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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and

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Speaker 1: I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Sitting across from me, as always when we record such

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Speaker 1: podcasts as this, his senior writer, Jonathan Strickland. One more thing. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that was not a movie quote, but that was a

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Speaker 1: quote in honor of our subject today. So let me

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Speaker 1: get something out of the way. I was wrong. I'm

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Speaker 1: very rarely wrong, but this time I was wrong because

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Speaker 1: back in our prediction show for eleven, I said that

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Speaker 1: would come and go without the iPhone coming to Verizon.

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Speaker 1: Then I went to c S and there was mentioned

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Speaker 1: that Verizon was going to make a big announcement that

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Speaker 1: week after c e S, and by the time I

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Speaker 1: left ce S, it was all but a certainty that

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Speaker 1: that announcement would be the iPhone would come to Verizon,

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Speaker 1: and low and behold, such was the case. Indeed, I

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Speaker 1: think this is the first time that I've actually gotten

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Speaker 1: one of our predictions right to the point where I

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Speaker 1: might actually win a point for it in our recap. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: well we'll find out when that when December rolls around,

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Speaker 1: and it's a lot of time between now and then

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Speaker 1: whoever is holding the red pen of death. And the

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Speaker 1: amazing thing is it only took until January twelve for

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Speaker 1: us to get that far Man, twelve days into the

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Speaker 1: year before I got one totally wrong. Oh Man. So yes,

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Speaker 1: at the time we were recording the podcast that Verizon

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Speaker 1: iPhone has been announced officially but has not yet been

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Speaker 1: released officially, and according to our publication schedule, this episode

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Speaker 1: should come out even before you can get your your

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Speaker 1: hot little hands on a Verizon I phone, but not

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Speaker 1: too long before, because uh, they're starting to allow pre

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Speaker 1: orders starting at the beginning of February. Correct, Yes, February third,

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Speaker 1: if you are an existing Verizon customer um, which is

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Speaker 1: very nice. A lot a lot of companies actually sort

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Speaker 1: of prefer to push the bonus out to the new

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Speaker 1: people to get them to come on board, but in

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Speaker 1: this case, Verizon is offering them the phone on February

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Speaker 1: third for pre orders and then uh for everyone else,

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Speaker 1: h February t So, but it's not going to be

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Speaker 1: long and they had this had to have been in

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Speaker 1: the works for quite some time in order for Apple

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Speaker 1: to turn around that many iPhones, because a lot of

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Speaker 1: people are expecting the iPhone to do very well, indeed

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Speaker 1: on Verizon. Yeah, Now, if you're not familiar with the

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Speaker 1: way the United States major carriers kind of fall into place,

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Speaker 1: I thought you were about to say, if you're not

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Speaker 1: familiar with the iPhone, I'm sorry. What if you're not

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Speaker 1: familiar with the iPhone? I mean not everyone is, but

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Speaker 1: I'm assuming that most of the people on the podcast

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Speaker 1: from the past. Uh, it's my little I T crowd moment. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the the United States carriers are a little different than

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Speaker 1: they are elsewhere in the world. Right, Yeah, well, and

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Speaker 1: in the United States we have lots of different carriers,

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Speaker 1: but we have four major ones, right, and the biggest

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Speaker 1: of them all as far as the number of customers

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Speaker 1: is a Verizon. Yes, so it goes correct me if

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Speaker 1: I'm wrong, I'm doing this from memory. It's Verizon, a

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Speaker 1: T and T Sprint T mobile. That is correct as

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Speaker 1: as of this recording. Right. So iPhone, of course in

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Speaker 1: the United States was exclusive to a T and T

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Speaker 1: for the first several years of its existence. Yes, in fact,

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Speaker 1: they it was. It was it was public knowledge that

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Speaker 1: the agreement was private. They had some sort of deal

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Speaker 1: that and unknown amount of time and they just said, yes,

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Speaker 1: it is exclusive to a T and T for well,

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Speaker 1: we're not telling you for how long, but it's exclusive. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The the number I saw more often than not was

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Speaker 1: five years, which is that's what I based my prediction

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Speaker 1: off of, because by my by my reckoning, it would

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Speaker 1: mean that would be the first year outside of the

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Speaker 1: exclusivity agreement, assuming that it was not renewed. Right and clearly,

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Speaker 1: whatever the length of time it was, it's over now.

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Speaker 1: Uh So why would it makes sense from a customer

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Speaker 1: base that the Apple would want the iPhone to get

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Speaker 1: onto Verizon because Verizon has got more customers than T.

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Speaker 1: But there are problems with that, Yes, there are problems

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Speaker 1: with that. What's one of the what's the biggest one?

