Thought you knew all there was to know about Verizon cell phones? Sorry, but with Apple’s recent entry into the Verizon catalog things stand to be quite different than how they were just the day before!
This is no advertisement, mind you, nor any attempt at marketing but an honest take on what’s happening in this business from someone who is so disinterested a casual observer that he barely owns a cell phone, actually. It isn’t that I have some Verizon cell phones myself, for example. Truth to tell, I don’t have a phone myself – not as such. No, not as such; only my live-in girlfriend’s. (Yes, that’s my only means of wireless communication!)
I’m no Luddite, mind you; I was fascinated by mobile phones the same as anyone else ever since their general introduction to the public back in the early ’90s. At the time, things were radically different – and the same as ever in other respects. Know that old French saying? “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
So, changes: the inventory of Verizon cell phones is greater than ever, and individual makes and models offer all kinds of cool handy features like never before. Yet many terms and conditions for subscribers stay the same, continuing penalties for leaving early and so forth .
Which is where Apple makes its entry into the discussion. There’s the potential for it to really rock the industry. Once the exclusive province of AT&T, its debut over the Verizon infrastructure could really upset things.
Namely, greater competition.
Which ought to lead to better terms and conditions.
Usually, that is. Presently, things have been pretty much the same. Whether it’s from Verizon or AT&T, consumer can expect about the same policies as well as prices. For instance, with both companies the iPhone can only be had through an onerous year(s)-long contract.
So just how is that “rockin’ the industry?”
Well, again, there’s the theory, and then there’s practice. For the time being, even though product cycles are measured in months if not weeks in the industry, other factors have conspired to maintain the way carriers do business such that consumers aren’t seeing any differences. But that can still change, as well it should – and there are those who claim that it’s actually begun to already.