Verizon has steadily increased iPhone 4 customers and captured one-third of the market, according to a report from Localyitcs. Even after grabbing 20 percent of the market when Verizon launched the iPhone in February, many analysts were disappointed with Big Red's early performance. The launch-day lines were not as long as they were when AT&T launched iPhone 4, so the assumption was people preferred AT&T. However, after looking at roughly six months of data, it appears Verizon has done quite well and has advanced significantly, despite an eight month head start by AT&T.

Localytics tracks usage and other stat for mobile app companies including the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, Skype, and Kayak. Based in Boston, MA, they claim to be represented on over 70 million iPhone handsets worldwide, which is kind of a lot. Using that base, they tally up market share by looking at data on a seven day period leading up the first of the monty. With this methodology, by July 1, 32 percent of all iPhone 4 users traffic was coming from Verizon.

The fact that Verizon continued to offer unlimited data plans (until today) may have helped drive their growth, or it could be attributed to a large segment of the population that lives in areas better served by Verizon cellular service. Either way, assuming both Verizon and AT&T will be on the starting line together when iPhone 5 (or 4S, or whatever) comes out, it will be the first time they both launch a new iPhone at the same time. Let the games begin!