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Speaker 1: The biggest one would be the difference in technology used

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Speaker 1: for by the different carriers to handle voice and data

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Speaker 1: um on on a T and T and T mobile systems. Uh,

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Speaker 1: they use g s M, which is I guess it's

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Speaker 1: fair to say the global standard. The most places in

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Speaker 1: the world use GSM. There are a few other countries

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Speaker 1: besides the United States that have the other one that

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Speaker 1: we're about to talk about. But most yes, c dm AY,

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Speaker 1: but most use G s M would and Sprint next,

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Speaker 1: Hell and UH and Verizon use c d M A,

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Speaker 1: which is in the United States is by far the

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Speaker 1: largest market for c d M A technology. Yeah, and uh,

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Speaker 1: which is both a good and a bad thing, right.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if you do just domestic travel, if you

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Speaker 1: live in the United States and you just do domestic travel,

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Speaker 1: c d M A is great technology. You've got pretty

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Speaker 1: good coverage pretty much anywhere you go. If you do

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Speaker 1: global travel, then that becomes a problem. You don't really

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Speaker 1: have a phone capable of making calls on other networks

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Speaker 1: because the technology is not compatible. That's the really important thing.

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Speaker 1: Is c d M A and G s M they

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Speaker 1: don't work with each other, right, but you can get Ah,

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Speaker 1: there are phones out there that have chips for both. Right. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Some of the c d M A phones have a

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Speaker 1: SIM card slot because you know, they number is essentially

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Speaker 1: baked into the hardware for c d M A phones. Um.

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Speaker 1: Whereas if you have a G s M phone and

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Speaker 1: you've actually taken it apart a little bit, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe just taking the battery out to see the SIM

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Speaker 1: card or watch them put it in at the store.

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Speaker 1: You know that basically your number and your phone book

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Speaker 1: in some cases and some other information is stored on

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Speaker 1: that card. And you can take your SIM card out

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Speaker 1: of your phone if you have a G s M

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Speaker 1: phone and put it in another phone and there you're

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Speaker 1: ready to go. Um, but not so much with a

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Speaker 1: C d M a phone. And people who take who

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Speaker 1: have Verizon, for example, and go to a country where

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Speaker 1: there is G s M if they have one of

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Speaker 1: the dual mode phones, I'm not sure exactly how you

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Speaker 1: would refer to that, but um, there's a slot where

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Speaker 1: you can insert a G s M card and you can,

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Speaker 1: you know, get a SIM card and snap it in

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Speaker 1: place and use your phone. Um. Of course I'm sure

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Speaker 1: that means that you're using a different phone number, but

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Speaker 1: at least you can use your phone. So the the

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Speaker 1: news about the iPhone coming to Verizon was both surprising

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Speaker 1: and not surprising. It was not surprising because, of course,

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Speaker 1: like I said, you know, the Verizon has a lot

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Speaker 1: of customers, and of course, if you if you make

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Speaker 1: a product, you want to hit as many customers as

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Speaker 1: you possibly can in. It was surprising in the sense

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Speaker 1: that it meant that that that Apple had to re

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Speaker 1: engineer some of its phone in order for it there

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Speaker 1: to be a C d M A version, right, that's right,

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Speaker 1: and just couldn't just PLoP out the other, you know,

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Speaker 1: the G S M based one, and with a couple

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Speaker 1: of changes. That actually takes quite a bit. And there's

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Speaker 1: some differences between the Verizon version and the A T

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Speaker 1: and T version that are carrier based, not necessarily hardware based.

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Speaker 1: That's true. Um, you can see evidence of the difference

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Speaker 1: when you actually look at the phone. There's a visible difference. Um.

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Speaker 1: If you look at the antennas, which is uh famously

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Speaker 1: now after antenna gate, the band around the outside of

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Speaker 1: the iPhone four Um, you can see that the antennas

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Speaker 1: of a Verizon iPhone and a an A T and

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Speaker 1: T iPhone are joined differently in different places, and in fact,

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Speaker 1: one of the buttons is moved a little bit. So

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Speaker 1: if you get a bumper for an A T and

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Speaker 1: T phone, it's not going to fit your Yeah, I've

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Speaker 1: seen that A T and T is starting to carry

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Speaker 1: um or at least uh, I don't know if they're

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Speaker 1: carrying it, but there are a third party bumper cases

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Speaker 1: out there that are designed to be universal, so they're

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Speaker 1: the openings are a little larger so that it can

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Speaker 1: accommodate a button, whether it's been moved over a little

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Speaker 1: bit or not. It's the ring or mute switch if

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Speaker 1: you're if you're keeping score at home. It also means

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Speaker 1: that because there are the antenna's aligned a different way

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Speaker 1: on the Verizon phone, that there's a totally new way

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Speaker 1: that you can hold it wrong. Actually I don't know

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Speaker 1: that for a fact, I've not used a Verizon iPhone.

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Speaker 1: The c net report that I read said that they

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Speaker 1: had tried it out and they couldn't could not find

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Speaker 1: a grip of death. As if you're if you're unfamiliar

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Speaker 1: with this, we should we should actually I guess mention

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Speaker 1: this um a T and T s iPhone or the

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Speaker 1: iPhone that that was used with a T and T UH.

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Speaker 1: When the iPhone four first came out, it was criticized

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Speaker 1: because if you touch certain parts of the antenna, they're

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Speaker 1: actually uh different pieces to the antenna that go around

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Speaker 1: the outside the stainless old band that you see then

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Speaker 1: around the outside and if you touch it in a

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Speaker 1: certain way, you create a short circuit that drops calls.

