I purchased the Storm 1 the day it came out on Verizon. I loved the phone and was happy to see Verizon at least TRYING to release something before it was outdated on the other networks, but sadly this was only a sliver of satisfaction that will never be met again as it currently seems.
I have been a loyal Verizon customer since I got my first cell phone over 8 years ago, I would never think of switching networks until now though. For a company to completely IGNORE the demand it's customers have (that is in this case, new phones that aren't outdated) is unnacceptable. Verizon reps can argue with me all they like about how switching networks will dissapoint me, and verizon has the best coverage, blah blah blah. What good is coverage if you can't use it. I can make and receive phone calls on any phone I want, but things like internet browsing and various other data based abilities are useless when the hardware is total crap, or in this case non-existent. Wake up Verizon, I know it doesn't make sense to you, but the general public will take an iPhone over anything from verizon because the hardware is so **bleep** good!
I am no iPhone or apple fanboy, quite the opposite, however as a business person I can't see what Verizon hopes to accomplish by simply having a good network without decent phones to use on it. It SICKENS me that you still try to sell me a Droid when I walk in to the store but will not even MENTION the N1 or incredible (two phones that your marketing department should get their heads out of their a$$es for). Why do your sales reps push outdated technology? The Droid is great, but facts are facts and the two aforementioned handsets are quite a ways ahead of the Droid in terms of what they can do. And for the record, releasing ONE decent phone (the droid aint bad) does not make up for not releasing TONS of phones that I could obtain on other networks, that you too could have available.
Here is a good way of putting it for those that can't see the obvious failure Verizon as a business is becoming. Look at game consoles. What if the 360 was this awesome powerhouse but a game would only be released on it once every month or so, worse yet these games would have already been out or bested by that of a rival console, that doesn't sound like a good way to keep cusomters happy. This is obviously a hypthetical situation, you know why? Because it sounds completely **bleep** for it to be done that way, just as it is absurd that Verizon talk up their network but not have anything worth using the network on.
Verizon, how are you going to tell me I should stay on your network (which I like) when I have nothing worth using on that network? Your business strategy of shunning handsets away will not last long. In the early days of mobile phones I could accept a crappy phone for a better network, but guess what? IT'S NOT 2002 ANYMORE! While AT&T/Sprint may drop a few more calls than you, so be it, if it means I can actually have a phone that is not easily replaced by an iPOD touch in terms of usablity.
It really wouldn't have taken much for me, just a god ****** announcement, just one! Show that you at least PRETEND to care about the thousands of twitter posts, comments, articles, facebook status', etc... that your marketing team clearly does not look at, that state with resound that we don't care about some HTC Devour, these were the two phones we wanted to see, you wouldn't even have needed to market them like you will the HTC Devour, a phone no one cares about in comparison and therefore will need a great deal of market penetration (costing plenty of $) to convince people to by it.
My cell phone provider should not be compared to socialized healthcare in the way their business practice works, but you are telling me here's a network, and here's 3 phones to choose from (face it, most of the phones verizon offers are direct substitutes for eachother with ALMOST NO diversity from model to model). I will take my business elsewhere to a company that cares about their customers, and understands when they are not meeting expectations.
