Verizon Wireless will start selling the Apple iPhone in January, according to a report by Amy Thomson of Bloomberg news service (June 30).

Thomson cited unnamed sources, who said AT&T’s exclusive right to sell the iPhone runs out at the end of the year. “(This opens) the door for Verizon to provide an alternative (network) for iPhone users who have become frustrated with spotty service on AT&T’s network,” wrote Paul McDougall of InformationWeek (June 30).

UBS AG analyst John Hodulik predicts Verizon will sell about 12 million iPhones in its first year of offering the product. “Not only would they sell lots to their own base, they would also be able to attract new gross adds from other carriers,” he told Thomson.

Verizon Wireless had 92.8 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter, after adding 1.6 million during the period. AT&T, the second-largest U.S. carrier, had 87 million subscribers after adding 1.9 million in the first quarter, Thomson wrote.

Apple and Verizon both declined to comment in the Bloomberg report.

ComScore: Android Up, Apple Down

Just over a week later, on July 8, research firm comScore reported that Android smartphones saw gains in U.S. market share between February and May 2010, while Apple, Microsoft, Research In Motion and Palm all saw slight declines in smartphone market share.

“Those numbers could very well be different next quarter, following the release of iPhone 4 (released in June) and several strong Android devices,” wrote eWeek’s Nicholas Kolakowski (July 8).

ComScore reported the following U.S. smartphone subscriber distribution:

• RIM: 41.7 percent, down 0.4 percent on the period (Feb. to May 2010)
• Apple: 24.4 percent, down 1.0 percent
• Microsoft: 13.2 percent, down 1.9 percent
• Google: 13.0 percent, up 4.0 percent
• Palm: 4.8 percent, down 0.6 percent

Although Android was the only platform to increase market share over the period, for competitors, it’s not as bad as it looks. “Most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow,” said comScore in the July 8 release.

The firm reports that 49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones at the end of May, up 8.1 percent from the same Feb.-May period last year.

As smartphone adoption goes up, comScore reports, so does data consumption among U.S. subscribers: