If you don’t already have an iPhone 4S, your wait will still apparently be long according to The Wall Street Journal. Anxious Verizon Wireless customers are reporting more than three weeks for their purchase to arrive. AT&T customers are waiting an average of 21 days as well, and Sprint customers have roughly a two week time period. This new report continues to prove previous claims of Apple experiencing a demand which was slower than expected for their iPhone 4S wrong. Apple stock previously went down due to these claims despite the initial success of the device.

According to the WSJ, the initial sales of the iPhone 4S were quite opposite of the rumors, calling them “unexpectedly strong” in the first month. According to AT&T president of emerging devices, Glenn Lurie, “We are having some supply issues in the sense that demand’s huge. We have had just record-breaking sales on it.” Verizon seemed to make comments similar to this, where a spokeswoman mentioned that the demand “continues to build” for the iPhone 4S. The Big Red also mentioned that it is working with Apple to increase inventory.

Apple’s own retail stores are experiencing a similar story as they are seeing daily stock-outs of their iPhone 4S. Furthermore, the Cupertino giant is in the midst of the fastest worldwide roll-out ever, with a very strong international demand as well. Apple continues to stay on its record setting pace with the iPhone 4S after selling more than 4 million iPhones in its first weekend. That specific weekend alone doubled the company’s previous record of 1.7 million iPhone 4 units in the summer of 2010.

Tim Cook previously mentioned in the company’s quarterly earnings conference call in October how he was confident that a new record for the iPhone 4S will be set in the current holiday quarter. Currently the previous record came in the company’s June quarter of this year, when Apple moved a total of 20.34 million iPhones.

With the holiday season around the corner, will you be getting an iPhone 4S for yourself or someone you know? Do you already have an iPhone 4S? Share any thoughts and comments below!

Source: Wall Street Journal

A limited-time sale is happening on Amazon’s Wireless arm, where each and every Verizon cell phone can be purchased for just 1¢. There are a total of 31 phones from Verizon Wireless that are included in this sale, and is said to go on until 11:59 p.m. PDT on October 17^th. Unfortunately, the iPhone 4 and 4s are not participants of this sale. Smartphones including the HTC DROID Incredible 2, Motorola DROID X2, Motorola DROID 3 as well as the new 4G LTE phones such as the DROID BIONIC and Samsung’s DROID Charge 4G are all included in this amazing deal. Each purchase has to have a new 2-year contract when participating in the deal and expect your phone in 2-days as all devices have free 2-day shipping. Are you going to purchase a Verizon phone from this sale? If so, which one? Let us know below.

Apple has recently confirmed that the company has sold over one million iPhone 4S devices in pre-orders. This officially makes the iPhone 4S the most successful iPhone ever. The previous record was from last year’s iPhone 4 launch which totaled over 600,000 in one day. Despite disappointment after Apple’s announcement last week of the company’s next-generation iPhone, Apple has seemed to come out on top. This year, Apple has a large amount of global carrier partners for the launch, including Verizon AND Sprint in the United States. It still doesn’t take away from how impressive the numbers are though.

You can read Apple’s official press release regarding the subject below:

iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

CUPERTINO, California—October 10, 2011—Apple® today announced pre-orders of its iPhone® 4S have topped one million in a single day, surpassing the previous single day pre-order record of 600,000 held by iPhone 4. iPhone 4S is the most amazing iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics; an all new camera with advanced optics; full 1080p HD resolution video recording; and Siri™, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking.

“We are blown away with the incredible customer response to iPhone 4S,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The first day pre-orders for iPhone 4S have been the most for any new product that Apple has ever launched and we are thrilled that customers love iPhone 4S as much as we do.”

iPhone 4S will be available at all 245 Apple retail stores in the US beginning at 8 a.m. local time on Friday, October 14. Every customer who buys an iPhone 4S at an Apple retail store will be offered free Personal Setup service, helping them customize their iPhone 4S by setting up email, showing them new apps from the App Store™ and more, so they’ll be up and running with their new iPhone before they leave the store.

iPhone 4S includes iOS 5, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features, and iCloud®, a breakthrough set of free cloud services that work seamlessly with your iPhone, iPad®, iPod touch®, Mac® or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices.

Pricing & Availability
iPhone 4S comes in either black or white and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the new 64GB model.* iPhone 4S will be available from the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores and through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and select Best Buy, Target and Walmart stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 4 is available for just $99 (US) and iPhone 3GS is available for free with a two year contract.

iPhone 4S will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries by the end of October including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

*Qualified customers only. Requires a new two year rate plan, sold separately.

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Verizon Wireless is planning on introducing a brand new $50 monthly prepaid this weak in an effort to edge in on MetroPCS and Sprint-owned Boost and Virgin Mobile. The $50 monthly prepaid is said to include unlimited text, talk, and web according to the Wall Street Journal. The new plan, which fair launched back in April as “Unleashed” in limited markets, will be available to customers in Verizon stores, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy. As of right now, the new plan is much cheaper than Verizon’s current unlimited talk and text prepaid option, which currently costs $94.99 per month.

