I'm pretty underwhelmed by that argument, given that my iPhone 3G on AT&T's network in NYC can barely do voice OR data, let alone both at the same time.

I do it all the time actually. For example, someone will be calling me telling me something/someone I need to follow up with. I can start immediately emailing the person and at least get started, if not finish the task. Different strokes for different folks.

Edit: I also use Google Maps while talking, or check for movie times while someone is on the phone.

So then on Verizon you could do everything but hit 'Send' on the email.

I too don't put much value on the simultaneous voice/data feature, but then again I have 2 phones, so I usually multitask by using two devices. Even without that though, I've never really felt a huge demand for the voice+data thing.

It's extremely useful when tethered. I find that I tether for hours at a time and I'm happy to be able to make/receive phone calls.

You could even hit 'Send'. The email would go out automatically at the next opportunity.

I'm not saying that simultaneous voice/data isn't useful. I'm saying that decent network coverage is more useful.

This particular use case doesn't require simultaneous voice/data. You're just drafting an email.

I'm on Verizon with a data plan (have a Pre). I honestly can't remember the last time I needed to use voice and data at the same time. I don't think this is as big of a deal as you're making it out to be.

It's because nerds don't like to talk on the phone. They prefer email and other asynchronous messaging methods.

Here are cases I've used:

  1) Take a call while tethered (I think USians on AT&T underestimate this use case)

  2) Send an email while on a call a discuss to discuss attachements. (PDF, image mockups, etc)

  3) Send an iCal event and juggle schedules to meet

  4) Take a call while running with RunKeeper in the background

  5) Refer to Twitter DMs while on a call

  6) Sync DropBox/iDisk while on a call to talk about documents

  7) Look up directions on Google Maps for the caller

  8) Look up movies on Flixster and decide which movie to go to.

  9) Play games while on hold

Looking up Evernote or Dropbox for account details while talking to Customer Care Reps for Cable/Gas/anything

It's handy when you need it. Put someone on speaker, go to the net, look up the time of an event. That said, I don't do it enough that it really matters.

There's too many comma's in that process (or: too many steps) for me to consider it to be a serious problem.

// edit: for whoever downvoted me: The more steps it takes to reproduce an issue, the less likely someone is to complete all the steps and run into it. The OP listed three steps, that will only happen under rare circumstances (people don't normally go to concerts every day).

My wife travels a lot for work, she's constantly using google maps on the iPhone to find directions while talking on the phone to the person she'll meet. She's not very technical, she just does it without thinking about the steps involved because it isn't really very complicated when you do it.

I use my iPhone for tethering and I get calls while I'm using it sometimes and would like to be able to get the call without it knocking me offline all the time. Granted not many people have tethering enabled on their iPhone as it's not officially supported, but hey, it matters to me (and I'm sure plenty of other techies that have iPhones).

Agreed, it's never come up for me during the months that I've been using a Pre on Verizon.

I'll tell you what has come up for me, though- the Pre's UI for multi-tasking is way better than that found under iOS. There are a lot of things I dislike about the Pre, but the WebOS UI is not one of them. If only I could merge the hardware and app selection of the iPhone with the UI of the Pre... well, a guy can dream.

i thought this was a bullshit feature too until i was on hold for an hour (ironically, or not, with att). still, i think that's the only time i've used it.

I just fire up a game while doing that.

I'm pretty sure those were AT&T commercials, not Apple commercials. And given that no Verizon customers have simultaneous voice/data, it's pretty clearly not make-or-break to the target market of a Verizon phone.

Also, the limitation only applies to cellular data; anywhere a Verizon customer has wifi they can use both.

That commercial was more for AT&T than iPhone. It was a response to the "Verizon has a bigger network" ads.

Yes, and a grasping-at-any-straw-we-can-find response. The entire campaign was an embarrassment.

I'm pretty sure I read it on Boy Genius Report that Verizon had plans of implementing Voice over Revision A (VoR A) this year. That should take care of the simultaneous Voice/Data connection without having to wait for Voice over LTE.

I've used this maybe once or twice. Granted, I'd have been pretty annoyed if I tried to do it and discovered I couldn't, but it would have had fairly minimal impact after the initial indignation wore off.

I really can't think of any occasion that I've needed to look something up while I was talking on my Verizon BlackBerry.

That mainly comes up at home and work where your data is over wifi.

CDMA for voice, LTE for data?