Verizon iPhone 4 to begin reeling in users like fish in a barrel

No product in recent memory has had such a wide or deep built-in immediate audience as the Verizon iPhone 4. Even among Apple’s own hits, the iPad initially had the public questioning that what they would do with a tablet, while the original iPhone had its skeptics due mainly to the fact that it was a first generation product. Go back a decade, and the iPod originally took about a year and a half before it began to find mainstream acceptance. But the Verizon iPhone 4 is that rare combination of a product which is well established, well refined, and well accepted by virtue of being on its fourth iteration, and yet being the first iteration to become available to a certain market segment. As such the Verizon iPhone 4 will have an easy time of reeling in users from day one as if they were fish in a barrel. Here are the most obvious candidates for immediate Verizon iPhone 4 adoption.

Verizon lovers, iPhone lusters: Those who’ve wanted an iPhone all along but weren’t willing to leave Verizon will make up the largest segment of Verizon iPhone 4 early adopters, and for obvious reasons. After all, they’ve been waiting four years for this.

AT&T haters: those existing iPhone users who hate AT&T so much that they’re willing to pay any amount of money to switch to Verizon will be in line from day one just as surely, even though it means they’ll have to shell out a bundle to change carriers mid contract. Survey after survey shows most iPhone users have no issue with AT&T, so don’t expect more than a small minority of existing iPhone users to jump ship to Verizon immediately. But there will be some.

Sprint and T-Mobile holdouts: Customers of these carriers who wanted an iPhone but would never consider AT&T will have to think twice now that a Verizon iPhone is an option. Expect most of them to hold out for a possible Sprint iPhone and T-Mobile iPhone down the road, but some will decide that Verizon is an acceptable compromise. Here’s more on the Verizon iPhone.