“This is a very competitive market, and we want to make sure we have a price portfolio to fit a greater number of customers,” Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Brenda Raney said. “In these times there are some people who would prefer living on a prepaid plan.”

As of right now, Verizon’s competitors charge the following: AT&T’s GoPhone service offers the same unlimited option and costs $50 per month. Virgin Mobile’s service costs $55 per month although they are cheaper options for customers who want fewer minutes. MetroPCS offers a nationwide unlimited plan for $45 per month but customers can also opt for a  more expensive 4G prepaid package. Boost Mobile’s service costs $50 per month but can drop as low as $35 per month as part of its “monthly shrinkage” perk for making on-time payments.

Are you or is anyone you know considering this deal from Verizon? If so, leave us a comment below and let us know!

As usual, stay tuned for more info on the topic by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and/or subscribing to our RSS feed.

Citadel Securities analyst Shing Yin estimates that the next-gen iPhone will call Sprint home before the end of 2011. From a business standpoint, it just makes sense to do. With AT&T and Verizon sharing the carrier stage in the U.S, Apple is likely interested in expanding to the nation’s third-largest wireless provider. Sprint, much like Verizon runs on a CDMA-network, which can easily be added to Apple’s domestic carrier list – a move that would benefit all parties (except for AT&T and Verizon). “We believe Sprint could capture more than its fair share of iPhone sales,” Yin writes, “especially if it gets the new model at the same time as AT&T and Verizon.”

The analyst believes the iPhone carrier expansion to Sprint is “increasingly likely,” especially considering that with the inauguration of Verizon Communications tiered pricing for data starting July 7th. “Sprint will be the sole remaining national carrier with an unlimited data plan offering, something desirable to Apple.”

Yin speculates that a Sprint iPhone “could be relatively stronger seller than the Verizon iPhone. With lower prices on the on plans, a Sprint iPhone could offer an attractive proposition for more price-conscious users (a demographic that we think is increasingly important to Apple, following the rise of Android),” a report from Barron’s noted.

With so many iPhone users on AT&T and Verizon, we personally are curious to see how many would jump ship to Sprint and how many Sprint users would consider purchasing an iPhone. We will find out soon enough though as the rumored iPhone 5 is said to be announced in September and an announcement would surely ensue.

As usual, stay tuned for more news and info on the topic by following us on Facebook, Twitter and/or  subscribing to our RSS Feed.

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Verizon’s Chief Financial Officer, Fran Shammo revealed that there were plans to discontinue the unlimited data plan for iPhone users as early as mid-summer, back in March. Word is out about Verizon moving to tiered data plans as early as July 7th for their new customers.

It was previously known that July 7th would be the date that marked something new for Verizon after the company had just extended the free 4G hotspot promotion one more time to the 6th. Employees were also receieving training over the last few weeks on a new point-of-sale system, along with new account management tools that hinted at family plan changes. What wasn’t known was that the big change was the tiered data plans, which are now being expected to be released the day after the promotion ends (July 7th) for new customers.

One thing to note is that this tiered data plan is applicable to both 3G and 4G smartphones, confirming that they are not separate plans depending on device. If you are under contract currently, you should be fine and you don’t need to run out and buy a 4G phone just to lock in as we have seen other sites recommending doing that. Verizon is set to offer the following data plans:

• 2 GB for $30/month
• 5 GB for $50/month
• 10 GB for $80/month

Verizon offers the official mobile hotspot feature as well, which is set to cost an extra $20 a month. The hotspot comes with its own 2GB monthly data pool, one separate from the iPhone’s data plan.This is compared to AT&T’s hotspot feature which offers 200 MB for 15/month or 2GB for $25 a month. AT&T also charges $10 per GB if you go over the limit. The mobile hotspot feature on AT&T is only available to customers who opt for the DataPro plan and users get an additional 2 GB of monthly data usage.

Existing Verizon customers should have the option to keep their unlimited data plans through the tenure of their contract, however, it needs to be seen if Verizon will allow them to grandfather the unlimited data plans when they want to upgrade to the next generation iPhone. The unlimited data plans are currently seen as a unique selling point to Verizon’s iPhone as AT&T stopped offering iPhone customers unlimited data plans just before the iPhone 4 was launched.

What do you think of the rumored tiered data plans from Verizon? Would the lack of an unlimited data plan be a deal breaker for you? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!

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You may also like to read:

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• AT&T To Offer Unlimited Data Plans To Counter Verizon’s Strategy
• AT&T Announces Its 4G Plans; 4G On iPhone in 2012
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Apple this past week started selling factory unlocked iPhone 4′s in the U.S. Though Apple has sold contract-free iPhones in the U.S before, they were still locked to AT&T. This is the first time Apple is selling factory unlocked iPhones, which will allow users to use a SIM card for any GSM carrier. Below is the product description from Apple’s website:

If you don’t want a multiyear service contract or if you prefer to use a local carrier when traveling abroad, the unlocked iPhone 4 is the best choice. It arrives without a micro-SIM card, so you’ll need an active micro-SIM card from any supported GSM carrier worldwide.

Apple is selling the 16GB iPhone 4 model for $649 and the 32GB model for $749, that means for a premium of $450, you would have the freedom to use it on any GSM carrier.