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Speaker 1: UM and you know it. The problem exists more for

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Speaker 1: some people than others. Some say that it has to

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Speaker 1: do with the electrolytes and your sweaty hands. Some people

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Speaker 1: say whether or not it's you're left handed, because you'd

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Speaker 1: be holding the phone in your left hand and that

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Speaker 1: would make that would mean that you would be more

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Speaker 1: likely to make that connection. Yeah, the problem is solved

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Speaker 1: pretty easily if you put a rubber bumper around the

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Speaker 1: outside of it. Um. But of course it people have

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Speaker 1: a pretty high standard for Apple's iPhone. And uh, the

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Speaker 1: the idea that it wasn't perfect. Uh, you know, made

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Speaker 1: some people laugh with glee and other people, you know,

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Speaker 1: stamp their feet. Yeah. The and and we should also

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Speaker 1: add that this was a problem that was new to

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Speaker 1: the iPhone floor because the previous iPhone versions did not

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Speaker 1: have the antenna exposed like that. Yeah. So the iPhone

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Speaker 1: on Verizon, we have not played with it yet. UM.

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Speaker 1: I have seence some reviews. I saw the Consumer Reports

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Speaker 1: was actually cautioning people against buying it, and I've seen

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Speaker 1: the same sentiment echoed throughout the blogosphere, and various tech

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Speaker 1: journalists have said the same thing, and essentially what their

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Speaker 1: point is is not that the iPhone and Verizon is

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Speaker 1: a bad product or that Verizon offers a poor service,

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Speaker 1: but rather that if Apple is following its normal m O,

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Speaker 1: then we should see an update to the iPhone this

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Speaker 1: summer tends to be in June that we see these

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Speaker 1: these announcements, and that it may not be immediately available

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Speaker 1: when the announcements made, but shortly thereafter it tends to

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Speaker 1: be available. So if there's an iPhone five on the

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Speaker 1: way or some sort of update to the iPhone four,

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Speaker 1: kind of like the way the the iPhone three GS

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Speaker 1: was an update to the iPhone three G, then it

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Speaker 1: makes sense to wait instead of purchasing an iPhone four

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Speaker 1: now and then a few months later you're you're faced

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Speaker 1: with the fact that you know your your devices already

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Speaker 1: not obsolete but outdated. So um buy or beware, I guess.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it really depends on what you've been used

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Speaker 1: to write. I mean, there are plenty of people out

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Speaker 1: there who are still using uh, dumb phones or feature phones.

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Speaker 1: I'm looking at one, I think, so, yeah, there are

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Speaker 1: plenty of people out there who have phones that they

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Speaker 1: don't fall into the smartphone bracket, and they've been waiting

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Speaker 1: for something like the iPhone. You know, they aren't necessarily

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Speaker 1: um enamored of the other operating systems that are available

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Speaker 1: out there, whether it's Android or Windows Phone seven or

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Speaker 1: or Blackberries. Uh, you know, the RIM operating system or

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Speaker 1: Palms webOS or Palms Web. But well, you know, where

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Speaker 1: are you gonna buy one of those? Um? So they're

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Speaker 1: there are very few differences actually in the iPhone for

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Speaker 1: that that you would actually notice. I mean, they're the cost,

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Speaker 1: the price point is the same for this team gigabyte version.

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Speaker 1: Uh for the thirty two. UM, I don't really know

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Speaker 1: what the data plan is going to be yet, that's

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Speaker 1: that's true. And it doesn't, as as you said, have

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Speaker 1: a SIM card slot, so you will not be able

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Speaker 1: to use it on a GSM network. But it does

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Speaker 1: have data, you're right, and um uh, you know Verizon

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Speaker 1: still has unlimited data plans if I'm not mistaken, right,

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Speaker 1: We don't know if that's gonna dropped, you know, we

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Speaker 1: don't know if that's going to stay the same once

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Speaker 1: the iPhone goes live. We also don't know apparently right

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Speaker 1: now anyway, as soon as the iPhone hits the store shelves,

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Speaker 1: it will not be capable of doing simultaneous data advoice,

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Speaker 1: which means you can't have a phone call while you

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Speaker 1: are surfing the web at the same time. But supposedly

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Speaker 1: that an update will follow, possibly in the spring. Okay,

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Speaker 1: what I had read, Now I don't I don't know

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Speaker 1: if this is true. And what I read was that

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Speaker 1: was a problem with c d M a more than

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Speaker 1: it was with the iPhone's ability to do that. I

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Speaker 1: think I think it's a are your issue, not a

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Speaker 1: hardware issue, which is why Verizon, which is why Verizon

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Speaker 1: said they were working on it and they expected to

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Speaker 1: fix that by spring. Okay, yeah, I was. I was

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Speaker 1: curious when I read that and wrote that down, went

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Speaker 1: really is that? Okay? It's one of those things where,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you see these problems pop up in devices occasionally,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes you just your left scratching your head about it.

