This report probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone who uses a Verizon iPhone and also has friends using the AT&T version, but for the sake of confirming what we already know, here’s some interesting info about Verizon versus AT&T. Market research firm ChangeWave today released findings of a recent study analyzing iPhone 4 owner experiences and satisfaction.

The study compared consumer experiences with Verizon Wireless’ iPhone 4 against the same model from AT&T. Following years of complaints of poor service and dropped calls with AT&T, the question to ask with the iPhone’s launch on Verizon Wireless was whether or not service quality would improve. According to ChangeWave’s findings, the answer is yes.

In a survey of 4,068 customers, ChangeWave found that over the past 90 days, Verizon Wireless iPhone 4 users have dropped approximately 1.8% of calls while AT&T iPhone 4 owners dropped 4.8%. In addition, ChangeWave found that Verizon iPhone 4 owners are slightly more satisfied than AT&T iPhone 4 owners, with 82% saying they were very satisfied compared to 80% for AT&T.

With the Verizon iPhone only being out for a short time this report is not exactly definitive proof of anything. There’s just not been enough time and user experiences to make that claim. However, it does go a long way to reinforce what many iPhone 4 users on Verizon wireless have experienced (at least the ones we know) when compared to their friends using AT&T: Verizon’s network is better for calls.

If you’re a Verizon iPhone 4 user have you experienced the same thing when compared to your AT&T using friends? Or, is this study bogus? Let us know your thought is the comments.

In what may not be completely surprising news but, at least to some, may be disappointing, your choices of wireless carrier in the U.S. look to be dropping by one. Why? AT&T, the nation’s second largest wireless provider, announced late yesterday that they will acquire T-Mobile USA from parent company Deutsche Telekom in a cash and stock deal worth approximately $39 Billion.

What does that mean for you and me? Well, for me at least, it means nothing. I’m a Verizon Wireless customer. For those of you who are not or who enjoy having as many wireless choices as possible, it means you will now have to pick between AT&T, Verizon or Sprint if you want to go with a national wireless company.

Choice and, more to the point, competition, is one of the best things about pretty much any kind of business. Competition forces companies to constantly innovate and hopefully strive to be better and treat customers well so they will stay. Having fewer choices and thus less competition can allow companies to become complacent and not try their best.

With the lackluster reputation AT&T already has with many customers, I can’t see that the company having fewer competitors is a good thing. What’s their motivation to change and be better if the customer has nowhere else to go? The answer is they won’t have any. And that, friends, is not good.

Click through to check out the full press release from AT&T about this announcement.

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If you’ve been anxiously awaiting the chance to get your first experience with Apple’s latest slab of goodness or if you’re just tired of your iPad version 1.0, this announcement is for you. Apple, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless have all confirmed, via press releases, that tomorrow is the big day and the iPad 2 will be on sale.

Starting at 5PM local time, those of you with cash or credit card in hand can head on over to your nearest Apple, AT&T, or Verizon Wireless retail store and purchase the 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB iPad 2 in white or black.

If you go the AT&T route, here’s your data plan options:

• Monthly statements: $14.99 for 250 MB or $25 for 2GB. If you exceed your monthly data allotment you will be billed $14.99 for another 250MB on the $14.99 plan or $10 per 1 GB of overage on the 2 GB plan. You also get a free month of service with this plan.

• Credit card billing: $14.99 for 250 MB or $25 for 2 GB. If you exceed your monthly data allotment you may choose to purchase another 250 MB on the $14.99 plan or an additional 2 GB for $25 on the 2 GB plan.

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In a recent support article, Apple detailed the differences between the GSM and CDMA iPhone when it comes to voice calling and other associated features. Among other things revealed that may be disturbing to Verizon iPhone users, the document confirms the Verizon iPhone is not capable of handling a conference call with more than two people.

In addition, the CDMA iPhone is unable to put calls on hold due to the way the network works. In the less negative category, the Verizon iPhone can use a manual method to toggle call forwarding, call waiting and caller ID instead of using the settings found in iOS itself.

If you’ve ever used a CDMA device,  you’re probably already familiar with these features and/or limitations. For potential AT&T switchers, these differences may or may not be any kind of deal breaker. Still, more info is always good when making decisions and it’s nice that Apple took the time to do this.

