The report, co-authored by Lorraine Luk and Yukari Iwatani Kane (co-authorship is often used in orchestrated leaks to defray responsibility, should the company’s plans change from what has been reported), says that Apple has placed orders for important components ahead of a launch in late September. People familiar with the matter told the WSJ that the new iPhone should be fairly similar to the iPhone 4, only with a smaller, thinner design and an 8 megapixel camera. This confirms what we’ve heard from other sources, like France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard back in May.

The WSJ also claims that the new iPhone will have Qualcomm wireless chips, which is again something we’ve heard before. Qualcomm chips are currently used for Verizon iPhones, but the GSM model iPhone 4 uses an Infineon chip instead.

The company’s fifth iPhone model was supposed to arrive in the summer, as per the usual upgrade cycle, the report asserts, but it wasn’t yet ready for mass production. That’s due partially to assembly issues that manufacturer Hon Hai had with the new design, according to “two people familiar with the situation.” These new claims echo what the WSJ reported yesterday about Apple’s manufacturing plans for its next-generation handset.

Beyond the iPhone arriving in the fall, buyers can expect bigger changes in store for 2012′s iPhone release, the WSJ says. A “major iPhone revamp” is planned for next year, the report says, including new methods for charging, which Electricpig suggests might mean inductive charging. Also in keeping with what we’ve heard before (even from Apple itself), the WSJ reports that Apple is working on a cheaper phone, one that boasts an edge-to-edge display. No word on when such a device might be expected.

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1. The next iPhone. While many Verizon customers waited more than 3.5 years to see an iPhone for their network of choice, it’s difficult to imagine that all who waited actually bought the Verizon iPhone when it came out. Why? Apple’s annual refresh cycle for the iPhone is nearly common knowledge to the masses and would be well-known to any Verizon customer who’s been waiting for a CDMA iPhone since June of 2007. There’s no guarantee this June will see the next iPhone — there are even rumors of a September release — but after waiting 3.5 years, it makes sense to wait a few more months in case Apple does follow the traditional iPhone refresh cycle with an updated model.
2. 4G is a huge differentiator. The HTC ThunderBolt is the first, and currently, the only, 4G handset able to use Verizon’s speedy LTE mobile broadband network. Verizon’s iPhone is stuck on the older EVDO 3G network, and although many factors influence network speeds, a 3G Verizon iPhone surfs the web around 10 times slower than the HTC ThunderBolt in a 4G coverage area. Verizon is also pushing the LTE capabilities by offering 4G data for the ThunderBolt at the same monthly price as the 3G data plan used by the iPhone. And the operator is throwing in personal hotspot function for free until May 15 on the ThunderBolt.
3. Apple Stores are missing from the equation. Here’s a fly in the ointment for those thinking the BTIG data can be applied to overall handset sales. You can’t assume that the ThunderBolt is selling better than the iPhone overall on Verizon’s network, because the data doesn’t include sales figures or estimates from Apple Stores. Again, without any hard sales data from Apple or Verizon, we don’t know how the newest iPhone is selling, but to assume all Verizon iPhones are sold in Verizon stores would be ludicrous.
4. Bigger is better? This line of thought gets into the debate I had with Darrell Etherington last month. I still subscribe to the idea that consumers are intrigued by larger displays on smartphones which are still highly pocketable. Yes, the 960×640 resolution on the iPhone 4 is stellar, but the 800×480 resolution on the ThunderBolt’s 4.3-inch screen is quite nice and the keyboard is less cramped due to the extra room. Yet, the larger screen doesn’t boost the device size that much over the iPhone 4. Apple’s handset measures 4.5″ x 2.3″ x 0.4″, while the ThunderBolt comes in a 4.8″ x 2.6″ x 0.5″ in size.

