Verizon Wireless fulfilled a dream four years in the making for many on Tuesday morning by announcing that the carrier will finally offer the iPhone. Verizon President and COO Lowell McAdam took the stage this morning in New York City to finally lay the rumors to rest.
After sending out a mysterious invitation on Friday for a special event at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on Tuesday morning, Verizon Wireless President and COO Lowell McAdam announced to the media that Apple’s iconic iPhone would finally make its debut on the network after four long years of waiting.
McAdam began his announcement by teasing the press, “Okay, it looks like you’re expecting a big announcement. I don’t think we’ll disappoint. If the press write something long enough, eventually it comes true.”
After some background on the “innovation in the market,” particularly after having just returned from big announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show, McAdam touted that Verizon has made “great broadband the hallmark of our service,” with “a history of pushing the envelope in network innovation,” including their recent innovation with 4G LTE.
Of course, all of that was simply a tease for what we all want to hear: Verizon Wireless is now the second U.S. carrier to offer the iPhone, breaking four years of exclusivity with their rival AT&T.
“Today, we’re partnering with a giant of the industry, and that’s Apple,” McAdam announced to the gathered crowd. (Was that a “boom” we just heard?) The COO explained that their relationship with Apple “has developed over the last two years,” and after a year of testing, the Verizon iPhone finally exists and will be available in early February.
McAdam then invited Apple executive Tim Cook on stage, who mostly reiterated the now-standard iPhone 4 features, save for the CDMA radio required to talk to Verizon’s network.
"We've been working with Verizon for awhile,” Cook said. “This is just the beginning of a relationship between Apple and Verizon. I'm very optimistic about what the future holds. Now I'd like to bring up Dan Dee to talk about the launch."
Verizon’s Dan Dee then took the stage to tout the company’s network capacity, confidently announcing, “We’re ready for this launch” -- which will no doubt come as pleasant news both to AT&T defectors and existing Verizon customers.
Those existing Verizon customers can preorder an iPhone 4 on February 3, with sales opening up to all on February 10. The hardware pricing matches AT&T -- $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model (both with new two-year agreement), but pricing for voice and data plans were not announced today.
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(Image courtesy of Engadget)
