There seems to be quite a bit of talk from the other cellphone companies (and by 'other' I of course mean all those not getting the iPhone) about how the iPhone will not live up to the hype (probably not true given the initial reviews), or how it's essentially the same as a phone they offer (definitely not true), or how it will end up costing you everything you own (possibly true). None seem more vocal than Verizon Wireless - the biggest of the "others" not getting the iPhone.

The interesting thing here is that Verizon supposedly could have had the iPhone instead of AT&T had they just met some of Apple's demands. Now hindsight is of course 20/20 and perhaps Verizon still wouldn't want to meet such demands, but it certainly seems like they are worrying a lot about - and scrambling to combat against defections for the device that could have been theirs.

In their latest move, Verizon will be opening their stores all day for customers and potential customers to come in and try the "nation's most reliable network" as well as all of their "multimedia-capable" phones...oooh "multimedia" - is this 2007 or 1994, do they play CD-ROMs and have a 16-bit Soundblaster card as well?

Verizon Wireless is my current cellular provider and I do have to say that the network is solid. I haven't had any major issues with service (aside from a year in college when I lived in a basement) and the customer service people have been fairly competent with me when I've had to call in. That said, the phones on Verizon Wireless suck. Yes, basically all the cellphones in the United States suck because they aren't open and must pass rigorous testing to be approved, but Verizon's in my opinion are the worst of the bunch and are made even worse by the fact that they are forced to use Verizon's own god-awful UI. Could you imagine an iPhone with the Verizon ugly red UI? That would be a definite deal-breaker for me.

So in issuing press releases urging people to come in and see what they have to offer, and sending out memos instructing customer service reps how to stop customers from canceling and switching to AT&T, is Verizon really regreting their decision (again supposed) not to accept Steve Jobs' demands for the iPhone deal? I think so, and if not now, I think for sure they will be in 6 months when hoards of people have either switched services or Verizon's new subscriber rates fall - or both.

Obviously you can't fault any company who didn't have a chance to do business with Apple for the iPhone, but if the reports are true and Verizon was their first choice, they'll have no one to blame but themselves if it comes back to bite them in the ass. How long until we see Verizon Wireless reps tell a customer to hold on at a store while they answer their AT&T iPhone? I give it 3 months.