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Speaker 1: And really it just means that there's stuff going on

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Speaker 1: behind the scenes that we're not privy to, and um,

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Speaker 1: and that's why, I mean, it probably makes perfect sense

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Speaker 1: from their perspective. Now, there is another capability that the

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Speaker 1: Verizon iPhone has as that, as you said, is not

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Speaker 1: necessarily tied to hardware, and that's its ability to function

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Speaker 1: as a hot spot for WiFi. Yeah. Actually the the A,

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Speaker 1: T and T one could do that, but that feature

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Speaker 1: is not enabled the United States by carrier specific So

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Speaker 1: by that we mean that you could create a little

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Speaker 1: hot spot with your phone and connect up to I

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Speaker 1: think it's five other devices to it. Yes, that's what

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Speaker 1: I have, So your phone would be connected to uh

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Speaker 1: the three G network. Um. Because that's another thing we

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Speaker 1: should point out is the Verizon iPhone does not work

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Speaker 1: on their LT network. Yes, and that's that's that's true

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Speaker 1: of the A, T and T iPhone four as well.

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Speaker 1: They're both three G network phones. So that also would

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Speaker 1: sort of lead one to believe, especially with the push

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Speaker 1: for four G right now, that it might be a

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Speaker 1: good time to just for a couple of months do

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Speaker 1: anything and see how that plant that plays out, because

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Speaker 1: I don't know if either of these phones will be upgradeable.

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Speaker 1: I kind of doubt it, right yeah, because usually you

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Speaker 1: need another chip in order because LTE, at least LTE anyway,

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Speaker 1: is it a different technology, um with if you're looking

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Speaker 1: at uh the hsp A plus the the old technology

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Speaker 1: that gets four G speeds. That's the that's the technology

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Speaker 1: that T Mobile refers to as four G on their phones,

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Speaker 1: because you're getting four G speeds even though it's not

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Speaker 1: technically a four G technology. Um, I don't know. I

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Speaker 1: would assume you didn't even have to have special equipment

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Speaker 1: for that. I know that my iPhone is capable of

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Speaker 1: doing that and I love it. But yeah, it's getting

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Speaker 1: back to the hot spot. The idea here is that

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Speaker 1: your your phone is connecting to data through the three

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Speaker 1: G network and then creates a Wi Fi hot spot

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Speaker 1: that other devices can connect to. So if you have

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Speaker 1: a happen to have another device there that does not

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Speaker 1: have three G capability or doesn't have any uh has,

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Speaker 1: it's just WiFi only, you could connect it to your

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Speaker 1: phone via the WiFi and then get data that way. Now, um,

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Speaker 1: there's something else that I thought about. I was thinking

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Speaker 1: about this. It was, you know, going over the idea

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Speaker 1: in my head and going okay, well, there other than

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Speaker 1: a few differences in the technology required, Um, the iPhone

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Speaker 1: four is not all that different from the one that's

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Speaker 1: on a T and T uh a T and T

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Speaker 1: S network. But I do think this is kind of

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Speaker 1: an interesting move because um by and large phones, at

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Speaker 1: least in the United States, phones are specific to carrier,

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Speaker 1: and now we're taking the almost exactly the same phone

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Speaker 1: and moving it to multiple carriers. And I wonder if

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Speaker 1: that's going to open doors for other manufacturers such as

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Speaker 1: motor Role for example, could you have the droid move

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Speaker 1: to Sprint so you have it on Sprint and Verizon,

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Speaker 1: or you know LG S or HTC S phones, will

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Speaker 1: they the same model be available other than you know,

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Speaker 1: C D M A or GSM or actually most of

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Speaker 1: the carriers are going with LTE for four G, so

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Speaker 1: it seems like it would just be that much more portable.

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Speaker 1: Well this, well this, do you think this is going

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Speaker 1: to open the door to, uh, give the manufacturers more

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Speaker 1: control over which carriers they can shop their phones too. Well,

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Speaker 1: we've seen some of that before, like Nokia has phones

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Speaker 1: that are appearing on on multiple carriers, but in those

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Speaker 1: cases they tend to not be supported by the carriers

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Speaker 1: in a subsidized way. Because in the United States, one

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Speaker 1: of the other big things that's different from a lot

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Speaker 1: of the other countries in the world is that, uh,

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Speaker 1: most of the phones that we purchased tend to be

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Speaker 1: subsidized by the carrier, and you you know, you agree

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Speaker 1: to enter into a contract usually two years, although you

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Speaker 1: can get one year contracts as well um with that carrier,

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Speaker 1: and as part of that agreement you get those part

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Speaker 1: of the purchase prices knocked off of the device, right

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Speaker 1: because of usually a significant portion if you were buying

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Speaker 1: an iPhone outright to be around six hundred dollars I

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Speaker 1: think something like that five hundred dollars in so when

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Speaker 1: you enter into this contract, they knock off some of

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Speaker 1: that purchase price. Now, if you were to actually examine

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00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:48,919
Speaker 1: the contract, you'd realize that through the various fees that

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Speaker 1: you're paying over the course of the lifetime of the device,

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00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,520
Speaker 1: you're going to pay more than you would on that

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Speaker 1: upfront purchase price. Right. But it's easier to do because

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Speaker 1: it's spread out over time. It's not all at lens.

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Speaker 1: You know, if you see, if I see a phone

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Speaker 1: in front of me and it says it's five dollars

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00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:08,240
Speaker 1: or six hundred dollars, I bulk at that price. And

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Speaker 1: I know that there are people around the world who

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Speaker 1: that's their reality. They go out and they buy a smartphone.

