Verizon iPhone - I was wrong

So, most of you know I've said there will be no Verizon iPhone. I had good reasons. Having a Verizon iPhone completely invalidates some of Apple's ads. Any that involve simultaneous voice and data. The global roaming and backpacker ones.

All those ads? Meaningless now. All things you CANNOT do on a CDMA phone. They never really were Apple features - more AT&T features. And, in typical Apple fashion, presumably simply never to be spoke of again.

This also seriously hurts AT&T in Alltel markets. There was a lot of pent-up demand to switch to AT&T for the iPhone. Now, not so likely to happen. AT&T's going to have a great network here when it launches next month, with coverage, speeds, and capabilities that are far beyond Verizon. But, without unlimited data, I'd say Verizon maybe the better value on this one. And that makes me sad - I'm staying AT&T (with a free Samsung Captivate and my Alltel unlimited plan!). And I want as many of my friends to be free calling as possible. I was excited for them switching to AT&T.

The good news, maybe this will force AT&T to reconsider their 2GB data cap. And if they do, I'd still recommend people to switch over. Reality is that in well-covered 3G areas (like all of Montana will be), the AT&T iPhone is going to be a much better experience than the Verizon iPhone (faster, simultaneous voice and data, global roaming, SIM card support, etc).

I'm also guessing that this announcement is part of the reason for AT&T's suddenly strong announced Android lineup. So yes, in some ways, it's good. Because competition is always good.