Thanks to some judicious leaking we already knew the devices Verizon are planning to launch this holiday season, but we didn’t know until now exactly how much they’re gunning for AT&T and the iPhone. Key in the assault is their exclusive LG Voyager, a sliding smartphone whose full-front touchscreen flips aside to reveal a QWERTY keyboard, can handle up to 8GB of memory (via memory card) and – unlike the iPhone – has EV-DO for high-speed browsing.
Still, it’s Verizon’s Chief Marketing Officer Mike Lanman who threw down the gauntlet:
“We think it’ll be the best phone … this year. It will kill the iPhone” Mike Lanman, Verizon Wireless
Strong words (and already being picked apart by analysts) but there’s little doubt that some consumers not yet under Apple’s spell will be tempted by the Voyager’s feature-set that is, on paper at least, a distinct improvement over the iPhone. It’s set to land on November 18th.
What do you think? Okay, so this is an Apple-focused site, so you’re likely to have at the very least leanings toward the iPhone, but could Verizon’s hyped play for the Christmas market tempt you away from the nearest Apple store? Let us know in the comments.
Well, I think one reason I liked Iphone was its leading edge on innovation, but there are well known characteristics to be improved in the Iphone, for instance, removable battery, bluetooth, better qwerty keyboard, etc. Maybe I like a lot Iphone or Ipod Touch, but if there is a better product, well, I’ll buy it.
Voice command is nice. However, doesn’t that calendar icon look a little too familiar?
hot phone, too bad it’s on the most expensive network in the US
Ugly.
Funny, that months before the iPhone arrived everyone from Palm to Nokia were going on about how Apple didn’t know the phone business, and that their success with iPod would not translate to the iPhone. They all said they’re not worried about Apple, and that the competition would be good for the industry.
Correct me if I’m wrong but, is there any product, analyst, company or country with an interest in communications not reacting to Apple and the iPhone? How does the inexperienced, new guy get all this attention? And apparently not just on ‘Apple-focused’ sites?
Apple underscored the need for keeping our eyes open to alternatives with their fat-thumbed slaughter of 3rd party applications and personalization. Rather than embrace the power of the faithful (a well-documented tool of Web2.0 with case studies such as Amazon and Lego Mindstorms), Apple slapped them in the face and alienated them exclaiming “The iPhone is not YOUR iPhone…It’s Apple’s iPhone!”
Maybe AT&T is the devil behind the scenes, and I have little doubt that they are…no surprise there, but it is Apple that wielded the club and so the blame still falls on them.
What this has done is open the door for others to learn from Apple’s innovations and the crowd reaction and provide alternatives. Will a winning alternative arrive? Low odds that it will due to the lessons of history, corporate momentum and legalities.
The Apple iPod has many flaws, but it’s still best-in-class. Why hasn’t any other maker been able to hit a winner out of the ballpark? I think that it’s because the obvious things that Apple did to make it simple and elegant are underpinned by more subtle but critical things that they do that many companies just don’t have the insight to focus on.
The Apple iPhone is a mix of design and technical elegance. There are patents behind some of it and “secret sauce” behind much of the UI decisions. The competition will focus on the obvious and miss the critical, but less obvious and be also-rans.
Apple should continue to focus on the basics. The core awesome platform that the iPhone is and let 3rd parties fill in gaps that serve niches and individual passions/tastes. That’s the easier path to the best device of a generation. Absent that, Apple has left the door open for those with heads and egos small enough to fit through with the humility to learn and improve.
Time will ultimately tell, but the rest of the cellphone industry got skooled, and class is still I’m session, warts and all. I’m going to try walking into a Verizon store tonight and attempt to demo a phone for myself. If its anything like I’ve experienced in the past, I’ll ne really frustrated by brochures, cardboard inserts to dress up non-working units, and stupid sales people. I’m mostly curious bit I’m all for the best man winning. I’ll bet on Nokia long before LG however. Reviewers often dumb down expectations for mobiles. Hopefully new standards are being set.
Posted one-handed ftom my iPhone while eating lunch at Wendy.
I’m glad that companies are releasing better phones (partly thanks to the iPhone), but this isn’t going to beat the iPhone at all. I promise you.
Time will tell whether this is another piece of Verizon junk. Their LG enV has all kinds of bells and whistles and a beautiful form-factor, but it’s one of the worst PHONES around (as in, for talking on the phone…). And Verizon’s idea of web-surfing (for which they charge more than any of the other cellphone companies) is a crappy DOS-like interface and a proprietary web-browser that (among other things) won’t run Java and is incompatible with Gmail…
I keep hoping that Verizon will eventually get a clue: I’ve been with them for 21 months and at this point, in 3 months when my contract is done, I’ll leave them for … anyone else!
Fancy new phone? Caveat emptor.