Handsets

Verizon hard-selling 4G Android phones over iPhone: CNN Report

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While the matter of choosing between an Android phone or an iPhone is a case of personal choice, with a significant number of people preferring each platform’s implementation of key features (that’s me at my diplomatic best). However, there is one area where the iPhone just can’t match the flagship Android phones: 4G LTE.

And based on this report by CNN, it seems like this key offering available on devices such as the Droid Razr/Razr Maxx and the LG Lucid is enough for the Verizon employees to suggest potential customers choose one of those over the iPhone 4S. As the author of the source notes, he spoke to 10 Verizon reps, telling half of them he wanted to buy a new smartphone, and the other half he was interested in the iPhone 4S.

In the former case, he was always directed to the Razrs or the Lucid. In the latter, they gave him the information he wanted on the iPhone, but once he asked if it was the best smartphone available, he always met with a “no”.

Although the next iPhone would almost certainly feature LTE, Android has a significant advantage here thanks to this scenario. By ensuring that users enjoy their experience, they might not be tempted to switch to the iPhone in the future.

Raveesh Bhalla

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61 Comments

  1. users wont enjoy their battery life though unlesd they get a maxx or are taught how to navigate through settings to change to “cdma only.”

    1. Hey C-Law! I had VZW TBOLT back in July, I never had any battery issue what so ever, no one need that big battery to use your phone, unless your buying your phone to use it as play station or portable radio or mall tv.

      1. my gnex dies so fast with lte on. im just happy my rom has an lte toggle. i always wondered what they told other customers who complained about 4g battery bc im sure they dont tell them how to switch to 3g only

        1. I think its just signal issur causing the drain..if i have weak 4g my battery ducks…strong 4g my bsttery is good

    2. I once felt that way. However, once 4G lit up by my house and not just near my work… I just left 4G on. I still get a day’s use out of the phone nearly always.

      In reality, 4G does make it a little worse, but nothing that actually affects me. Truthfully, it only seems to go quick if I’m playing a game or something.

    3. Not really. Removing dumb UI elements and widgets that update too often are more of a culprit than “cdma only”

  2. So the employees tell the truth and this is news?

    1. If you visit the source link, what you’ll also find is that AT&T isn’t pushing their 4G phones, instead still pushing the iPhone.

      So the employees finally telling the truth IS news.

      1. Peeped the source and the AT&T reps response is very damning. Its a status symbol and the most popular? Why do they do thay? Because they know thats why.people buy iPhones. They dont that its not the best phone. They just want to be seen as cool. They should not complain when they are called iSheep.

        1. ATT gets kickbacks from Apple. Sprint wanted to do the same.

      2. This is (one of many reasons) I hate AT&T.

    2. It’s news when Apples marketing, which gets people to spend more for less value, is exposed. T-Mobile needs to let people know how superior their 3G network is in many markets. I’ve tested both Verizon and ATT against T-Mobile in Denver Colorado and it usually kicks butt. It’s upload speeds always kick butt. I’m tired of perceived value being so far out of reality.

      1. Well said. Verizon isn’t nearly what people believe it to be IMO. For the past few days 4G has been crap for me and sometimes apparently down. I keep telling people that in a metro area T-Mo isn’t that much worse if not on par. Its when you hit the road that you might find a difference.

        1. i get 28Mb down and 10Mb up on 4G lte so yeah tmobile IS much worse

          1. Thats going to depend heavily where you are. When I was in NJ and TMO debuted their HSPA+, I was getting around 10 down, out here in Kansas I’m lucky if I see 4 outside the city. Had the same problem with ATT and Sprint when I had them. Service varied by location. Feel fortunate you’re getting what you get where you are.

  3. That’s because VZW is pushing 4G phones over 3G

    1. Must be a fanboy. U mad bro?

      1. That doesn’t even make sense. It’s just a statement of fact that the phones they are pushing are 4G and that’s why they are pushing them. I can’t even tell what kind of fanboy you are accusing me of being.

  4. Steve Jobs phones STINK!

  5. They want to lighten the burden on there 3g network.

    1. Their*

    2. Hardly the reason. Horrible assumption too.

      1. I thought this was common knowledge..I beleive verizkn said it somewhere that they want everyone to move to 4g and alowly get people off 3g ….reason why there arw no more 3g phones being made

  6. Vzw employees are paid more when they sell 4g devices. It is truly as simple as that.

    1. Actually thats not always the case. As indirect agents we could actually make more money on the iphone. I dunno about corporate. We just look at android as a better option for people and also that its sets people up for the future with LTE. Since the average customer doesnt have an upgrade for 20 months to us this is a no brainer.

    2. Not at all. Sorry but retail is more than flipping burgers at McD’s, Johnny.

  7. Well the fact that the Android phones have LTE and larger screens for viewing media makes them better IMO. Looks like I’m not alone.

  8. Silly consumers, they obviously get a higher commission on the phone they’re pushing.

    1. Silly ATT nub. You’re wrong. They get a commission on accessories and plans. That’s it.

  9. Yeah…4G is great, but I have to say that I run 3G 99% of the time. 4G just eats waaay too much battery!

    1. On my Gnex,. the screen eats up so much more battery than the radios do.

      1. Yea it really does moving to 3G may give you maybe 45mins to an hour of battery life, but the real killer is the screen, I stream audio over lte and it’s not that big of a drain, I can stream audio for an hour on my rezound for 8-10% battery drain.

        1. I think it depends on the phone. on my htc thunderbolt the screen was never the top battery drainer, the cell standby always way. Yet on my droid 2 global under comparable usage, screen was always the top drainer. I can’t fully judge my samsung stratosphere yet, but it seems to have the 4g radio slightly more under control and I’d assume a newer phone like the rezound is the same.

