I am not one for blogging, in fact this is the first time I have created a blog other than one to showcase pictures for friends.  This thing with the iPhone really got to me.  Like millions of current Verizon subscribers (I truly am making an assumption here) I was on the website at 3am EST.  After a few hiccups I was able to get the order to go through.  Apparently if you use IE or Firefox you can’t get past the shipping verification.  So I happen to have Safari on my PC and loaded the page up and viola! Success!  Imagine that… it worked fine with an Apple product.  I hear you could order with no issues from the Apple website too.

Now there are issues I have with some of the “reasons not to get the iPhone 4 from Verizon”. 

Network instability:  I see this one a lot.  Basically critics claim “iPhone users have been known to use twice the amount of data than android users, so you can only imagine the havoc that will be caused on day one on Verizon’s ancient CDMA network.”

Now Verizon is called Big Red for a reason.  They are the largest carrier in the nation.  Their “ancient” CDMA technology has been around for some time and that in my mind means that it is tried and true.  A company this big will have done it’s research and taken note from AT&T’s failure at the launch of the first iPhone to be able to handle the amount of data users were moving.  If this means I have faith that Big Red did it’s due diligence then so be it.

Not the Best of Verizon: The first Verizon iPhone may only work on the older 3G Verizon network, 3G data speeds are much slower than new 4G networks both AT&T and Verizon are working on. So is it really changing anything extraordinarily to switch?

Really?  This is a concern?  No one is going to buy a Verizon iPhone thinking they are getting the 4G features or the next generation iPhone.  Unless this person has been living under a rock (go Geico for that one) they know that they will be getting a phone that has already been out for 6 months and is for all intensive purposes the same as AT&T’s. 

No Multitasking: You can’t talk and use the web or web-enabled apps at the same time with Verizon 3G phones.  You can text, but no emails either.

This is my biggest pet peeve.  Unless someone is moving from AT&T and has already used an iPhone on the GSM services, NO ONE currently with Verizon has ever been able to talk on the phone and surf the web.  How can we miss something we’ve never had access to?!  And call it multitasking, call it being efficient, I call it rude.  Do you want the person on the other end of the phone to be playing on the web while they are supposed to be talking to me? Seriously.  How’s this: “Hey buddy, I’m gonna check that out and then give you a call back.”I will admit it would be nice to be able to have Google Maps working while I am driving, but should I really be on the phone when I am driving?!

NOTE:  If you are connected to WiFi, you can surf the web while talking on the phone. 

iPhone 5 is due in June; new Droids to be released even sooner: “Steve Jobs’ last four early summer iPhone news conferences have programmed iPhone enthusiasts to salivate as the weather gets warmer. This year won’t be any different… The only mystery here in the United States is whether or not there will be a radio chipset in the fifth iPhone that lets it run on both the Verizon and AT&T network. A unified iPhone 5 makes sense, especially if it also supports 4G LTE data. But it would also make a whole lot of early Verizon iPhone buyers angry…”  Verizon will also be releasing 4 new Android phones this year, most of them before the iPhone 5 is possibly released in June/July.  All four will be on the 4G LTE Verizon network.

Originally, this caused me a slight pause.  But after reading countless articles and watching video after video about the iPhone 4 and review after review of the new 4G phones I realized: so what? There is always going to be a better phone right around the corner. I’ve used the iPhone for work before and loved everything but the phone.  I have an iPod Touch and I have used Droid phones as well.  The iOS blows Android out of the water any day.  As for the new iPhone 5, who’s to say what it will include? Will it be 4G?  And if it is, will Verizon’s network even be in your area to utilize the 4G?  Will it have a larger screen?  I’m sorry, but men, have you actually put a 4.3” screen in you pocket?!

“Hey, Steve, is that an iPad in your pocket?”

For two years I carried around an iPhone 3G (work) and a BlackBerry Storm 2 (personal).  Because it was a work phone and I didn’t pay for it, I tried to use that for all my talking and the Storm for texting and call my friends. Tried to use it.  In my office building I would have to walk across the hall to the controller’s office and place my iPhone up against a window through which I could see the booster tower AT&T had placed 50 yards from our building.  Once the phone was on the window, I could make calls using the speaker phone, cause the instant I placed it against my head the call would drop.  But I loved the apps and the access to my email. 

So I made the move.  My BlackBerry will go in a drawer in case I decided to travel to Europe, cause the Storm 2 will work there and the iPhone won’t (I didn’t bother including this argument simply because it is just stupid to consider this an issue not to buy a Verizon iPhone 4).