Surely, by now, you’ve heard about the new iPhone from Apple and AT&T due out June 29th and you may have even seen one of the new iPhone commercials. By all accounts, the iPhone, will be the biggest thing to happen to the U.S. based mobile market ever and many are speculating that the iPhone could change the face of the mobile industry as we know it.

As with new BlackBerry devices, Verizon won’t be seeing the iPhone anytime soon. Delayed release schedules for new BlackBerrys really haven’t adversely affected Verizon up to this point. I, however, am not so sure that this will be the case with iPhone.

Here are my 5 reasons how I think the iPhone could hurt Verizon.

  1. High value new subscriber rates could taper off — Verizon, with the exception of new BlackBerry devices, tends to release really cool high end mobile phones that consumers tend to buy expensive minutes and data plans for. No matter what Verizon does the iPhone will be the hot device for some time to come and Verizon will undoubtedly feel all the consumers that opt to get an iPhone that might otherwise have looked at a high end Verizon phone.
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  3. Verizon will loose customers to AT&T — No matter how they try to spin it, dismiss it, and rationalize it, Verizon will loose customers wanting the iPhone to AT&T and it will be more than just a few.
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  5. iTunes is way cheaper than V CAST — Last time I checked most V CAST music downloads cost $1.99, 100% more than iTunes downloads. iTunes also has a bigger catalog of music for you to download and all of you existing iTunes media will work on the iPhone.
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  7. The iPhone will have a pre-paid service option — Verizon’s biggest asset is it’s network. They unquestionably have the best one and it keeps a lot of subscribers from switching even if it means they cannot get the device they want. If, however, the iPhone has a pre-paid service option, it will allow Verizon subscribers like myself that are in love with the network to buy an iPhone without getting hooked into a long term contract. The real dilemma for Verizon comes if subscribers that have pre-paid iPhone plans realize that AT&T’s network really isn’t all that bad.
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  9. The iPhone is made by frigging Apple — Let us not forget what the iPhone is. It is the next generation iPod with a cell phone built in. The key word in that sentence is iPod. Apple sells so many of these buggers that they changed the name of their company from Apple Computer to just Apple to be more reflective of the products they sell. There is no question that the iPod is the number one MP3 player out on the market. What is number two? Number two at best is what waits for Verizon whenever they come out with something to compete with the iPhone.

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