The Long-Awaited iPhone on Verizon's Network

On January 11, 2011, Verizon took the stage at Lincoln Center in New York — deliberately, Apple's announcement happened on Verizon's turf — and ended years of speculation: the iPhone was coming to Verizon's network.

The device was a CDMA version of the iPhone 4, launching February 10, 2011, at $199 and $299 depending on storage. It ended AT&T's exclusive hold on the iPhone in the United States, a deal that had been the subject of thousands of blog posts and endless hand-wringing, largely over AT&T's perceived inability to handle the iPhone's data appetite. Verizon had become, in the public imagination, the answer to dropped calls — fairly or not.

For Apple, the math was straightforward: a second US carrier meant a new crop of customers and head-to-head competition with Android, whose biggest US backer at the time was Verizon itself. The pitfalls were equally clear: managing outsized expectations and navigating a new release cycle tied to a carrier's calendar.

In hindsight, the Verizon iPhone was a hinge moment. The exclusivity era — one carrier per country, one phone for all — was ending, and the iPhone was about to become what it has been ever since: available everywhere, on everyone.