Either way, the situation is a win-win for Verizon and its customers. Those who want a Verizon iPhone now have the option after years of making do with alternative handsets or carriers. And people who prefer Android and/or want to surf on Verizon’s LTE network can do so with the ThunderBolt. A truer comparison between the iPhone and competing Android handsets on Verizon starts with Apple’s next handset, especially if it has LTE capabilities, as several new Android phones are expected to have in the next few months. Until then — or until we see actual Verizon iPhone sales figures — the ThunderBolt appears to be having a good run against the iPhone, and for good reasons.

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Here’s how the math works out: According to The Street, recent analyst estimates put Verizon pre-orders at around the 600,000 mark. Mead said this weekend talking to press that pre-orders accounted for 60 percent of total iPhone 4 sales at launch. That means 1 million total devices potentially flew off the shelves during the debut, with even more sold during the following weeks. Verizon plans to announce actual sales figures when it reveals its first-quarter earnings in April.

In comparison, AT&T sold 1.7 million during the first three days of the original iPhone 4 launch in June of last year. Verizon’s totals may not match AT&T’s success, but remember the iPhone 4 has already been on market for more than half a year now, and many customers may be unwilling to buy when a new model is expected for a June release.

Mead also revealed Apple has plans in mind for LTE — Verizon’s next-generation mobile broadband technology — but he declined to give any more specific information. Analyst predictions have LTE on track for a sixth-generation iPhone device, but not for the one we’ll see released this summer. That timeline makes sense, given Apple’s propensity to wait until a technology is more or less widely adopted and stable before introducing it to its products.

Even without LTE, the iPhone 5 will be the device launch to watch in terms of truly gauging the relative success of Apple’s smartphone on both Verizon and AT&T, since it’ll likely be available simultaneously on both networks. AT&T, meanwhile, looks to be hedging its bets with alternative connected devices.

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Compuware Gomez performed data performance measurements for data performance on the Verizon network during the first four days of iPhone availability (Feb. 10-13). The iPhone went on sale at Verizon beginning Feb. 10, but pre-sales began on Feb. 3, and many customers had working iPhones in their hands by the time Feb. 10 arrived. Some estimates put Verizon iPhone pre-sales at as many as 500,000 units, and the number of users switching to Verizon from AT&T specifically for the iPhone are thought to be somewhere between 70 and 100,000. Verizon may not have seen the long lines on launch day many expected, but Compuware Gomez estimates that between 500,000 and 700,000 new iPhone users were accessing the Verizon network during its initial few days of availability. In theory, that could translate to increased demand, although that those numbers are spread out across the nation and include existing customers might mitigate the effect.

The wireless data performance analysis unit of Compuware Gomez gathers its data from a network of actual device end-users that numbers in the thousands, located across the U.S. These users provide everyday usage data that accurately reflects what the average Verizon iPhone owner would be experiencing in terms of browsing and page-load times, which is how the firm measures performance. Compuware CTO of APM Solutions Imad Mouline sums up the results:

We’re just four days in, but our measurements show that real-world data users on Verizon Wireless are experiencing no noticeable performance degradation due to the influx of new iPhone users on the network.

iPhone users have been shown to be data-hogs when it comes to mobile bandwidth (though Android users have recently been shown to be even more so), so it comes as a small surprise that Compuware found virtually no change (four-tenths of 1 percent) in performance following the Verizon iPhone’s introduction, as compared to a sample taken during a four-day period the week before. Verizon might just have a network that’s better equipped to handle rapid growth, or maybe the bandwidth throttling it’s using to limit network congestion is having the desired effect. Kevin predicted that the introduction of the iPhone wouldn’t significantly affect Verizon network performance, but it’s still quite early to make any definitive conclusions.

Obviously, it’s early days yet, but the results so far from Compuware Gomez seem to indicate that Verizon is having a much better time handling iPhone customers than AT&T. We’ll see if that continues to be the case as Verizon’s share of the iPhone market continues to grow. Gene Munster, for example, sees sales of 1.5 million iPhones for this quarter, with many more to follow as the year proceeds. The strain on Verizon’s network could be just getting started.

