Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011 marked the release of the Apple iPhone 4G to Verizon Wireless stores all over the country, and the end of AT&T’s reign of exclusive rights to the iPhone.

For three years, the iPhone was only available to AT&T customers, as Verizon sold other smart phones such as the Android, made by Motorola and HTC. But on Jan. 11, 2011, Apple and Verizon put out a press release announcing that the two corporations would be partnering to make the iPhone 4G available to Verizon Wireless customers for the first time.

Verizon iPhone sales skyrocket

According to a news release on the Verizon website, Verizon made the largest amount of sales for a phone in such a short time since the company Bell Atlantic Corporation (a split off company from AT&T) became Verizon Wireless in June of 2000. During their pre-sale to existing Verizon customers on on Feb. 3, the company sold more iPhones than any other first-day phone launch in history, with just over 500,000 phones sold in two hours.

Customers offer their opinions

There is a vast array of opinions regarding the iPhone’s new availability under Verizon coverage, and it comes from both AT&T and Verizon users.

“I want to switch over to Verizon so badly,” freshman Kris Ringler, an AT&T iPhone owner said. “Verizon has better coverage than AT&T in this area, and it wouldn’t charge ridiculous prices for the iPhone like AT&T does.”

AT&T isn’t the only company losing something to Verizon. Several critics have said that the Android phones will also lose out in this deal.

“I wish I would have waited for the iPhone,” Kaci Piccillo, a new Droid owner, said. She recently obtained a Droid, but within weeks, Verizon announced their partnership with Apple for iPhone rights.

iPhone sales rival Android popularity

Piccillo is not the only one with this dilemma. Many people are trading in their Droids and smart phones for cash so they can buy the Verizon iPhone. Verizon is offering a trade-in program to refund people for their smart phones for sometimes over $200.

While Android phones will go through a struggle now that they are competing with iPhones under the Verizon service coverage, not everyone said they would switch over.

“I’m not switching to the iPhone,” freshman Eddie Keller, proud Droid owner, said. “I love my Droid too much to do that.”

Apple’s reason for stalling on Verizon

With the success of the iPhone being sold to Verizon customers, many wonder why Apple did not open up the iPhone to other service providers earlier.

“Apple has always been a trendsetter,” business professor and former Apple employee Nick Sherwin said. “They don’t always listen to their customers and their customers’ needs right away. Apple is a company that is reluctant to acknowledge their customers’ cries because they know they have superior operating systems. They keep their products exclusive and just tell everyone that [Apple] has something they want that no one else has.”

Sherwin suggested that Apple focuses more on their status of being a high-priced, high-quality, fashionable brand name than on being a customer appeasing company.

According to CNN, Apple and AT&T had a contract that gave exclusive rights to AT&T to provide service to iPhones. The date for the contract’s expiration was a well-kept secret from the public, until Apple finally stated in a press release that their agreement with AT&T would be over in June 2010.

Apple benefits from increased sales

Sherwin said that this new accessibility is probably because Apple finally realized exactly how successful they could be if they opened up the iPhone to a larger market. By realizing their customers’ longing for iPhones and supplying it to them, Apple has drastically increased their sales.

“All in all, the real winners here are the customers,” Sherwin said. “The customers win, Apple wins, Verizon wins, and the ones who really lose out in this great advancement to [the telecommunications market] are AT&T and those phones that are unable to differentiate themselves from every other phone out there on the market—those who are unwilling to innovate.”