Given that many people are unhappy with AT&T, but love the iPhone, it’s not surprising that once the iPhone came to Verizon Wireless, it would be a success. With pre-orders for existing Verizon customers taking place yesterday and stopping after only about 24 hours due to being sold out, it’s not surprise that Verizon today has announced record sales figures for the device.

According to the company, sales of the iPhone were bigger than any first-day phone launch for them ever. In addition, the company announced these unprecedented sales happened during the first two hours the iPhone was available, which was between the hours of 3 and 5 AM.

Impressive but also pretty understandable. There’s been pent up demand for the iPhone with millions of customers already on Verizon looking to have the device. We can probably expect those numbers to climb even higher once the iPhone is available to all (including AT&T switchers) on February 10th.

Check out the full press release from Verizon after the jump. Did you get your iPhone yesterday?

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Oh AT&T, will the complaints against you never cease. What’s going on now? A new lawsuit has been filed in a federal court in California alleging that AT&T regularly and purposely overcharges iPhone and iPad customers on capped data plans by inflating the amount of data they download to their devices.

Patrick Hendricks, who filed the lawsuit, contends that AT&T adds “phantom traffic” to its invoices in order to overcharge users. Says Hendricks in his complaint:

“AT&T’s billing system for iPhone and iPad data transactions is like a rigged gas pump that charges for a full gallon when it pumps only nine-tenths of a gallon into your car’s tank.”

Apparently, Hendricks isn’t just speculating with his lawsuit. Instead, he and his lawyers hired a consulting firm to investigate and it apparently determined that AT&T regularly inflates data usage by between 7% and 14%. In addition, on some occasions, the carrier actually inflates data usage by as much as 300%. Huh, that seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it?

Of course, in a statement to Computerworld, AT&T said it would fight the lawsuit “vigorously.” Did you think they wouldn’t? Okay, informal poll time. Do you feel AT&T charges for data fairly or do you think they don’t and this lawsuit will expose them for the cheaters they are?

Sound off in the comments.

On Monday we brought you news of a report from Consumer Reports that according to the publications’ readers AT&T is the worst mobile carrier in the U.S. That wasn’t a surprise to us and neither is AT&T already fighting back and trying to downplay the report with a report of its own.

Late yesterday, AT&T released information that according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), its network is the best in the country — 0r, at least, its subscribers complain the least. Verizon Wireless had 34% more complaints, Sprint had 115% more complaints and T-Mobile had 207% more complaints.

AT&T also says it has an A+ average rating nationally from the BBB, having received 107 A+ ratings, seven A ratings and one A- rating from local BBBs across the country. Our opinion? Sounds like AT&T is grasping at straws here.

What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments and check out the full press release from AT&T after the jump.

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Another day another, Apple-related rumor with a slim thread of substantiating facts. On the plus side we do know that Apple will eventually release a new version of the iPad which will reportedly feature a thinner case, Retina Display, gyroscope and FaceTime support. It’s inevitable.

What isn’t is when said iPad 2 will actually start shipping. If you know Apple you know they are notorious for being tight-lipped about that sort of thing. However, a new report coming out from the folks at DigiTimes says Apple has let iPad manufacturer Foxconn know that initial shipments of the iPad 2 will begin in 100 days. Of course, this report is unconfirmed but it also suggests Apple’s initial order for the new device will be in the 400K to 600K range.

One of the many things that make this report seem less than reliable are those initial numbers. After all Apple sold more than 300K iPads on the first day it was available and went on to sell 1 Million of the shiny tablets in just 28 days. So, an initial order of 600K seems like not enough if they really want to sell a lot of them. Of course, that could just be for the first day with other shipments coming soon afterward.

However many Apple does end up making for the release you can probably expect lines of people waiting to get their hands on the devices. I’m not sure I’ll be one of them as the first gen iPad seems to do the job just fine for me. Still, it will be interesting, as always, to see what happens.

Now if Verizon and Apple could just get together and come out with the damn Verizon iPhone already that would be something I would wait in line for. Are you guys excited for the iPad 2 or are you going to go for a Verizon iPhone instead if it ever arrives? Sound off in the comments.

Coming as no surprise to the millions of iPhone users whose calls just got dropped, Consumer Reports announced today that AT&T is the lowest-scoring cell-phone carrier in the U.S., according to a satisfaction survey of 58,000 ConsumerReports.org readers.

