The Apple Beat: The Verizon iPhone 4 is a hit, advert wars heat up

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

So, the first Verizon iPhone 4 has finally arrived and the requisite unboxing and early impression videos are starting to hit the web. It is said that the iPhone 4 has broken every sales record the Verizon has ever had. Great news for Apple and Verizon customers who have been waiting three years for an iPhone. While Apple's "two are better than one," advert features the two iPhone providers as equals, we're seeing a war brewing. AT&T and Verizon have started an unprecedented iPhone 4 advertising slugfest, each featuring not so subtle jabs at the other's limitations.

Verizon iPhone 4 is Killing it

During a recent interview with the the Wall Street Journal, Verizon executives celebrated the iPhone 4's unprecedented early success.

"Overall, it was a very good day," Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Dan Mead said. "Yesterday's launch set the pace for next week when we open up sales to everyone across America."

The carrier said that between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. EST it took more orders of iPhones than its previous blockbuster phones, including Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.'s Droid and Research in Motion Ltd.'s Storm, which also benefited from tremendous marketing and hype.

We've pored over the initial reviews and by all accounts the Verizon iPhone 4 performs very similarly to the GSM version of the iPhone 4 we know and love here in Canada. Some reviews did however find that Verizon's data component was somewhat slower than AT&T's in most of the places where the phones were tested. This could very well be remedied by an update on either Verizon's side or Apple's. 

AT&T slug it out via advertising

Now that AT&T has lost US exclusivity of the iPhone it is pouring its resources in upcoming smartphones like Motorola Atrix, a dual-processor powered Android super-smartphone scheduled out in March. AT&T is also creating iPhone 4 adverts like the one below.

The ad points out the main weakness of Verizon's CDMA network, you can't use voice and data simultaneously. Unperturbed, Verizon fired its own shot accross the bow with a subtle jab at AT&T's infamous network bloat, dropped calls and poor call quality in the ad below.

Verizon's whole point is that the iPhone 4 is such a remarkable, revolutionary and genius device that it seems to be wasted on AT&T's inferior network.

Things are going to get more interesting in the coming months. We expect more ads but also greater iPhone hype as this is the time of year when announcements of the next iPhone start to build up. Apple has two huge products set to launch. The first is the iPad 2, which is expected to be revealed in the enxt month. The other, is the iPhone 5 or 2011's version of the iPhone.

These are both very closely guarded secrets specially after last year's controversial iPhone 4 leak. 

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Gadjo Sevilla is a long time Mac user and technician and has been covering Apple's business and products for over 15 years. The Apple Beat is a weekly opinion column focusing on the latest Apple news.