The four-year-long Verizon iPhone rumor’s reign of terror has ended. With an official announcement today—official!—we can get down to brass tacks and take a look at all the details, specs, facts and figures. Let’s dance.
Pricing and Availability
Verizon’s iPhone will be available online and in Verizon and Apple stores on Thursday, February 10th. Pre-orders will be available “to Verizon Wireless customers only” through Verizon’s website “on or around February 3rd.”
There will be a 16GB version for $200 with a two-year Verizon contract and a 32GB version for $300 with a two-year Verizon contract. You’ll be able to purchase the iPhone off-contract, though Verizon hasn’t released pricing. AT&T sells the iPhone 4 models off-contract for $599 and $699, respectively.
Verizon hasn’t announced monthly service plan pricing yet. However, current Verizon smartphone voice plans start at $40 per month for 450 minutes. Text messaging can be added starting at $5 per month for 250 messages. Web access must be added at either $15 per month for 150 megabytes of data transfer or $30 per month for unlimited data.
Current Verizon customers will be eligible for the $200 subsidized price if their two-year contract is up. There will be no early upgrade opportunities. Customers who want to upgrade to the Verizon iPhone before their existing two-year Verizon contract is up will have to pay full retail price for the phone.
(More on Time.com: Verizon’s iPhone: A Marriage Years in the Making)
Tech Specs
The Verizon iPhone holds pretty true to the iPhone 4 that’s available on AT&T. There are a few subtle differences; most notably that the Verizon iPhone only works in the U.S. on Verizon’s 3G network and a handful of other countries. You won’t be able to talk and surf the web at the same time, either, which is a current limitation of CDMA technology.
You will, however, be able to use the Verizon iPhone as a personal Wi-Fi hotspot with up to five other devices, though the company hasn’t mentioned if that feature will cost extra or not. It generally runs $20 per month extra on several of Verizon’s other smartphones.
AT&T iPhone owners will be able to access any apps they’ve purchased on a Verizon iPhone. Voicemail messages can be manually backed up and transferred over using Apple’s iTunes software.