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Speaker 1: That's how much it's gonna cost and then but they're

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Speaker 1: not tied to a specific contract. So um, I think

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Speaker 1: if you I think, if we do see more devices

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Speaker 1: appearing on other carriers, there's the there's at least the

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Speaker 1: potential that it moves to a more uh well to

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Speaker 1: to the same model that most other countries are following,

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Speaker 1: which is that, yeah, it's not tied to a specific carrier,

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Speaker 1: but you're going to have to pay for that. You know,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna have to pay the full price for that

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Speaker 1: model as opposed to a subsidized price. Yeah. Yeah, Well

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Speaker 1: we saw we saw evidence of that with Google's Nexus

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Speaker 1: one phone, which was made by htc UM and they

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00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:57,159
Speaker 1: initially were planning on offering it UM unlocked, So it

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Speaker 1: was a GSM phone that you could use with UM

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Speaker 1: a T and T or T mobile and I mean

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00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:07,080
Speaker 1: you you could actually have it subsidized by T mobile

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Speaker 1: UM or you could buy the unlocked version, and there

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00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:13,640
Speaker 1: was something like what four difference in the price between

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Speaker 1: uh T mobile two year contract and getting it that way.

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Speaker 1: Of course, uh they never really came out with the

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Speaker 1: the they kind of ended the Nexus one program for

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00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:25,840
Speaker 1: it moved to other carriers that you had been planning

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Speaker 1: a Horizon phone which never actually made it um to

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Speaker 1: the to the carrier. Um. But yeah, I mean that.

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Speaker 1: You know, if you were watching that whole thing, you

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Speaker 1: would have seen firsthand the difference that the subsidy makes. UM.

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Speaker 1: But I have started seeing rumors that there will be

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Speaker 1: an iPhone headed for Sprint UM. And of course the

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Speaker 1: rumors have been back and forth with T Mobile simply

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Speaker 1: because uh, T Mobile, if I'm not mistaken, is currently

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Speaker 1: the largest wireless provider in the world, although the fourth

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Speaker 1: largest in the United States. T MO Boll has the

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Speaker 1: rights to the iPhone in Europe. UM. And you know,

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00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,840
Speaker 1: there have been pictures of packaging with iPhone. I've actually

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Speaker 1: seen people on the blog on blogs post photos of

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00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:16,120
Speaker 1: iPhone accessories in the T Mobile livery and I'm going, yeah, well,

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00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:18,879
Speaker 1: they would actually have a reason to have those accessories

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Speaker 1: packaged in their colors because they sell the iPhone, just

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Speaker 1: not here in the United States, so international travelers would

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Speaker 1: definitely want that, yes, yes, And so you know we're

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Speaker 1: seeing I've been seeing the rumors for Sprint now that

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00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:35,880
Speaker 1: the Verizon announcement has come down, So I wonder if uh,

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Speaker 1: there's an exclusivity agreement at all, or a semi exclusive

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Speaker 1: agreement between those two carriers, or if Apple is going

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Speaker 1: to say, you know what, we want as many people

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Speaker 1: as we can get, no matter what, we've got the iPhone,

390
00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:50,680
Speaker 1: it's desirable. I'm pretty certain that during their UM press

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Speaker 1: conference where Verizon unveiled the fact that they were having

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Speaker 1: the iPhone to no surprise at that point, yes, because

393
00:20:57,800 --> 00:21:01,560
Speaker 1: but everyone was essentially saying, today's the day Verizon is

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Speaker 1: going to talk about the iPhone. I mean, it was,

395
00:21:04,040 --> 00:21:06,439
Speaker 1: that was all over the news. UM. But when they

396
00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:11,760
Speaker 1: announced it, they said there is no exclusivity agreement. So

397
00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:14,960
Speaker 1: that that means there's at least the potential that the

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00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:18,760
Speaker 1: the iPhone could move to the other carriers as well. UM.

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00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:20,720
Speaker 1: I'm sure the other carriers would love to see that.

400
00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:24,359
Speaker 1: It would it would even the playing field across all carriers.

401
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:29,119
Speaker 1: I read somewhere, and this is take this with a

402
00:21:29,119 --> 00:21:31,960
Speaker 1: grain of salt, actually not verify it, but I read

403
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 1: somewhere that essentially, during a press call, a T Mobile

404
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:42,240
Speaker 1: representative essentially said that the company had lost around ten

405
00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:44,119
Speaker 1: percent of its customer base to a T and T

406
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 1: because the iPhone. So you know, you think, well, now,

407
00:21:48,119 --> 00:21:50,440
Speaker 1: Verizon's got the iPhone too. If you've got people who

408
00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:53,440
Speaker 1: were holding off on moving changing carriers because they had

409
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:55,879
Speaker 1: heard perhaps they had heard that A T and T

410
00:21:56,119 --> 00:22:00,000
Speaker 1: s UM was not being reliable as far as UH

411
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,919
Speaker 1: being able to hold a call, especially for people who

412
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:04,919
Speaker 1: are living in San Francisco or New York, where we

413
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:07,719
Speaker 1: heard that all the time, especially from tech journalists. They

414
00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:10,159
Speaker 1: were saying, I love my iPhone, except I can't you know,

415
00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:12,320
Speaker 1: it keeps dropping calls on me, or I don't get

