the broad auto industry, comparatively speaking, you re looking at a segment, whether it s large pickups or suvs, segments that were decimated in the you know, the 2008 gas price spike and then as the recession hit, too. now we re comparing the numbers that were very, very low in those segments. we were showing the numbers here, bill. up 21% suv sales. and then hybrids down 8%? have we not learned as consumers based on what seems to be the reality that gas prices will always be going up in some form or fashion? i guess not, richard. it s a cyclical industry and the memory of consumers is cyclical, too. while we did see people vacate these segments for a while, now that gas prices have stayed low for so long, people are back to sort of buying what they want and what they prefer, which really is large vehicles.
all right. in tech watch, waiting is the hardest part for verizon wireless customers who really want an iphone, but it may be a matter of months. bloomberg business week says apple is probably going to introduce the new iphone for the verizon network by about valentine s day. and surprise, surprise, it s expected to be a big seller. one industry analyst saying that verizon is selling about 13 million phones in 2011 is very possible and about 2 million of them to be bought by at&t customers making the switch. by the way, that same analyst told bloomberg he expects at&t iphone sales to plunge by more than 40%. spec of surprises, despite gas price topping $3 a gallon and expected to go up to $5 a gallon, sales of gas guzzling suvs have been surging the. according to edmunds.com, suv sales were up more than 21% in
awful legislation when they have been fired. congresswoman jenkins from kansas. thank you for joining. from lame ducks to hot trucks. s.u.v. sales expected to surge and smart car sales are sluggish. washington s push to get americans into the green cars is stalling. and neil has been saying people will not give up their s.u.v. s or their trucks for volts and he will be proved right as much as it pains us to say that. welcome to the program. go ahead. the common passes continue to reject the vision of anointed. they are rejecting unreliable expensive wind mill electricity and choosing vehicles that allow them to navigate the streets that the political class cannot keep clear when they want to pretend that is relegated to the
clearly this is not really about putting the consumer if a position to make a decision they want to make. my guess is, legally the administration is exposed in working on the global warming but we will see because of groups like ours suing including their effort to increase what is called cafe, the corporate average standard. neil: we already have the standards and you can see open the sticker the mileage estimates so you have a good idea. do they think we need a bigger letter to determine what is going on? come on. guest: they want to tighten them further. and that will ensure that the vehicles you put your family in, today, will not exist in a few short years. what the administration is trying to do through the greenhouse gas regulation is tighten them further. the s.u.v. sales are going up