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Initial Setup

Presumably, you’ve already activated your iPhone in-store or at home by plugging it into a computer and opening iTunes. Once that’s taken care of, you can get started making the iPhone your own. The following is pretty basic information, so feel fee to skip ahead if you’ve already performed your first sync with your new iPhone.

When you first plug your iPhone into your computer using the USB cable that came with it, you’ll be asked to register the device. Doing this will make it easier to get support for your device should you need it down the road. Go ahead and follow the on-screen prompts in iTunes to register your device.

iTunes should ask you to specify a name for your iPhone, and let you choose what to sync from your computer to the device. You can choose to sync music, videos, photos, contacts and calendar information from your computer. If you’re not sure you want to sync something, make sure the box is unchecked before proceeding, since you can always opt back in after the fact.

Note that if you’ve previously synced another iOS device with your computer, iTunes may ask you if you want to use backups of that device to set up the new one. This is fine if your device has the same storage capacity and you want all other settings to remain the same, but if it’s a backup of your spouse or partner’s phone, or you’re not absolutely sure you want the same settings on your new iPhone, choose to set yours up as an entirely new device.

Once your iPhone is set up, you can specify what content you want to sync from your computer to your device. Navigate through the tabs on your iPhone’s screen in iTunes to choose which apps, photos, books, music and videos you want on your phone. If you need more information about basic setup, consult Apple’s official support resources on the topic.

Syncing Email, Contacts and Calendars Over-the-Air

You can do this through iTunes, as described above, but there are also untethered solutions that will work wirelessly over the air. Basically, you can either sync using Apple’s MobileMe, which requires an annual $99 subscription, or you can use Google, which is free.

The MobileMe method is probably the easiest, but it’s also costly. Decide whether or not you need extras like an online gallery, cloud disk storage, and personal website hosting before choosing this option. If you do go the MobileMe route, follow these directions to get email, contact, calendar and notes syncing set up between your iPhone, other iOS devices and your computer(s).

With Google, things are a little trickier. Luckily, Google provides great step-by-step instructions for getting email, contact and calendar syncing between your Gmail account and your iPhone running smoothly. This will also work if you’re using Google Apps with a third-party domain, so long as your Google Apps administrator will have to have enabled Google Sync.

I’ve seen some wondering how to copy over contacts from BlackBerry devices. Unfortunately, this isn’t a straightforward process. There’s a method involving Outlook as a middleman (which should now work for Mac users, too, if you have Microsoft Office 2011), and one from TiPB (save yourself some scrolling and search the page for “blackberry”) that involves using a temporary hosted Exchange account to move over your data. The good news is, once you switch from BlackBerry, you’re not likely to want to switch back.

Apps, Apps, Apps

Much of the fun of owning an iPhone comes from being able to use apps. To start with, there are a few essentials that I think everyone will use and enjoy:

• Facebook. Free and provides access to Facebook. Recent additions brought location check-in features, complete with special deals.
• Twitter. Like the above, it’s free and provides iOS-optimized access to one of the most popular social networking tools around.
• Reeder. A great RSS reading application that links to your Google Reader account. This is almost exclusively how I read blogs these days.
• Skype. Free, and now with video-calling capabilities between other iOS devices, computers, and even TVs. FaceTime is built-in and does the same thing, but Skype will allow you to talk with a wider potential group of people.
• Flashlight. I use this anytime I need to get up during the night to use the bathroom. It turns on your iPhone 4′s camera flash, making it usable as a flashlight.

There are no shortage of suggestions for great iPhone apps, but these are some that I think almost every user will get plenty of use out of. For more, check out some of our app and game roundups and reviews. And if you’re already well-versed in the ways of iPhone, feel free to share your own suggestions for new Verizon iPhone owners in the comments.

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[Updated: Now with gallery, which we'll be updating through the day with user pics. Check it out below the post.]

Those craving immediate satisfaction probably waited until Thursday to pick up their Verizon iPhones, the first day the device is available for sale in brick-and-mortar stores. If you did wait, you might have to wait in line to pick up your device, though the size of that line will vary greatly depending on where you are.