416
00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:14,880
Speaker 1: my messages. You know, I'll leave the building and then

417
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:17,600
Speaker 1: five minutes later, I suddenly get a notification that I

418
00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:22,800
Speaker 1: missed like twelve calls during the day. UM, they may

419
00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:25,080
Speaker 1: very well be tempted to go to the Verizon if

420
00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,960
Speaker 1: they think that Verizon is going to provide a more

421
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:33,040
Speaker 1: consistent service. So it'll be interesting to see what Apple does,

422
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:36,440
Speaker 1: whether or not, you know, it tries to to expand

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Speaker 1: even further. My what I'm wondering is, how is the

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Speaker 1: iPhone moving to Verizon really going to affect the whole

425
00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:46,679
Speaker 1: smartphone landscape in the United States. UM. Leading up to

426
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:51,919
Speaker 1: this this announcement, Android was actually gaining and not just

427
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:57,280
Speaker 1: gaining ground, but but out outperforming Apple in the market. Now,

428
00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:01,000
Speaker 1: you could argue and legitimately, are you that part of

429
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:03,240
Speaker 1: that is because Androids on a whole bunch of different

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00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,359
Speaker 1: phones on all the different carriers. You know, it's not

431
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:09,159
Speaker 1: like the iPhone is one line of products. You have

432
00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:12,440
Speaker 1: several generations of it, but it's one line of products,

433
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:15,160
Speaker 1: whereas Android is an operating system that you can find

434
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:20,119
Speaker 1: on handsets manufactured from multiple vendors and on multiple carriers.

435
00:23:20,119 --> 00:23:22,240
Speaker 1: So there's no surprise that it would be doing well,

436
00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:24,880
Speaker 1: especially for you know, for the carriers that did not

437
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 1: have the iPhone, people who were customers of a carrier,

438
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:30,719
Speaker 1: they wanted a smartphone, they were not willing to switch

439
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:34,439
Speaker 1: carriers or maybe not able to that. A lot of

440
00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:38,000
Speaker 1: them went with the Android. So do you think that

441
00:23:38,080 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 1: the iPhone going to Verizon is going to shake that up?

442
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:43,360
Speaker 1: Do you think that Apple is going to regain market

443
00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:48,400
Speaker 1: dominance and smartphones or at least leadership in in that market. Well,

444
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:51,359
Speaker 1: I think that it's certainly going to put Apple and

445
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:57,080
Speaker 1: Google at a more competitive stance with one another. This

446
00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:01,199
Speaker 1: is not you know, to Google's advance age. Um, not

447
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:05,719
Speaker 1: because I think Apple will steamroll Google, but Google had

448
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:10,480
Speaker 1: a decided advantage in being on multiple carriers at one time,

449
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:14,520
Speaker 1: and now this is going to open the door for

450
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:18,760
Speaker 1: Apple to regain or gain customers moving from dumb phones

451
00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:22,080
Speaker 1: or from older phones who are upgrading. It will give

452
00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:27,800
Speaker 1: them an opportunity on a much bigger carrier UM to

453
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: to do that. But it's there. This is sort of

454
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:33,400
Speaker 1: double edged. This is good for Apple because now they've

455
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:35,840
Speaker 1: got access to all these customers UM, if they can

456
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 1: open the doors to Sprint and T Mobile, they'll have

457
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:42,680
Speaker 1: the big four UM and that that's good for them.

458
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:45,960
Speaker 1: But as some tech journalists have pointed out, this is

459
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:53,120
Speaker 1: also going to really enable people to see the how

460
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 1: good the iPhone really is in comparison to its Google counterparts,

461
00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:02,000
Speaker 1: because UM, a lot of the problems that have been

462
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:07,040
Speaker 1: experienced over the years with say dropped calls UM and

463
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:12,400
Speaker 1: UH data speeds UM have been by some people attributed

464
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,639
Speaker 1: to a T and T S network, not to the

465
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:20,400
Speaker 1: device itself. Now that you have essentially the exact same device,

466
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:26,040
Speaker 1: mostly UM on a different network, you can see you're

467
00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:30,720
Speaker 1: going to see UH people evaluating these two against one another.

468
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 1: It's not gonna be Android versus iOS anymore. It's gonna

469
00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:36,920
Speaker 1: be Verizon versus a T and T S network, and

470
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:40,119
Speaker 1: you're gonna see pretty much laid bare whether Apple's iPhone

471
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:43,080
Speaker 1: is really is uh is really being held back by

472
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:44,760
Speaker 1: a T and T S network, and a T and

473
00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:47,639
Speaker 1: T may get the opportunity to point their fingers and say, ha,

474
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 1: we told you so. Yeah, we've been meaning to look

475
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:54,920
Speaker 1: at that. So UM. Part of it may be alleviated

476
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 1: by iPhone fans moving from a T and T to

477
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,960
Speaker 1: Verizon and unburdening the network a T and T two.

478
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:05,000
Speaker 1: So there's that. It's not completely scientific, but um, but

479
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:07,399
Speaker 1: you're going to see that, and Apple actually has a

480
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 1: different advantage to UM. The one the one big complaint

481
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:14,680
Speaker 1: that anti Apple people have, UH that I've heard about

482
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:16,840
Speaker 1: the iPhone is you know, hey, it's a closed shop.

