The middle of January the expected, but much anticipated, announcement of the iPhone on Verizon's network finally was official.
I wouldn't rush right out to buy one.
Even if you've been waiting for an alternative to AT&T's well known network issues, the iPhone being released this spring has two problems. First, and most significant, it is only a 3G phone, offering no real speed improvement over the current iPhone. Second, apparently it gets less battery life than the AT&T version.
The week before, at the Consumer Electronics Show, Verizon was showing off its new 4G LTE network (available in 38 cities, my home town of Denver is not on that list yet) with a number of new phones that will be coming out this year. Even at the show they were downloading 10 to 20 times faster than the 3G phones in the booth.
So why am I recommending you wait to buy a new smart phone?
Even though it started last year, we're at the beginning of a transition from 3G to 4G data. 3G, or 3rd Generation, offers download speeds of roughly 1 megabit per second. Most of the carriers have announced, and are partially into implementing, upgrades to 4G, or 4th Generation. 4G will offer download speeds of roughly 10-20 megabits per second.
Officially the International Telephone Union, ITU, specified 4G as supporting speeds of 100 megabits per second, but has backed that specification down to meet the marketing hype of the US carriers. But even with the "watered down" specifications, the advantages of getting a 4G phone are pretty clear.
So why wait? Most of the phones available today are not 4G capable phones. Even if you can't get 4G in your neighborhood today, if you lock into a standard 2 year contract with a 3G phone there's a good chance you'll regret it during the second year when 4G is on a roll.
Why do you want 4G data? The difference if you are web browsing is noticeable. I found with my older 3G Android phone that I often waited to browse many websites until I was at home. The combination of small screen and slow page loads made it ok for when I really needed to, but not a real alternative to a full screen browser on a high speed link at home.
The other reason for 4G data is video. More and more internet content is video. While low resolution video can be watched over 3G, to really get good video performance you need the additional speeds of 4G. Most of the newer smartphones can shoot HD video. To upload that video you'll need 4G speeds. Video conferencing is finally starting to take off. And it requires 4G data speeds. One application of video calls is the ability to show someone at the office, or at a manufacturer, exactly what is happening, in real time, no matter where you are. Think of what that means to anyone who has to deal with service issues in the field.
Verizon has announced their LTE 4G upgrade, and has a good start on its availability. Sprint, which was the first with 4G using WiMax technology, seems to be much slower at expanding its availability. WiMax actual speeds are also on the low side of the 4G range. Plus there are rumors that Sprint might, in the long run, switch to LTE. AT&T and T-Mobile have moved to a faster implementation of their 3G networks, which probably should be labeled 3.5G.
Also at the Consumer Electronics Show the phone manufacturers were showing off the new phones that will be coming out this year. Along with 4G data, most of the new phones are getting big screens (4+ inches is starting to become standard) and faster processors, several with dual core processors. That's like the difference between a new PC and one from 5 years ago. I was excited about phones from LG and Sony that had big screens (4 inches) and were very thin (like a third of an inch, 9 mm, thick--about half as thick as some of the other smart phones I looked at). The Motorola Atrix is powerful enough that one of its accessories is a laptop like dock that turns your phone into a low end netbook (albeit running Android, but with Google Docs and the built in Citrix access to a desktop PC, I'm not convinced it isn't a reasonable alternative).
If you are an iPhone aficionado, it is pretty well expected the iPhone 5 will get announced this summer. That's when I expect you'll see a 4G capable iPhone.
The combination of networks in transition and exciting new phones that won't be available for several months make this a definite time to wait if you possibly can.