Network provider Verizon’s high expectations from the iPhone 4 hit a wall on Thursday when shorter-than-expected lines of customers greeted the Apple smartphone.

An analyst from Barclays Capital said that Verizon's much-hyped launch of the iPhone 4 failed to meet company’s high expectations.

Analyst Daniel Ernst from Hudson Square Research also conducted a survey to determine the popularity of the Verizon iPhone 4. He surveyed 131 iPhone buyers at stores in New York, Tennessee, Arizona, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and found that 70 per cent of the respondents Verizon’s current customers who were switching to the iPhone.

Only 6 per cent of the respondents confirmed that they were switching from AT&T to Verizon for iPhone 4. It means the Verizon iPhone could prompt only a small fraction of AT&T customers to ditch their network provider.

According to Ernst’s claims, the longest line of customers he saw before stores had only 35 people.

Commenting on the topic, a Deutsche Bank analyst said, “It surprised me and everybody that sales were slow.”

Earlier, the Apple iPhone was available only via AT&T owing to an exclusive deal between the two companies. But, AT&T’s allegedly poor network service compelled Apple to find an alternative carrier for its flagship phone.

Shares in Verizon slipped 0.08 per cent to close at $36.39-a-share on Friday.