483
00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:18,879
Speaker 1: You have the app store and that's where you buy

484
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:21,200
Speaker 1: the apps. You don't have choice there. You don't have

485
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:25,199
Speaker 1: the choice of manufacturers. Well that's true, but that's one

486
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:27,480
Speaker 1: of the big complaints people have about Android is it's

487
00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 1: a different experience on different handsets and on different carriers. UM.

488
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 1: So like the fact that the latest build of Android

489
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:38,120
Speaker 1: can be found on on very few phones and then

490
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:41,240
Speaker 1: a larger group of phones have the build behind that,

491
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:43,240
Speaker 1: and then some more have the build behind that, and

492
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:45,720
Speaker 1: then and then you start getting it's kind of diamond shaped.

493
00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:47,919
Speaker 1: Right at the very top, you've got some phones that

494
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,160
Speaker 1: have the latest build of Android. Yes. Now the very

495
00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:52,920
Speaker 1: bottom you have some phones that are stuck with the

496
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:56,120
Speaker 1: oldest or are really old builds of Android, like one

497
00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:58,479
Speaker 1: point six um. And then in the middle you've got

498
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:00,679
Speaker 1: all the Android phones that are run thing either a

499
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:04,080
Speaker 1: version or two versions behind. And and that means that

500
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:08,399
Speaker 1: the experience across Android phones is not consistent. Yep. And

501
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:10,440
Speaker 1: then and it's true too that if you look at

502
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:14,479
Speaker 1: at least at my phone carrier, look at the phones,

503
00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:18,560
Speaker 1: the Android phones that are available, you can buy different

504
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:23,280
Speaker 1: Android phone Like that, you'll see versions of the operating

505
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 1: system are different on different phones. And if you start

506
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:27,879
Speaker 1: doing a little research, you'll find that there are no

507
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:31,000
Speaker 1: plans to upgrade such and such a phone at all.

508
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 1: So you may be behind and not there's no chance

509
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:36,560
Speaker 1: to catch up to move up. So you you may

510
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,320
Speaker 1: be paying forty nine dollars for a cool Android phone,

511
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 1: but there's a cooler Android phone for two dollars more

512
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:44,680
Speaker 1: than that that will get an upgrade that your phone

513
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,720
Speaker 1: will never get And I don't know that people understand

514
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:51,879
Speaker 1: that necessarily. Some sure lots of them do. But you know,

515
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:53,680
Speaker 1: if you don't do a little research, you may find

516
00:27:53,680 --> 00:27:56,119
Speaker 1: that you're stuck in an older version of the operating system.

517
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 1: And of course that's true for for the iPhone as well.

518
00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:00,760
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm I'm sure, uh, if I don't say this,

519
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:02,960
Speaker 1: people will write in and tell us this. Yes. Of course,

520
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: if you have, you know, an iPhone from a couple

521
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 1: of generations ago, there's not a chance that you're going

522
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 1: to get upgraded to the latest iOS. You know, and

523
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:14,359
Speaker 1: yeah they have they abandoned people too, but the experience

524
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 1: may differ. If you buy the latest iPhone from a carrier,

525
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:22,040
Speaker 1: you're likely to get the newest experience, the most recent

526
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:24,600
Speaker 1: operating system. You're probably good for a couple upgrades, at

527
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 1: least until the next version of the iPhone comes out,

528
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,920
Speaker 1: and then probably still for another couple of updates until

529
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:33,760
Speaker 1: What really we get to is that the upbring system

530
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:37,040
Speaker 1: tends to outstrip the capabilities of the hardware. Yeah, and

531
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 1: that's true, and so it's not necessarily that the carriers

532
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:45,920
Speaker 1: or or the Upbring system designers are being malicious. Sometimes

533
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 1: sometimes it's just the fact that your device can't handle

534
00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:51,719
Speaker 1: the next level of the operations. Now in some cases

535
00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:56,160
Speaker 1: it's I don't know what the reasoning is. Well, they

536
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:59,440
Speaker 1: of course they want to outdo the competition. We we

537
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: talk about competition all the time, and how this is.

538
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 1: This is great that we have Android and the new

539
00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 1: Windows phone software and Blackberries uh, you know, doing some

540
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,280
Speaker 1: serious been doing some serious upgrades and has their application store.

541
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,040
Speaker 1: So these are all working against one another and they're

542
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:19,720
Speaker 1: they're forcing each other to innovate, and that's cool. But

543
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:23,240
Speaker 1: as they innovate the operating system on each of the

544
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: their their services, eventually your hardware is going to get

545
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 1: left behind because to run these fancy new applications, well

546
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:32,880
Speaker 1: you know you're going to have to upgrade your hardware. Yes,

547
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 1: that that doesn't work to the detriment of the carrier

548
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:41,520
Speaker 1: or the the phone manufacturer, except for you know, network capacity. Yeah,

549
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:44,200
Speaker 1: that might actually be another play into another reason why

550
00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:48,520
Speaker 1: some carriers don't allow certain OS upgrades to hit certain

551
00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:53,840
Speaker 1: Android phones because it lets them market newer phones over

552
00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:56,480
Speaker 1: the older phones. Like if you keep upgrading, if you

553
00:29:56,560 --> 00:30:00,240
Speaker 1: keep allowing these updates to hit the older Android phone owns.

