Sprint and Verizon Wireless set to battle Apple iPhone fervor

Can Verizon Wireless and Sprint compete with AT&T and Apple’s iPhone?

They say yes, but the Apple factor and the hype might make things tough on AT&T’s No. 2 and 3 competitors.

And the hype is plenty: It has been called everything from an iPod on steroids and the next best thing since the BlackBerry to the “Jesus Phone” by some bloggers.

While Sprint and Verizon Wireless have devices with features similar to Apple’s iPhone, neither has a device with the same concept as the iPhone. “Apple is raising the bar,” says Phillip Redman, an analyst at Gartner.

Both Sprint and Verizon Wireless have multimedia devices, but “no one has touched Apple with an MP3 device” and it will be an uphill battle for anyone going up against Apple, he says.

“Apple has a certain fervor following with Apple people who will love the phone no matter what. That will be tough to compete with,” Redman says.

The iPhone’s intuitive touchscreen, graphic applications and its ability to act as a media player, digital camera and cell phone in one device make it very appealing, Redman says.

But like all revolutionary products, it’s not perfect. Redman sites the cumbersome touchscreen as one drawback and also the fact that new batteries have to be installed by an Apple technician. It’s commonplace for consumers to be able to replace their own cell phone batteries when necessary. With the iPhone, users will have to make a special trip to an Apple store.

Another drawback is that the device operates on AT&T’s 2G EDGE network and not its high-speed, 3G network based on high-speed downlink packet access (HSPDA). AT&T’s 3G network is running in 160 markets across the country. HSPDA supports download speeds between 400K and 700Kbps and bursts up to 1Mbps.

EDGE on the other hand only averages download speeds of 70K to 135Kbps.

Sprint and Verizon 3G nets to the rescue

Sprint and Verizon Wireless each point out that most of their multimedia phones operate on each provider’s 3G network, which offers consumers an experience similar to the one at their desktops.

So why didn’t AT&T push Apple to create a device that operates on both its EDGE and HSDPA networks? The answer is cost, Redman says. 3G hardware costs more than 2G, and it might have priced the iPhone out of reach for many more consumers.

The device’s hefty price tag of $500 to $600 may price out many consumers as it is.

Sprint and Verizon Wireless say they not only have a wide variety of multimedia phones to compete with AT&T and Apple’s iPhone but also that their products are more economical and run over their fastest wireless date networks.

When asked how Sprint will compete with Apple’s iPhone on AT&T’s network, Aaron Radelet, a spokesman at Sprint, says “first and foremost our customers are looking for a phone and a company that has wireless experience.”

Sprint says it has more than 12 phones that operate on its 3G, high-speed EVDO network, for around $100 each.

EVDO Revision networks support upload speeds of 50K to 70Kbps and download speeds of 400K to 700Kbps. Both Sprint and Verizon Wireless have nationwide EVDO Rev 0 networks. And both are aggressively upgrading to EVDO Rev A, which upload speeds of 300K to 400Kbps and download speeds of 450K to 800Kbps.