I’ve long stated that the lack of iPhone availability on the Verizon network played a large part in the Android explosion. Apple erroneously assumed that the masses were willing to jump to AT&T once the phone was released. While some obviously made the jump, the tech-savvy knew that they would be going from one bad situation to another. Google then made the brilliant decision to help manufacturers get Android devices on every network they could. The results were, and still are, quite staggering. The people who wanted to stay on Verizon opted for Android devices.
A lot of people won’t buy what I’m about to sell, and that’s their prerogative, but having the iPhone on the Verizon network may tip the balances of power more than most are willing to concede at this point.
The general population, those who don’t sit around reading tech blogs and waging paradigm wars, know exactly what phone they want. Studies have shown that some of those people still want Android devices, but other studies have also shown that a lot of people still want the iPhone. But most of these studies don’t have access to the official numbers, and they have no clue about the demand on a network to carry the iPhone. That’s why Verizon diverting their advertising money to promote the iPhone on their network is going to be a pretty large tell.
According to sources, it’s being said that Verizon is about to jump onto the iPhone bandwagon and provide “heavy promotion” of the iPhone in their marketing and advertising programs. Why would Verizon do that if they truly believed that people want Android phones and iPhones equally? It might be a ploy to lure back lost comrades that decided to defect to AT&T, but it’s probably more about getting new users to their network.
It’s about advertising not specs
Whether we want to admit it or not, the heavy advertisement of the iPhone on the Verizon network that’s already taking place is a pretty telling and damning indication of consumer interest. Their marketing of the Motorola Droid pretty much caused BlackBerry share to crash hard. History could very well repeat itself. Companies tend to throw their money behind the surest thing, and at this point a CDMA iPhone is a sure thing, but promoting this ‘sure thing’ is a lot different than promoting the “only thing” they had access to in the past. Now that there’s a choice, Verizon is deciding to focus on the iPhone, which is almost a year old and doesn’t compare spec for spec with a lot of Android devices on the market. What does that tell you about how consumers view specifications when it comes to their devices? Consumers don’t care about the gigawatts and mega-terabytes. They know what they like when they see it, and they’re about to see a lot of Verizon iPhone advertisements.
I’m not saying that Android phones play second fiddle to the iPhone. I know better. But at this point, most people see the marketing over the specs and an influx of advertising for the iPhone on the Verizon network will influence the numbers whether the Android gang wants to admit it or not.
Article Via Electronista