Business Insider has a nice little gallery showing lines at various Apple retail and Verizon locations. Some lines seem pretty long, while some are non-existent. Overall, none so far look to match the ones we saw at the original launch last summer, but there are still obviously plenty of people willing to queue up for their Apple fix, which is especially impressive given the weather conditions at some of these locations. One line appears to be in New Jersey, where temperatures are at around 12°F. They had it easy compared to the 16 people who lined up in Fargo, N.D., where it’s -13°F right now. On the other hand, in some warmer climates, there were virtually (or literally) no lines at all, like in Palo Alto, Calif., where only two people are reportedly waiting at the Apple Store for the Verizon iPhone.

Weather may be keeping some home in bed, but there’s also the fact that Verizon’s pre-orders (which may have sold as many as 500,000 units) are arriving at customer doors today, and that online sales began yesterday. The crazy lines surrounding new hardware launches are at least partly due to wanting to be first, so it’s possible customers are happy to wait until online orders ship on Feb. 18 to receive their devices. Also, many seem to be reporting short lines specifically at Apple Store locations, which makes sense because customers could order their devices yesterday for in-store pickup, so they can just go in whenever it’s convenient and collect their spoils.

You can get the Verizon iPhone either at Apple or Verizon Stores (which open at 7 a.m. today in each U.S. time zone), as mentioned, but also at many Best Buy locations (which are reportedly getting about 100 units each) and over 600 Walmart locations. If it’s out of your way, call ahead to find out if they have stock, but judging by current reports, I don’t think we’ll see mass sellouts anytime soon.

Is there a line near you? Are you waiting in said line? Share your Verizon iPhone launch day stories with us in the comments.

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Article author Lawrence Latif opened with the following totally-not-inflammatory statement;

JUST HOW LONG does it take for Apple to fix an antenna? That is the question Verizon Iphone [sic] 4 users must be asking after finding that the problems that plagued the device at launch over six months ago still persist.

I’m still trying to remember what problems “plagued” the iPhone 4 back when it was launched. All I could think of were those interminable queues of eager customers snaking away from the Apple Store on London’s Oxford Street. Thousands of us, standing there for hours, not getting anywhere fast, burning gently in the summer sun. But our new iPhones? They were just fine. No plagues, as far as I can remember, not that day, or since.

However, my problem isn’t with biased (read “negative”) coverage of the iPhone (or even “Iphone”, if you prefer) but with the utter lack of critical thinking that fuels this sort of coverage, and the gossip that follows. First, let’s do an experiment. If you own a “shiny toy” of your own, go grab it and follow-along; we’re going to reproduce the infamous Death Grip!

The Grip of Death, in Three Easy Steps

STEP 1. Grip your iPhone in your left hand. No, grip it. No, really, really grip it. Smother its left-edge as much as you possibly can. It doesn’t matter how uncomfortable that feels, just do it. I know — that’s a completely unnatural way to hold any phone, but look, this is just how it’s done, ok? Are you gripping/smothering the thing so hard you’re actually obscuring your view of the screen? Good. Move to Step Two.

STEP 2. Try loading a web page. Yeah, I know, it’s not so easy to tap the screen because of the impractical way you’re gripping the thing, but, please, in the name of scientific discovery, persevere!

STEP 3. Behold! If you’ve got your smother-hold just right, you may notice a slow-down when loading web pages. Congratulations — you’ve done it! You have proved that the iPhone 4 is obviously fatally flawed and we can all agree our honeymoon with Apple is well and truly over! Let’s ditch our iPhones for Blackberry and Android devices instead!

Admittedly, I’m overstating things, but I’m trying to make a point here about how silly this whole non-story is. Here’s the deal: Absolutely every wireless device suffers some signal attenuation when smother-gripped by big, fleshy human hands. That’s pesky physics stubbornly obeying its own immutable laws, not, as some bloggers and tech press would prefer to believe, an egregious oversight by Jonny Ive and Apple’s engineers.