Of all of the carriers reviewed in the survey, only AT&T suffered a statistically meaningful drop in satisfaction among its customers over the past year. Surprisingly, at least to me, was the fact that U.S. Cellular beat out every major provider, including Verizon Wireless.

The survey covered a total of nine categories, asking respondents to rate their carrier on overall value, voice and data service, phone support, staff knowledge, and resolution of issues, among others. AT&T scored an overall 60 out of a possible 100 points across the various categories; a full 9 points below the nearest competitor, T-Mobile.

Sprint also made an amazing turnaround this year, leaping ahead of T-Mobile and virtually tying Verizon. Consumer Reports claims that Sprint even scored better than Verizon in some aspects of customer service.

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If you own an iPhone, and have since the beginning, then you know exactly how frustrating it can be to be an AT&T customer. Dropped calls, terrible service, overall just a terrible experience. Fans of Apple and the iPhone have been protesting for a Verizon phone for years now, and it looks like they’ll get what they were looking for by the end of 2010 with a brand new phone made for the Verizon network. From the Wall Street Journal.

The new iPhone would be similar in design to the iPhone 4 currently sold by AT&T Inc. but would be based on an alternative wireless technology called CDMA used by Verizon, these people said. The phone, for which Qualcomm Inc. is providing a key chip, is expected to be released in the first quarter of next year, according to the same people.

An Apple CDMA iPhone would spell the end of the exclusive U.S. arrangement with Apple that AT&T has had since 2007, when the original iPhone debuted.

So Christmas may just come early for iPhone users, or even those who have been holding out because they hate AT&T’s service. What could this mean for Droid users? And will this be the proverbial nail in the coffin for AT&T’s wireless division? Only time will tell, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted on this new phone as it surfaces.

UPDATE – In the interest of clarity we changed the headline to this post as the iPhone for Verizon is not “technically” official . . . yet. However, this is a strong indicator we will most likely see one. Can’t wait. — Ed.

Netflix is one great service, and while it’s been available for streaming from devices like the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, it’s never been available for anything portable other than the iPad. That is, until now. As of today, users of the iPhone and iPod Touch can now stream Netflix straight to their devices.

The application is available from the App Store at no charge. All you’ll need is a subscription to Netflix, iOS 3.1.3 or later and a working internet connection.

Using the application, you’ll be able to access your Instant Queue, browse through your favorite genres, and search by title.

The only issue facing the Netflix app is due to Apple and AT&T’s new data plans. While users that have had an iPhone for quite some time have unlimited data, newcomers to the iPhone and AT&T will have a bit of an issue keeping their data under the cap while still being able to use the Netflix service to their leisure.

Android users are sure to be seething with envy, as it is unknown when, or even if, an application will ever be available for their devices.

We know, we know, these rumors have been swirling for so long now, you probably don’t believe anything anymore. But this time around, TechCrunch is reporting that a source intimately familiar with the hardware supply chain for Apple has noticed an order for millions of units of Qualcomm CDMA chipsets. Why is this unusual? Because Verizon’s wireless network requires CDMA chipsets to be present in the wireless devices that run on their network.

This can only point to one thing: Apple is revving up their supply chain for a Verizon-compatible iPhone. And because lead-times in the semiconductor market can be quite lengthy, sometimes as long as 26 weeks, we can start to forecast that a real-live Verizon iPhone looks to be a strong possibility in January 2011.

On its own, this latest bit of news is a strong prediction of AT&T’s expiring exclusivity arrangement with Apple, yet there’s more. In a SEC filing made by AT&T a few days ago, the company detailed what may happen to the company’s profitability in the wake of just such an event:

“We believe offering a wide variety of handsets reduces dependence on any single handset as these products evolve. In addition, offering a number of attractive handsets on an exclusive basis distinguishes us from our competitors. As these exclusivity arrangements end, we expect to continue to offer such handsets (based on historical industry practice), and we believe our service plan offerings will help to retain our customers by providing incentives not to move to a new carrier.”

And AT&T is even more clear in their final paragraph of their SEC filing:

“Although exclusivity arrangements are important to us, such arrangements may not provide a competitive advantage over time, as the industry continues to introduce new devices and services. Also, while the expiration of any of our current exclusivity arrangements could increase churn and reduce postpaid customer additions, we do not expect any such terminations to have a material negative impact on our Wireless segment income, consolidated operating margin or our cash from operations.”

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