If you’ve been waiting for an iPhone, should you buy the Verizon one or wait until June for the new iPhone?

Of course, no one knows exactly what the next iPhone will be but not every iPhone release is a must-have … for instance, the 3GS was not a quantum leap over the 3G … there were a few additional features like Voice Control, a better camera and you could run the latest OS faster but other than that … and right now, the next iPhone probably won’t have a vast improvement except for one big IF …  it will probably be called the iPhone 4G as the telco carriers begin switching on the next generation of mobile internet speed and bandwidth.

There is some confusion as there is no LEGAL definition of 4G or LTE so the telcos blur the lines as best they can (I’m shocked! 🙂  ).

To access the new mobile internet speeds that “LTE” promises, you will need a new phone with a NEW CHIP in it – it’s not software upgradeable so that’s the big question.

Will the iPhone 4G (or iPhone5) have the LTE chip? The answer is probably yes.

LTE will be turned on in 40-50 each by Verizon & AT&T by the end of the year so an iPhone “LTE” might be jumping the gun a little as your particularly city might not be ready yet but the business scenario is that waiting until 2012 to release an LTE iPhone is just too long of a cycle.

So, it all depends on how much internet access you think you will want or need on your smartphone. If you are mostly using it at home or at the office (with WiFi), 3G is certainly an acceptable speed plus you’ll probably be paying less per month as they will almost certainly tier pricing between the two speeds (3G versus 4G/LTE).

Or you can buy a Verizon iPhone4 now and give it another family member in June as you upgrade.

Or you can wipe it clean and sell it though keep in mind that it’s under a two year contract unless you buy it at full price. iPhone hold up their value VERY WELL as long as you’re not the type who flings it across your driveway. If you keep the original box and keep it in a case, I have generally sold every used iPhone I’ve owned for more than $200 dollars even after using it for 2 years. Though that’s the AT&T GSM phone which is usable worldwide while the current Verizon iPhone 4 is CDMA – much fewer international users – so that might affect secondary pricing. But since a non-contract Verizon iPhone costs at least $650 – someone might value any amount reasonable under $650 as “cheap” for a Verizon non-contract iPhone that’s only a few months old.

So, you can decide if you want a non-contract iPhone for a few months and then re-sell it or pay $199/$299 for a contract iPhone and then give it to a family member in June …

Or just wait until June.

NOTE:

Verizon will begin pre-order sales at 3 AM Eastern on February 3, 2011.

– Make sure you have your My Verizon self-serve account set-up online. Orders can only be placed through your my Verizon account. You can register/setup your account at… myaccount.verizonwireless.com

– On February 3rd at 3am EST, Verizon Wireless will allow our current customers to order upgrades or new lines to their accounts through your My Verizon online account (make sure you have registered before the 3rd).

I have an AT&T account, I really want to switch to Verizon, should I?

Of course, that’s your call. If you loathe your AT&T reception service … you may just want to switch immediately. AT&T of course has a $325 cancellation fee that is prorated at $10 a month – so presuming like most, you got an iPhone 4 last June, you still owe AT&T about $240 dollars … You can probably sell your iphone4 for at least that (unless you used it to play hockey on your driveway) … or Verizon seems to offering a nice trade in …

iPhone 2G – 16GB: $60
iPhone 3G – 16GB: $105
iPhone 3Gs 32GB: $160
iPhone 4- 16GB: $280
iPhone 4 – 32GB: $360

You can probably sell it for that but this way you don’t really have to worry about listing it, and paying eBay/Paypal fees, etc, etc …

The other big factor is if you’ve been a long time AT&T iPhone customer, you are grandfathered in at the $30 UNLIMITED internet data plan but it appears Verizon is willing to match that as an inducement to switch. They claim this is a limited time offer but no end date … guessing it’s July 2011 when the next iPhone offer is up for 30 days.

(However, if you switched out of the $30 unlimited (no longer offered), AT&T seems to be offering it if you had it before June 2010 – and you have to ask, apparently).

The ONE advantage that the AT&T GSM iPhone offers versus the Verizon CDMA iPhone is that you can surf the net while talking on the phone (under LTE, that difference is gone also) so if internet access is a huge deal while talking on the phone, stick with AT&T for the time being.

How to save a few bucks?

THE PHONE PORTION

People are actually making much fewer mobile calls so that’s why it’s virtually unlimited. Outside of business hours, it’s pretty much free since most of our long calls to family members who are probably on the same plan or like AT&T’s “A-list,” which is free to 5-10 phone numbers or calls are free to same-network users since 180 million are on Verizon or AT&T, calls on the same network don’t count.

So, you can select fewer minutes if you basically call the same 4-8 people often … one option is to select fewer minutes from the telco and add-on a VOIP service like Skype or Line 2.