554
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: Assuming that the older Android phones are capable of running

555
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 1: the OS UH, then you give that person less reason

556
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 1: to upgrade their phone, right because their old phone can

557
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 1: keep up with the new Earth that phones. So there's

558
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:17,160
Speaker 1: always this conspiracy theory element where you're thinking, maybe the

559
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:21,880
Speaker 1: carrier is whold withholding Android updates so that it can

560
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: market the newest Android phones and sell those and then

561
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:29,960
Speaker 1: just keep you on a continual UH cycle of upgrading

562
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:34,040
Speaker 1: your phone every x number of months. In a In

563
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:37,680
Speaker 1: a related note, the Verizon New every two program is

564
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 1: going away. They announced that right about the time. I

565
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:42,160
Speaker 1: don't think it was on the same day, but it

566
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: was right about the time I saw it. It was

567
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 1: one of those headlines that was a very small headline

568
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the page. But they used to

569
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:50,480
Speaker 1: have this deal where after two years you would get

570
00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:52,560
Speaker 1: a I think a hundred dollar subsidy or something in

571
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:56,120
Speaker 1: addition to whatever the discount was for renewing your contract.

572
00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 1: And they're doing away with that. And I don't know

573
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:02,360
Speaker 1: if it's necessary the iPhone for related but I wouldn't

574
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 1: be surprised if that didn't factor into the decision to

575
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:08,000
Speaker 1: end the program. Um In fact, I think the article

576
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:10,400
Speaker 1: I read said, you know, they've probably been considering this

577
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:12,600
Speaker 1: for quite some time, but this certainly isn't coined to

578
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 1: encourage them to continue in the pants. Yes, because there

579
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:20,400
Speaker 1: they will sell Verizon will sell a lot of iPhones. Yeah,

580
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:23,280
Speaker 1: let me, We've been going on for about all over

581
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 1: half an hour. Yeah, we should probably still wrap this

582
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 1: up a bit. But because in order to save some

583
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 1: face after my disastrously embarrassing UH prediction went so wrong

584
00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 1: less than two weeks into the new year, allow me

585
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 1: to make a new prediction, which is that, at least

586
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 1: in the short term, with the iPhone coming to Verizon,

587
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 1: Apple will regain leadership in the smartphone market in the

588
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:53,640
Speaker 1: United States. Yeah, I see. I'm not willing to say that.

589
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 1: I'm willing to say I'm willing to say that enough

590
00:31:56,680 --> 00:32:00,200
Speaker 1: people are going to either move to the Ice own

591
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:04,640
Speaker 1: from a dumb phone or switch from there whatever smartphone

592
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 1: they're using on, especially Verizon customers, Verizon customers who have

593
00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: always wanted to have an iPhone, but then they felt

594
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 1: like they settled for a different smartphone. Now, when I

595
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 1: say that, that's not my own personal opinion. I'm an

596
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:22,360
Speaker 1: Android owner and I love my Android phone. But but

597
00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:25,120
Speaker 1: for some people, some people got an Android phone not

598
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: because they really wanted an Android phone, they wanted a

599
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:30,479
Speaker 1: smartphone and they could not get the iPhone. Right, So

600
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 1: those people are going to switch. The people with the

601
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 1: dumb phones who have always wanted a smartphone, now they're

602
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:36,959
Speaker 1: going to be like, oh awesome, I can have an iPhone.

603
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 1: Now they're going to switch. You're gonna have new customers

604
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:41,680
Speaker 1: switching as well. Now some of them are going to

605
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:43,840
Speaker 1: be a T and T to Verizon. So in reality,

606
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 1: you're not gonna have any gain there. It's just gonna

607
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 1: be a lateral move. But I think that uh androids

608
00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 1: leadership was not overwhelming like they were not. They were

609
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 1: not by far outstripping Apple in the smartphone market. So

610
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,320
Speaker 1: I think Apple is going to regain leadership in that

611
00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:04,840
Speaker 1: space and maybe for a year. It might be a

612
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 1: year before we see how that how that pans out

613
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 1: for the long term, and maybe that they regain leadership

614
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:14,600
Speaker 1: and they never let go. But we'll have to see.

615
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:19,040
Speaker 1: But that's my new prediction. Okay, all right, any of

616
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 1: you guys have predictions about the Rize iPhone, Like I

617
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 1: predict I will go in buy one you can let

618
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:26,200
Speaker 1: us know. You can let us know on Twitter or

619
00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 1: Facebook are handled there is tech Stuff hs W, or

620
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,680
Speaker 1: you can shoot us an email. That email address is

621
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:35,720
Speaker 1: tech stuff at how stuff works dot com and chrism

622
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:38,240
Speaker 1: I will taught to you again, maybe even on an

623
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 1: iPhone really soon. For moral on this and thousands of

624
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 1: other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com. So

625
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 1: learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon

626
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 1: in the upper right corner of our homepage. The how

627
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes,

628
00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:03,520
Speaker 1: brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camrys.

629
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: It's ready, are you