Verizon iPhone went the way of most long-awaited announcements and raised more questions than it answered.
As someone who writes about iPhone issues, I confess I’m stuck. The facts have been reported, including the only surprise: The Verizon iPhone is going to have the capacity to function as a mobile hot spot, meaning your laptop (and up to four other devices) will be able to use it for Internet access. Although jailbroken iPhones have this capability, iPhones activated through AT&T currently don’t.
I don’t think this feature is enough to have most AT&T iPhone owners switch, particularly because the iPhone 4 is likely to be surpassed in capabilities by the iPhone 5 expected to be released in June and because you have to believe that AT&T is going to make a similar service available.
Verizon did not announce pricing for the data plans. Until they do, or until AT&T makes a move, there’s not much substance to talk about. Not that I’ll let that stop me! I had a lot of fun talking with Larry Sivitz at Seattle24x7 about the iPhone and my ebook on using it. Here’s the article.
I disagree that AT&T will offer the hotspot ability on the GSM version of the iPhone 4. Look how long it took them to allow tethering. I just don’t see them taking a chance on overloading their network for what will not be an overwhelming advantage to Verizon.
Once the iPhone 5 and, later, LTE arrive this may change.