A few days back I wrote about the impetus for a Verizon iPhone launch in early 2011, mostly citing John Gruber from Daring Fireball. NPD just gave us a little information that could very well serve as more evidence of the impending release. The iOS market is actually shrinking, while Android is exploding. You don’t have to be a genius to see how a Verizon iPhone could change that, or at least help Apple’s position.

It’s not that Apple isn’t doing well – its market cap proves that it is – but Android is on so many more handsets now. From Peter Kafka at AllThingsD:

So how did Android gain share? Because it’s on so many other new phones. Canned quote from NPD’s Ross Rubin: “The HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Droid X, and other new high-end Android devices have been gaining momentum at carriers that traditionally have been strong RIM distributors, and the recent introduction of the BlackBerry Torch has done little to stem the tide.”

This is just getting ridiculous – after this morning’s report that the iPhone 4 had shipped for many pre-orderers, there’s now news that some consumers have had their iPhone 4 pre-orders inexplicably cancelled. Here’s what the emails say:

Your iPhone order has been cancelled.

Your credit card has not been charged.

If you believe you have received this email in error, please return to the AT&T store where you placed your order.

Sincerely,
AT&T

I’m thinking my initial response would be “Yeah, this is in error. I ordered the damn phone on day one. My order shouldn’t be cancelled without reason.” After many people talked to both AT&T and Apple, it seems there were either authentication issues on AT&T’s end or we just don’t really have a reason for things being cancelled.

Anyone actually think launch day will be a success? As it stands, I’m guessing I’ll be using my 3GS for another month because AT&T’s activation server is going to explode.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

I woke up this morning to an email from the Apple Store with the above message. The iPhone 4 has started shipping to customers across the country. My phone is currently in Lantau Island, HK.

Though my own estimated delivery date is the 24th, some people have reported estimated deliveries for the 23rd. Apple will likely issue do-not-ship commands for Fed-Ex to keep the phone from releasing early. It always seems like someone screws those up, though, so maybe you’ll be lucky and get your iPhone 4 a day early.

I woke up early this morning all excited to pre-order my iPhone 4. I was up a bit late last night and noticed that the store was down, and with the iPad, pre-orders were available around 8:30am EST, so I planned accordingly. Much to my chagrin, the online system at Apple wasn’t working. Neither was the AT&T system. In fact, it seems the whole pre-ordering process has melted down.

I started digging around the web to find other experiences, and even the people in brick-and-mortar stores are having trouble pre-ordering. The problem, it seems, is on AT&T’s end (who’s surprised?). Requests for account information aren’t being handled properly, and presumably because of the massive traffic AT&T is receiving, every step of the upgrade process is causing errors. As in, you fill out the data for step one (which renews your contract), press enter and get an error. Resubmit until it goes through. Now you have a new contract, but no subsidized phone until you can get step two or three to work.

This especially sucks for the people in brick-and-mortar stores. Cross step one and you’re stuck in the store until AT&T’s system deems you worthy to leave or, as I mentioned, you get a renewed contract but no new phone. Hopefully this will get fixed at some point today, but knowing AT&T, that’s not going to happen. If you have a couple hours to kill and feel like testing your boiling point, head on out to your nearest AT&T retailer for a little fun.

Photo from fOTOGLIF