Verizon has been looking for the competitive advantage over AT&T and although “better” cell phone service could be one factor, offering OTA iOS updates is a big win. Apple seems to release new updates once or twice a month and its become a pain to use iTunes; mainly because I’m never by my main computer to make the updates.
OTA updates are great and offer users with the ability to instantly upgrade their phone without using a computer and without the risk of deleting content (apps, contacts) that are currently on the phone. Why hasn’t AT&T offered such functionality? Perhaps they dont want to boggle down their network with people upgrading?
Now we have to wait for iOS5 to come out before this will be available, but its a needed step to keep iPhone competing with blackberry and droids. Only requirement for Apple now is to package these updates in small files so downloads wont take long and the upgrade with be painless.
Can’t wait to switch to Verizon, yet another reason for me to drop my inferior service with AT&T.
UPDATE: Looks like readers over at iPhoneDownloadBlog dont like the OTA services. Interesting points presented with hardships on other mobile operating systems.