Interesting, But Insignificant

While demonstrating the Death Grip (or Death Hug, as people are referring to the Verizon version) in a video is obviously great for clocking-up YouTube views and exciting the tech blogosphere with a non-story, what really is whether this is an issue for ordinary people in everyday use.

So, how many people are truly suffering from the death grip in normal, non-crazy, smother-grip everyday use? So far — we don’t know. We may never know. What we do know is that the iPhone 4 is the best-selling iPhone ever, and has the lowest return rates of any model of iPhone produced so far.

Being able to significantly attenuate the iPhone radio signal in a lab or a YouTube video is academically interesting; but unless signal attenuation is causing real-world problems for ordinary people whenever they use their iPhone, it’ll remain academically, but not generally, interesting.

And then there’s that other teeny-tiny little matter of Apple’s iPhone R&D. Apple uses state-of-the-art testing facilities to ensure that new designs or configurations don’t fundamentally compromise normal functionality. None of this is cheap, by the way. Apple has never revealed how much the iPhone has cost them in R&D, but it’s safe to assume many millions of dollars have been spent to-date. Seems like an awful waste of money if the iPhone is truly so poorly designed it can’t function under normal circumstances, right? That’s the kind of resource mis-management that could get a CEO sacked.

So — what’s more probable? That, despite all their top-flight engineers, antenna experts and exhaustive testing and quality assurance procedures, Apple still creates and sells a fatally flawed phone incapable of maintaining a signal in normal use or that this whole Antennagate issue is (and always has been) little more than tabloid nonsense and breathless blogo-gossip?

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The Verizon iPhone pre-order sales are estimated to be somewhere around the 500,000 unit mark, so it’ll be interesting to see how sales of the smartphone go today and tomorrow, Feb. 10, when it’ll be available for in-store purchase at Apple, Verizon and Best Buy locations. Users looking to avoid the terror of uncertainty tomorrow can also reserve the Verizon iPhone online at the Apple Store and pick it up at their nearest retail location tomorrow.

What are your predictions for tomorrow? Panicked frenzy or calm, orderly frenzy?

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Cusick’s estimates for Verizon’s iPhone sales are based on the fact that the provider and Apple continued to take orders for another 15 hours after the record set by Motorola’s Android-powered device was broken, and on the pace of sales he’s established from that information. The Verizon iPhone should easily continue to outpace the Motorola Droid’s performance once it officially goes on sale beginning 3 A.M. this Wednesday, Feb. 10., putting it on track to becoming the best-selling handset ever offered on Verizon’s network.

500,000 pre-order sales would put the Verizon iPhone 4 nearly on pace with the original GSM version of Apple’s latest smartphone, which sold 600,000 during its initial pre-order run with AT&T back in June of 2010. Recall that all of Verizon’s orders to date have been limited to existing customers, and it becomes evident that once it opens up sales to new customers, the Verizon iPhone 4 could easily catch up to and surpass the launch-time performance of its AT&T predecessor, despite the hardware having already been on the market for eight months at this point. Android’s market share may be growing, but there’s no single Android device that has that kind of power with consumers.

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It didn’t take Verizon long to break that record, either. According to Verizon CEO Dan Mead:

In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history. And, when you consider these initial orders were placed between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., it is an incredible success story. It is gratifying to know that our customers responded so enthusiastically to this exclusive offer – designed to reward them for their loyalty.

AT&T also sold out its iPhone 4 pre-orders in the first day of availability, but there’s a key difference here: Verizon so far has only been selling devices to existing customers. Sales to new customers don’t begin until next week, on Feb. 10, at either Apple or Verizon locations. That’s when we’ll see how many switchers Verizon attracts.

If you missed out on the pre-sale or aren’t an existing customer, you can walk into (or maybe line up at) an Apple or Verizon store beginning Feb. 10 at 7:00 a.m., order online starting Feb. 9 at 3:00 a.m. EST, or reserve one for pickup on Feb. 9 and go into a store the next day to grab it at an Apple retail location. If you’re thinking about getting one, be sure to check out what the web is saying about the device (and the Verizon network) before making your decision.

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