Verizon and Apple

At long last, after literally years of speculation and rumors, the iPhone is coming to Verizon on February 10th. No word yet on pricing for data plans (although it'll set you back $200 for the cheaper 16GB phone). Why is this big news, worthy of a Technology Tuesday blog post?

• Up here in rural Maine, we don't have AT&T. This means that we haven't been able to get the iPhone until now. While there are many other smart phones available, I don't think anyone can deny the ability of Apple products to make something popular. With the iPhone headed our way, I anticipate a marked increase in the number of people who use smartphones to access our web page, try to search databases, etc. So maybe this is more a "big changes needed for Mantor" than a big changes for you (assuming you don't buy an iPhone).
• For Apple, this opens up the largest cell phone company to their product. They've been locked into an exclusive contract with AT&T since the iPhone first came onto the scene. Getting out of it--and into the bigger market--will make the iPhone that much more popular and mainstream. Count on it.
• The new Verizon deal isn't exclusive, which means you might see the iPhone coming to Sprint soon, too.
• The Verizon phone has the ability to act as a wireless provider for up to five other devices, meaning you could let other people use your iPhone's wireless internet connection to let them access the internet, too. It's called tethering, and it's pretty cool. AT&T just lets you do this with one other device over Bluetooth.

Some news (such as pricing) remains to be unveiled between now and then, but still--big changes are coming.