Verizon States: LTE iPhone is coming and iPhone Launch, Biggest Ever

Verizon Wireless's Chief Executive, Daniel Mead, spoke with the Wall Street Journal recently. In this interview, Mr. Mead takes a moment to refute the claims in the media, that Verizon's iPhone 4 launch, was less that they had expected. These reports come from the observation that Verizon did not encounter incredibly long lines of people on launch day to purchase the iPhone 4.

Daniel Mead countered this by stating, the short lines were a result of an "intentional strategy aimed at spreading out the purchasing activity." Mead pointed out that unlike AT&T, their web servers did not melt down and force everyone to visit a retail store. Instead they had a 3 stage launch, which efficiently distributed the phones to the masses in stages.



The first stage was the online pre-order. Which is just so happens beat the previous sales all time sales record in only 2 hours. The second stage was the retail pre-order the following day. The last step was of coarse the launch. All those who pre-ordered, received their iPhones in the mail. I got mine on Tuesday the 8th, a few days ahead of the official launch. The end result, the majority on Verizon's existing customers, who were going to switch.. did so without ever having to visit a Brick and Mortar store. Now THAT is convenience!

Mead also goes on to mention that Apple is not going to be ignoring LTE. He says, "You'll see more coming from Apple on LTE,"  "They understand the value proposition of LTE and I feel very confident that they are going to be a part of it." So will we see the iPhone 5 released as an LTE model on launch date? Or will it come later in the year as a mid year update? I personally do not expect Verizon to get the iPhone 5 until nearer to the end of the year. At least not in a LTE flavor.

Source : Wall Street Journal