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A survey suggests a huge chunk of AT&T iPhone customers plan on defecting to Verizon, but that seems unrealistic.

Research group ChangeWave on Friday released results of a survey polling about 4,000 customers. Most notably, it found that 26 percent of AT&T iPhone customers plan to switch to Verizon, and 16 percent of all AT&T subscribers overall say they’ll switch to Verizon because of the Verizon iPhone.

ChangeWave adds that AT&T has made significant progress improving its network to decrease dropped-call rates, but it says that isn’t enough to prevent a mass exodus to Verizon.

“The findings suggest AT&T is now taking concrete steps to try to improve long-standing service issues,” ChangeWave said in its report. “But can it do so quickly enough to forestall large-scale defections to Verizon? Not according to our ChangeWave survey results.”

Ever since Apple and AT&T released the iPhone in 2007, tech observers have squabbled about the day Verizon would score the coveted handset. Verizon has consistently ranked higher than AT&T in customer-satisfaction surveys because customers found the network to be more reliable. Therefore, it’s easy to assume that a Verizon iPhone would result in a devastating blow to AT&T.

ChangeWave’s survey may back that idea, but it’s not that simple.

AT&T last year noted that 70 percent of its subscribers are on family plans and 40 percent are part of corporate plans. (There is some overlap between the two types of plans.) That means multiple devices are tied to these plans, and it would be difficult for them to transition to another network. Also, in a business scenario, it’s unlikely a corporation is going to switch all its employees to Verizon just because it now has the iPhone.

Add to that the fact that many AT&T iPhone customers are still tied to two-year contracts. To switch to Verizon, they’ll have to pay an early-termination fee and shovel up even more money to pay for a phone that they probably already have. In June 2010, AT&T increased the early-termination fee from $175 to $325.

Long story short, AT&T has made switching for many subscribers a pain in the butt, and that’s part of why we’re unlikely to see a big switch.

The one major feature that the Verizon iPhone has, which the AT&T iPhone doesn’t, is hotspotting — the ability to turn the handset into a Wi-Fi connection for multiple computers to connect to — and that doesn’t seem like a killer feature to make you switch. The latest iPhone beta software reveals that the hotspot feature is technically available for AT&T iPhones; now it’s up to AT&T to decide if it wants to support it. I’m guessing AT&T will in order to compete.

The one major feature that the Verizon iPhone doesn’t have that the AT&T iPhone does, is the ability to simultaneously use data and voice. So if you’re on the phone, you can’t switch to the Yelp app to look up an address, for example, and then return to the call. That’s a limitation of Verizon’s CDMA network, and for some, that will be a big minus.

Suddenly the prospect of switching to Verizon doesn’t sound so appealing, and for many iPhone customers it probably won’t be worth the effort and money.

As a few other tech observers have pointed out, the Verizon iPhone poses more of a threat against Android phones on Verizon than it does to AT&T. Prior to the Verizon iPhone launch, an early survey suggested that a substantial number of current Verizon customers would switch to an iPhone.

That seems more believable, because I can’t name a single person who voluntarily switched to Verizon because of Android, but I can name several people who switched to AT&T just for the iPhone.

Photo: Sam Gustin/Wired.com

Chart: ChangeWave

See Also:

• Jon Stewart Celebrates New Verizon iPhone ‘Freedom’
• Verizon iPhone’s Impact on Google’s Android: How Bad?
• Verizon Wireless Finally Gets Apple’s iPhone
• Verizon or AT&T: Which Will Deliver the Best iPhone Experience …

Look, if you buy a carrier-branded Android handset, you should know good and well that you may never see the first Android update. It ain’t easy to hear, but as mama always said, the truth ain’t always painless. That said, there’s still some research you should do before picking a phone and carrier, and ComputerWorld has seemingly done just that for you. The methodology is all explained down in the source link, but the long and short of it is this: in the last half of 2010, Verizon upgraded 33 percent of its sub-2.2 phones to Froyo, while Sprint updated just 28.6 percent of its stable and T-Mobile blessed only 12.5 percent of its phones with the new digs. AT&T bashers should take note, as Ma Bell didn’t update a single one of its nine Android phones during the June-December 2010 time period. Yeah, ouch. Over on the handset side, we’ve got HTC gifting half of its devices with Froyo, while Motorola comes in second with 15.4 percent and Samsung third with 11.1 percent. No matter how you slice it, it’s a depressing study to look at, and it probably makes your decision to skip over a Nexus One seem all the more idiotic in retrospect. But hey, at least there’s the Nexus S to console you… if you’re willing to sign up with T-Mob, that is.

Study: Verizon Wireless and HTC most eager to provide Android 2.2 updates originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a little over 24 hours since Verizon announced it will be selling the iPhone 4 in February, and the accessories manufacturers are already jumping at the chance to sell their iPhone cases to new Verizon iPhone customers. Just how different will the AT&T iPhone case be from a Verizon iPhone case? That’s yet to be determined. That being said, Case-Mate has announced its line of Verizon iPhone accessories.

Its new line of cases will vary in a range of colors, textures, and materials. They’re not available for sale just yet, but you can sign up to get e-mail updates and arrival notifications when they are.

Some of the cases look familiar, like the Vroom, and the Gelli, but there are many new designs that are sure to tickle your fancy. Personally, I like the Waddler and the Monsta.

You can see the complete list of products after the jump

It’s time to start penning the epilogue to the story of how Verizon and the iPhone came to be happily betrothed yesterday. We’ve already heard a good deal about how the last suitor failed to live up to expectations, but this report keeps the focus predominantly on the newlyweds and their courtship. The agreement came last year and was brokered by Verizon President Lowell McAdam and Apple COO Tim Cook, with input from CEOs Ivan Seidenberg and Steve Jobs (naturally), and though the commercial aspect only took about a day, the preceding technical hurdle was a six-to-nine months ordeal. That entailed putting Verizon cell towers at Apple HQ to check signal and avoid reliability troubles, as well as having Verizon’s Executive Director of Technology David McCarley work in Cupertino for more than a year. As for the rest of the deal, both parties agreed to share inside knowledge (Verizon’s network plans for Apple’s device plans — wouldn’t you like to know) and Verizon had to agree to a logo-free device. Which, given the sure-to-be mindblowing sales, probably isn’t a hard pill to swallow.

A brief and anecdotal history of the Verizon iPhone 4 deal originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In what can only be called an amazing example of extremely coincidental timing, Verizon has announced that it’s throwing the switch on 16 new 3G Cells in the greater New York Metro area. Alas, they won’t be spreading the LTE love across the Empire State, but with such an added signal boost in the Boroughs we’d say the company is in reasonably good shape to handle a massive influx of customers. You know, just in case. There’s a full list of all the new towers in the PR below.

Continue reading Verizon Wireless turns on 16 new cell sites in NYC, we can’t imagine why

Verizon Wireless turns on 16 new cell sites in NYC, we can’t imagine why originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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