    2. I found its more of a signal issue.causing.the.battery drain than 4g…if im in a solid 4g area my battery is good on the gnex

  10. I work for att and I can tell you it has absolutely nothing to do with 3g or 4g its all about profit iPhones have like $15 of profit because apple is extremely greedy. While most reps personally do prefer android they would rather sell you a DROID 3 than an iPhone. We also see the worst of iPhones build quality and would rather a customer not come back in upset that there phone is broken.IPhones are by far the most fragile phone on the market. So there are a ton of reasons a rep would never purposely steer you toward an iPhone… expensive, fragile ,small screen ,extremely limited software wise, bad reception,no profit, no options, bad browser, more expensive apps, and no expandable memory. The only things iPhone has that no one can compete with is they have thousands of accessories and cases and its much easier to give a first time smartphone user an iPhone and send them home where an android phone is much more difficult for someone who is not tech savvy.

  11. Ok, first off, I know for a fact that VZW employees are not paid any more for selling one phone over another. The Android devices are recommended because they really are better. You can do more on an Android device for less money up front as well as long term. As far as battery, when you have a device that does less, of course it’s going to use less battery. I have an HTC Rezound with a charger that charges a second battery. I got both on Amazon for about $11. Not exactly a lot to ask for to get more power. As I’ve said before, for an Android site, there seem to be a lot of Apple sheep paying attention and getting rather defensive of their trendy yet inferior garbage.

    1. The reps do get paid more to sell certain phones over others it is as simple as that.

      1. No they don’t.

        1. Actually they do I know friends who work for Verizon and get extra incentives for certain phones.

  12. This just in, Verizon wants to make money on smart phones.

    Smarties at Apple won’t get to keep all the profit for long.

  13. delete

  14. Why is this a story? Verizon makes more money on the android phones, and exclusive phone lines like the RAZR keep customers locked in. Verizon’s 4G is unrivaled and they want to showcase it. I bet most car dealers steer their customers into the highest profit margin cars too.

    Or maybe, don’t panic Apple fans, the iphone is now over 6 months old (way older for the 4) and it isn’t the best phone available. Maybe the employees are telling the truth.

  15. I wouldn’t say the reps are now telling the truth. They are selling what they are told to sell by their bosses. As you can see in the article nowhere does he mention that when he asked for the best smartphone out was he pointed to a Gnex. Which is obviously the most advanced phone Verizon is selling.

    The Galaxy Nexus includes 4G, Ice Cream Sandwich, and NFC. All of the newest greatest features out there.

    1. Obviously you don’t understand much.

      1. ^First try backing up your idiotic comments.

        Does the Droid Razr come with Android 4.0? no
        Does the droid Razr have NFC? no
        Does the droid Razr have vanilla android? no
        The razr has hardware buttons as well.

        Not to mention the Razr has been out for what 3 months and it’s about to hit EOL so they can sell the Razr HD.

  16. If I were asked if the iPhone was the best option available for a smartphone, I would also answer “no”

  17. Look they these guys just push whatever phone thats not selling that well to new customers. The iPhone is gonna sell itself regardless just because non tech savy consumers are under the impression that thats the best phone in the world.

  18. I personally don’t how this is a “hard sell” when the customer is requesting the salesperson’s opinion. A hard sell would be if the salesperson offered an alternative product without the customer asking about possible alternatives.

  19. If the next iPhone isn’t 4G, im gonna laugh my ass off.

    1. Since the new iPad has LTE, Apple has no excuse to leave LTE off the iPhone.

      The only reason I can see them not adding LTE is to hide behind the battery excuse.

  20. I dont understand what the big deal about this is. It’s not even remotely anti apple fanboyism. You get a vastly better data experience on 4G vs cdma 3G which is all the iPhone supports. These sales reps were merely expressing that and it seems like they just wanted their customers to have a faster data experience on their network.

  21. I don’t really care about sales reps. I am an informed consumer, and I will buy what I want because I already know about the products in depth. To me, the sales reps are just bodies to get the phone from the backroom, which I could do myself (see: AmazonWireless.com).

    And I believe sales reps should be telling the truth all along. Of course Android is better than the iPhone.

    1. Being a tech junkie, I walk into most stores and refuse help when they offer. Then, sometimes, I’ll let the sales rep talk to me and just listen to how dumb they sound.

      Me: “I’m looking for a laptop with a high end video card with at least 1GB of video memory. Preferably an i7 machine.”

      Sales Guy: “Not sure if we have one of those. Let me ask…”

      Me: “How about the one I’m standing in front of?”

  22. android – open source- nuff said

  23. Wow….Verizon reps doing their best to push pretend iPhones and its still outselling all of the iPhonies COMBINED??? You don’t say??? :-)

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403266,00.asp

  24. I recently got an iphone just to see if the hype held up to the promises. Not even close. It’s the N Korea of smartphones. Wverything is restrictrd by Kim Jong Apple. even multiple email accounts.

  25. The price Apple charges for a technologically obsolete iPhone 4S is outrageous, in features and speed even the $45.00 Droid Bionic blows it away in every way possible, but if someone would rather pay hundreds more for the apple logo more power to them, lol!

  26. I think it’s probably just about moving inventory. People coming in for an iPhone are already sold on it. The sales people don’t need to make a recommendation. However, if someone actually asks, they push them to the other models that don’t have the advertising & word of mouth the iPhone has.

  27. Why does CNN care when most of their anchors uses iPhone

  28. And yet the iPhone continues to outsell all Android phones combined on AT&T and Verizon.

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