There has been an info graphic shown by Wirefly that indicates Big Red Verizon will be the first U.S. carrier to offer the Playstation phone. As they are one of the largest online phone retailers they would have some insight into which carrier the phone would be available from. They have since changed it to state “to be determined”, but one would have to assume they didn’t accidentally place Verizon there.
The comparison besides noting the wireless carrier does show that the iPhone is obviously major competition, and is being attacked also as a gaming platform. The mobile gaming scene is pretty much dominated by Apple at this time and Sony along with Google are working to change that. Although Verizon knows the iPhone is going to be big for them they are not abandoning Android that platform that has kept them in the smartphone game thus far.
To go along with this news 2 different versions of the Xoom have also been assured as coming this year. The first will be a WiFi only version which has just passed through the FCC. This comes after the news that Verizon may require customers to enroll in a one month data plan on the Motorola Xoom in order to use it as a WiFi device only after that month has passed.
The other version will be an At&t Xoom. Android and me stated the following:
Our friends atAllThingsD conducted an interview with AT&T Chief Marketing Officer David Christopher where he confirmed they will be launching several Android tablets including the Xoom. No release date was specified, but I expect we will see the Xoom on AT&T in the second half of 2011 after their LTE network launches.
So it appears that the carrier business is getting a little more heated as once strictly loyal manufacturers have noticed the multi pronged attack and success of the Galaxy line and are following suit. The Verizon iPhone is causing more of a stir than initially expected.