Both offer a second phone number so you can split your calls to business and personal. Line2 is probably the more reliable of the two and while there is a monthly charge of $9.95, you get unlimited calls to the US & Canada, unlimited texting, conference calls and you can make calls via WiFi, 3G or over the normal voice network so you have phone access everywhere.

Skype, of course is more well known but more limiting as you have to turn on SKYPE and while there’s no monthly charge, you are limited to WiFi or 3G and the quality is still not always 100% acceptable all the time … so while it’s okay to tell your family and friends you’ll call them right back because they sound garbled, it’s more more unaccepting when it comes to business calls.

If your calls needs don’t require all access all the time, there are plenty of secondary choices including Google Voice (much like Skype, you can buy minutes) and other popular ones such as Truphone. Note, there are some like Viber who allow you to make free Viber calls to other users, but they upload your address book – in theory to list all your Viber friends but seems overly intrusive. There are literally 200+ VOIP choices out there. If you search for VOIP in the iTunes App Store, you will get over 25 pages of choices! A lot of them are simply use Skype or Google Voice with a different front end. There’s no feasible way to test them all out but have fun doing so! 🙂

Note: You can use Google Voice to make free calls to any US or Canada number. To do so from your Google Voice mobile app, call your Google Voice v-mail first, then press 2 to “make a call.” Instructions HERE.

THE DATA

There’s not much way around it as you have to buy a iPHONE DATA PLAN to use an iPhone on their network. Remember at home, at work or even in thousands of mobile hotspots – with WiFi, your minutes and access do not count towards this DATA PLAN. But if you are a heavy mobile internet user, definitely try to lock in the unlimited plan of $30 as for a few dollars more, you buy peace of mind that in the US, you cannot go over your minutes and you’re not trying to guess how much you have left to go or not checking some info or address out and about because you’re afraid you’ll go over and some of the overage costs are outrageously expensive. Turn off roaming when you leave the US, though.

TEXTING

People ask why texting is charged separately when sending a text seems real cheap … you are right. Sending a text is cheap for the telcos but surprise, they use it to make extra margins – until now, for most people there’s not much they can do about it pre-smartphone apps.

The problem is this. Using IM services, they are free to text you but your friends have to remember to launch their IM app (like AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN, etc, etc …) or even apps like FRING which accesses a bunch of the IM services … but it’s awkward for people to have to launch an app, login and send you an IM via your IM name like DOOFUSHEAD127 and of course, for your business clients, a non-starter on many levels.

The starter TEXT package is about $5 for 200 texts … scaling up to $20 for unlimited but if you’re not going to send that many texts, you can save up to $15 a month per phone by either saving your regular iPhone number for business texts or vice versa. For instance, if you get a LINE2 number – even for $10 a month, you’ll still save some money for not worrying about text usage going over – you’ll have a separate line and all the texts a month under the LINE2 number is unlimited.

Or something like TEXT PLUS 4 where you get all the free texts for a number they assign you or for $2 a year, you can select a number. BUT this number does not receive calls so it’s probably better to use with friends as to avoid confusion and of course, once you start a thread with a friend, no one cares what the actual phone number they used to text you with.

Like with VOIP, there literally a hundred choices so you can decide whether you want just the telco plan or save a little and add-on through another choice – some different, some convenient, some not so convenient.

Remember, texting is free from your desktop to users (it counts as a text to them) from your email.

(list courtesy Wikipedia)

Free Email To SMS Gateways (Major US Carriers)

Alltel
[10-digit phone number]@message.alltel.com
Example: 1234567890@message.alltel.com

AT&T (formerly Cingular)
[10-digit phone number]@txt.att.net
[10-digit phone number]@mms.att.net (MMS)
[10-digit phone number]@cingularme.com
Example: 1234567890@txt.att.net

Boost Mobile
[10-digit phone number]@myboostmobile.com
Example: 1234567890@myboostmobile.com

Nextel (now Sprint Nextel)
[10-digit telephone number]@messaging.nextel.com
Example: 1234567890@messaging.nextel.com

Sprint PCS (now Sprint Nextel)
[10-digit phone number]@messaging.sprintpcs.com
[10-digit phone number]@pm.sprint.com (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile
[10-digit phone number]@tmomail.net
Example: 1234567890@tmomail.net

US Cellular
[10-digit phone number]email.uscc.net (SMS)
[10-digit phone number]@mms.uscc.net (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@email.uscc.net

Verizon
[10-digit phone number]@vtext.com
[10-digit phone number]@vzwpix.com (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@vtext.com

Virgin Mobile USA
[10-digit phone number]@vmobl.com
Example: 1234567890@vmobl.com

There is a NY Times piece on making free calls also.