As pointed out before, the iPhone 4 will work on T-Mobile’s voice network but doesn’t support T-Mobile’s 3G network, which means it will only work over its slower EDGE network. Apple also made it a point to clarify in their FAQ section that an iPad micro-SIM card will not work with the unlocked iPhone 4. Only the GSM model of the iPhone 4 is available for purchse without a carrier contract, while the CDMA model is still tied to a Verizon contract as of right now. Despite the high price, the factory unlocked iPhones are still popular among international travelers who may need to frequently switch SIM cars to avoid the high international roaming charges.

As a quick note, in case you aren’t aware, in addition to factory unlocked iPhones, carriers in some countries also offer authorized unlocking for an additional fee or may have some other requirement. You should checkout the Apple Knowledge Base article to find out if your carrier offers authorized unlocking.

Are you planning to buy an unlocked iPhone 4? Do you think it is worth the premium? Let us know in the comments below. As usual, stay tuned by following us on Facebook, Twitter and/or by subscribing to our RSS Feed.

According to the folks over at 9to5Mac, Apple is reportedly recalling Verizon iPad 2 shipments and asking Apple Retail employees to locate certain iPad 2s and send them back to Apple. Apple’s discussion boards recently lit up with the complaints from customers who had their iPad shipments mysteriously sent back to Apple. Sources are now offering a little more information on the situation:

Apple has given all the stores a list of serial numbers to scan, if it’s a match we were told to set aside and ship back to Apple, these are only for Verizon ipads. This was to be done on Monday and continue to scan all shipments thru June 11. I had over one hundred to send back.

Another source said the recall has to do with accessing cellular account information on the device:

Verizon iPad 2s aren’t being sent back due to engraving. If someone activates a cellular connection on the device, then wants to view or edit account information, they can’t. They receive a message that it is activated, and that’s it. I saw someone open at least 6 looking for one that didn’t do it. It’s device specific, not software.

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AT&T recently announced that it will be rolling out its 4G LTE network in the following five U.S cities this summer: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. It also revealed that it plans to add ten or more cities in the second half of the year. Back in January, AT&T’s CEO De la Vega revealed that AT&T plans to accelerate the deployment of its 4G LTE network this year instead of 2012. As per AT&T’s statement:

AT&T has delivered five mobile broadband speed upgrades in recent years, including our HSPA+ deployment last year. And average nationwide speeds on the AT&T network have increased – more than 40 percent over the past two years alone.

The next network evolution will arrive this summer with the addition of LTE in five markets – Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Antonio. We plan to add another 10 or more markets in the second half of the year, and cover 70 million Americans with LTE by year-end. We also have plans to add 20 4G devices to our robust device portfolio this year, with some of those being LTE capable.

Just last week, Stacey Higginbotham from GigaOM who got a chance to test AT&T’s 4G LTE network reported that she got download speeds of approximately 28.87 Mbps, and an upload speed of 10.4 Mbps, which is quite promising. Before everyone gets all excited though, it is important to note here that it is highly unlikely that Apple will launch a 4G LTE iPhone this year to take advantage of AT&T’s faster network, as the implementation for LTE networks has not yet matured. AT&T and Verizon are expected to complete the rollout of their 4G LTE network nationwide only by 2013.

Apple executives have indicated that they are not willing to take a lot of design compromises, which are enforced by the current-generation 4G LTE chipsets. Chipmakers like Qualcomm, ST Ericsson, and Intel are expected to launch the next generation chips towards the end of this year, which are expected to meet Apple’s requirements. Therefore, Apple is widely speculated to launch a 4G LTE iPhone in 2012.

Will you wait for Apple to launch a 4G iPhone or will you buy some other 4G smartphone if there is a 4G network available in your area? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!

In the mean time, stay tuned for more tech news and info by following us on Facebook, Twitter and/or by subscribing to our RSS Feed.

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According to a Japanese Microsoft Developers Forum, Microsoft’s CEO confirmed that the next Windows Phone update, codenamed Mango, will add “over 500 new features” to the mobile operating system.

Microsoft has an event scheduled for Tuesday, May 24th in New York City, during which it will unveil the new update (again) and discuss its features in greater detail. Earlier this month we heard rumors that the update will deliver Bing Audio, Bing Vision, turn-by-turn navigation in Bing Maps, a new native podcast player, speech recognition, and more.

Microsoft first introduced WP7 in February 2010. The platform officially launched worldwide in October 2010. The first crop of devices was very good, but not quite a match for the headlining Android smartphones available from most carriers. It didn’t help that WP7 only launched on AT&T and T-Mobile at first. Sprint didn’t pick up any WP7 handsets until earlier this year, and Verizon is releasing its first WP7 smartphone this week.

Check out the video clip of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer discussing Mango:

The big question is, can Microsoft successfully deliver this update to existing and future handsets in a timely manner? Experience to-date tells us no.

Stay tuned for more news and info on the topic by following us on Facebook, Twitter and/or by subscribing to our RSS Feed.

You may also like to read:

• Windows Phone 7 “Mango” Update Demoed At MIX11 [Video Demo]
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