(Reuters)- verizon wireless began selling Apples iPhone at long last, ending AT&T' Inc's more than three-year strangehold on the device in the united states.
Small crowds of iPhone fans braved a frigid newyork dawn to line up outside verizion stores on the first day of sales on thursday. "I have the AT&T iPhone 4 but i've really had it with the service," said jim liu, 25, who was sixth in line an hour before doors opened at 7 a.m at the verizion wireless store in Bryant park, New York. liu joined eight others on a line that started at 3 a.m.
Verizion, the no 1 U.S, carrier has seen strong interest in Apple's smartphone ahead of the launch, after years of pent-up demand from its customers. Analyst say verizion could sell 12 million iPhones or more this year.
Verizion began accepting orders for the device a week ago, but cut off sales on the first day after inventory it had set aside for existing customers ran out. The phone company beat its previous launch-day phone sales record in a mere two hours. Verizion wireless, a venture of verizion Communications Inc and Vodafone Group
Plc, will charge $199.99 for the 16-gigabyte iPhone,
with a two-year wireless plan.
The iPhone, launched in 2007, set the standard in the smart phone market, transforming Apple into one of the largest mobile phone makers on the planet. Apple sold 16.2 million iPhones in its most recent quarter, generating more than $10 billion in sales The smart phone is available in 90 countries on 185 carriers.
The iPhone had untill Thursday been exclusively available in the U.S on the network of AT&T, the no 2 phone company, But many customers complained about the quality of its network, citing dropped calls and slow dowmload speeds. Analysts expect some AT&T customers, like liu, to leave for due to AT&T's patchy reputation, particularly in cities like New York and San Fransisco.
Early reviews of the verizion iPhone found the larger company's voice service worked better than AT&T iPhone service.