The Verizon (VZ) iPhone will officially be available to consumers on February 10. Here’s why it may (or may not) be worth buying right now.
There were not too many surprises during today’s big press keynote in New York today. We figured the announcement would be a CDMA-enabled iPhone 4 and that most everything else would be the same between the current AT&T (T) versions and the new Verizon version.
For the most part, that’s true -- pricing, for example, remains at $199 for a 16GB iPhone, $299 for a 32GB one, with a two-year contract, which existing Verizon customers can preorder starting Feb. 3.
There are some changes, however.
HotSync feature turns phones into Wi-Fi hotspots
The biggest news to come out of the announcement (outside the iPhone itself) is the inclusion of Verizon’s HotSync service with the phone. It means the iPhone can act as a mobile hotspot for up to five different devices -- a feature that AT&T has never offered. Current AT&T iPhone customers can enable tethering, which allows another device like a laptop to use the iPhone as basically a cellular Internet modem, but at a cost of $45 or $60 per month, depending on the plan.[Read more: Hands-on review of the Verizon iPhone]
[Read more: Will Verizon actually benefit from having iPhone?]
[Related: Vizeo to release all-in-one tablet and smartphone]
