I’m amazed with some in the tech blogosphere who consistently harp on Verizon for its “poor” sales of the iPhone 4, even as the company disclosed over the weekend that over one million units had been sold. Quite a bit of bloviating occurred in the hours and days after the launch occurred, as the anticipated iLines never occurred.

Verizon Wireless chief Dan Mead noted that six in ten iPhones were preordered, a possible explanation for the light lines. Add to this that the iPhone 4 is now an aging device–eight months old–and the carrier’s numbers seem respectable.

Apple has set the bar for itself at a very high level, so what would be seen by the tech punditry as a success for the average phone manufacturer is a ho-hum performance for the folks from Cupertino. Is this fair? Maybe not, but neither is the 24-hour news cycle that requires journalists (and especially bloggers) to find something to talk about.

Let’s also put the Verizon number in perspective. AT&T in its debut weekend with a brand new device sold 1.7 million. When you put apples with apples — pardon the pun — you see that Verizon has nothing to worry about.

Pundits should really take a break from second guessing Verizon and Apple until both US carriers get a new device at the same time. We know it’s going to happen, and probably within a matter of months. If sales are still lagging on Verizon then, maybe all this armchair quarterbacking will make sense. Until then, it just looks like a kneejerk reaction to anecdotal evidence.

 
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