When the original iPhone was release, it took Apple 74 days to sell a million copies of the then AT&T only device. 74 days. A scant few years later and Apple’s wildly popular phone manages to sell 3 million units in three weeks, creating a worldwide stampede in the process. With it’s recent release of the iPhone 4s, now in two colors (black and white) on three different carriers (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint), it took apple a single weekend to sell more than 4 million iPhone 4s phones. One weekend; 4 million phones.

Still on the fence about where to get your iPhone 4s? Well, PC Magazine has done a very nice comparison of iPhone service plans.

The newcomer, Sprint, seems to be the leader in this race, but it would take a lot to pry my unlimited AT&T plan away. Anyone trying Sprint or switching around their carrier?

geek

Bloomberg is reporting today that all three US based wireless carriers have sold out on their initial allotment of iPhone 4s phones. Apple, Verizon and newcomer, Sprint are all showing that launch-day availability of smartphones is no longer available. Most of the sites that were visited are showing up to three weeks for delivery and even Apple is quoting 1-2 weeks before people get their phone.

On an up note, if you’re willing to start sitting outside your local Apple retail store it’s likely that they will have a bit of inventory on hand for those of you not wanting to pre-order their phone.

geek

Earlier this morning Verizon finally acknowledged a problem with it’s 4G LTE network. Through their official Verizon Wireless Twitter account (@VerizonWireless), Verizon Wireless has reported that “We’re aware of an issue with #4G #LTE connections & our network engineers are working to resolve quickly. Will update here.” As a Verizon Thunderbolt customer, this is a wee-bit frustrating, with the most interesting read coming a few hours later: “Investigating 4G LTE network issue; ThunderBolts making voice calls, may get slower 1xRTT data. Will update here.”

 
For most everyone that I know, the image above – showing 4G speeds in the San Francisco, Bay Area is probably all the review that is needed.  For others, you may be looking for something a little more, in which case you can feel free to continue reading my thoughts on this modem.

Apple continues to push their ever-popular iPhone, this time addressing the network and how AT&T allows multi-tasking on 3G. Will this be a blow to Verizon?

I will admit to being a fan of Palm.  Despite everything, I want them to succeed, because I think that they were ten years ahead of everyone else in their thinking.  Unfortunately, I also believe that they’re now years behind the competition and that sticking to their form-factor has limited their success in some senses because they haven’t gone away from the style that made them successful in the beginning.  Changing the color just wasn’t enough for most die-hard techies.

On the plus for them, though, Verizon is now carrying and marketing their 755P smartphone that will allow Verizon users to get their fix of this now aged phone.  Thanks, but no thanks.  Too little, too late in my mind.

~geek

In what may soon prove to be a sign of the times, Verizon announced Thursday that it would be using LTE (Long Term Evolution) as it’s fourth-generation wireless technology, aligning it for the first time with AT&T and European carriers.

Up until now, Verizon Wireless has been part of a different crowd, backing technologies based on Qualcomm’s CDMA standard. LTE would be a departure from this and would move Verizon to the global GSM standard.

What does this mean for you and me? In the short term, nothing. Verizon isn’t suggesting that they’re going to roll out a new GSM network and scrap their current CDMA, but instead that they will take baby-steps (think 2010, 2011) to move into the LTE standard. In the long term, this means a lot, and I’m very excited about the potential. And that potential starts with the obvious – handsets galore. Companies like Nokia, that has long been weak in CDMA and Apple could offer products on Verizon’s network without having to completely change their product-line. Considering that Nokia is the world’s #1 mobile phone manufacturer, this might leave many thinking “about time.”

~geek