Over half of Verizon subscribers want an iPhone
A market research company is out with the news that if Verizon was able to sell the iPhone handset from Apple, more than half (51 percent to be exact) of their subscribers would opt for an iPhone.
Morpace, a Michigan research firm, conducted a survey of around 1,000 Verizon subscribers in mid-July. The somewhat astonishing result was that 51 percent of those subscribers, thought to be a scientifically selected subset of all Verizon users, would be “somewhat likely” or “very likely” to select an iPhone from Verizon if that popular U.S. carrier were able to sell it to them. There has been a lot of speculation about how popular the Apple handset would be with Verizon subscribers, and no shortage of rumors about the iPhone coming to Verizon. This is the second study recently showing how great the penetration into the Verizon customer list could be. The first was done by Changewave last May.
The results of the Morpace survey showed another interesting highlight: about a quarter of current iPhone users, who are with AT&T by default, would jump ship to Verizon if the latter company were authorized to sell the iPhone, according to a ComputerWorld story. AT&T’s network and customer service have been criticized from almost the instant they were give exclusive rights to the iPhone in the U.S. Dropped calls, areas without coverage, and especially problems with iPhone use in several large cities have been repeatedly cited as sore spots by AT&T customers.
One wonders how great the iPhones sales would be if Apple had given an exclusive to Verizon in the first place, pairing the best phone with the best cellular network. The sales of the Apple handset have been spectacular even when paired with what is arguably the worst of the cellular networks. With all the good decisions that have put Apple where they are today, this may be the worst decision, and one which held the company back to the greatest degree.
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August 17th, 2010
I wonder how biased that survey was. Why would anyone in their right mind choose the jesus phone over the Droid X, Droid 2 or Galaxy S?