Verizon wants you to ditch your current phone for an iPhone 4

We all know that Verizon announced the arrival of the iPhone 4 on their network last week, and it got a lot of people excited about the device. But their latest move seems to suggest that the carrier has got a weaker than anticipated response. A snippet from the Verizon iPhone FAQ page tells everything:

I just purchased a new smartphone during the holiday season, but if I knew that iPhone 4 was going to be available soon I would have waited. What are my options now?

Current Verizon customers who purchased and activated new smartphones, feature phones or certified pre-owned phones between 11/26/2010, and 01/10/2011, are eligible to receive up to a $200 Visa debit card when they purchase an iPhone 4 at full retail price by 02/28/2011 and return their existing phone. Note: This offer is only available on consumer accounts with five lines or less, who are purchasing iPhone 4 through Verizon Wireless retail stores, telesales, or through verizonwireless.com.

This means that if you’ve bought a phone from Verizon between November 26 and January 10 last year, you are eligible for this promotion to get some money back if you refund your phone to buy a new iPhone 4. Sure you won’t get the cash back but at least you get it in the form of a debit card which you can use to spend on other things instead. It isn’t stated how Verizon determines how much you get for returning your phone, but don’t expect the maximum $200 if you bought a $50 feature phone.

It makes one wonder – why are Verizon pushing iPhone sales so hard? Perhaps they promised Apple they would sell a certain number of handsets in order to get them to agree to bring the iPhone to their network. What do you think?