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LG Voyager  (Source: Verizon Wireless)

Samsung Juke  (Source: Verizon Wireless)
Verizon's murderous thoughts toward the iPhone are manifest in its shiny, faster Voyager phone

Verizon's new LG made Voyager, unveiled on Wednesday, is just in time for the holiday season. The new phone is going up against Apple’s popular iPhone and carries with plenty of ammunition for a full-on assault of Cupertino’s best.

This "iPhone killer" features a strikingly similar design to the iPhone, but it has something that the iPhone doesn't:  a faster network. The LG Voyager also hinges open to feature a full keypad and a smaller screen, for users who dislike the iPhone's tactile keypad. Other features include full Internet browsing, V CAST Video and Music access, 2MP digital camera and support for .mp3, .wma and unprotected .aac files.

"We think it'll be the best phone ... this year. It will kill the iPhone," Verizon Wireless Chief Marketing Officer Mike Lanman said in an interview.

Analyst Avi Greengart thinks this homicidal claim is a bit outlandish.  He thinks that the Voyager will likely attract many at Verizon who don't want to switch providers.  Greengart doesn't see the Voyager as hurting the iPhone's red hot sales though.

"People who want a high-end media phone and want to stay with Verizon will certainly give that one a hard look. I don't know that it would pull anybody away from an iPhone."

Perhaps, but Apple's latest draconian tactics to prevent iPhone unlocking may cause some users who were pondering an iPhone to defect to Verizon.

Verizon is focusing its guns on the iPhone, but the other three phones in the release may cause some stir as well.

The other three models are the Samsung Juke, BlackBerry Pearl, and the LG Venus.  The Juke is stylish and candy bar thin and sports 2GB of storage, A2DP Bluetooth and a 1.3 megapixel camera.  The Venus has some interesting touch screen features of its own including vibration feedback as well as a miniSD expansion, A2DP and a 2 megapixel camera.  The BlackBerry Pearl offers a 1.3 megapixel camera, BlackBerry Maps, easy-to-use email (the main draw), a fully function multimedia player and miniSD expansion.

Verizon's new phones are certainly good looking.  While it focuses on gunning down the iPhone with its LG voyager, many will likely also be drawn to the allure of the small sized Juke or the take-care-of-business-and-play-too Blackberry Pearl.

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Hmmm....
By pauldovi on 10/3/2007 10:43:46 AM , Rating: 1
Trust me, I am no big fan of Apple. But doesn't it seem like Apple is the first to come out with a product (or the first to make it successful) and then all the other companies are left to come out with a product as direct competition.




RE: Hmmm....
By mdogs444 on 10/3/2007 10:48:09 AM , Rating: 3
Apple is by no means an "inventor" of any product. They use style and marketing to take control of immediate marketshare.


RE: Hmmm....
By retrospooty on 10/3/2007 10:51:04 AM , Rating: 3
That happened with a few products, but I wouldn't put them up on a pedestal for it. There are thousands of electronic products out there, Apple has a couple of successful lines in the iPod and iPhone. They did a good job with design, marketing and timing on them. Hats off!

As a negative point against Apple, they are unable to market their Mac platform to much more than a 5% global marketshare, when they were once a far superior product to MS/Intel offerings... They shrank and shrank for the past 15 years. The last 1 year they have grown slightly, but still not much of a global marketshare.


RE: Hmmm....
By wordsworm on 10/3/07, Rating: -1
RE: Hmmm....
By retrospooty on 10/3/2007 12:44:16 PM , Rating: 5
US- notebook sales does not equal global total sales. the region is bigger and the desktops are included in global market share.

Also, the NPD report has been widely discredited even at US-notebook sales.


RE: Hmmm....
By darkpaw on 10/3/2007 2:18:25 PM , Rating: 3
Yup, that report only included retail sales and some internet sales. It completely excluded any direct sales which eliminates almost all of dell and most corporate purchases.

That study is totally inaccurate, but doesn't stop the mac freaks from quoting it.


RE: Hmmm....
By evildorf on 10/4/2007 3:22:18 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
(just Photoshop - like I'm going to pay $999 so that I can adjust 5-10 photos a year if I can avoid it), thanks to open source software like Open Office.


Try GIMP, and you can be illegal software free. If you're really only touching up photos, it or Paint.Net are fine alternatives.


RE: Hmmm....
By Parhel on 10/5/2007 11:15:37 PM , Rating: 1
It's quite easy to obtain a pirated copy of Photoshop for Mac, and most everything else available for the Mac as well for that matter.


RE: Hmmm....
By SandmanWN on 10/3/2007 11:08:50 AM , Rating: 2
Is it me or am I missing the specs for the Voyager in this article?

I see all the specs for the other Verizon phones being released but nothing on the phone that the article is intended to showcase.

Anyone?


RE: Hmmm....
By crystal clear on 10/3/2007 11:31:35 AM , Rating: 2
http://news.vzw.com/news/2007/10/pr2007-10-03.html

Its only the first batch of specs... brief but informative.


RE: Hmmm....
By SandmanWN on 10/3/2007 12:01:39 PM , Rating: 5
Thanks for the link. I was just trying to point out that the author missed something.

I found it interesting that the 8GB capacity is based on expansion memory. This gives you an expansion capability in the future (faster/larger modules later, etc), and you can move data back and forth without the use of cables.

quote:
The Venus by LG also features a music player that supports .mp3, .wma and unprotected .aac files and a 2.0 megapixel camera and camcorder.

Nice open standards there on the audio front. Better camera and the camcorder addition is nice.

I guess the only thing left is whether Verizon thinks the average user is smart enough to replace their own battery. /sarcasm :P


RE: Hmmm....
By bhieb on 10/3/2007 12:00:23 PM , Rating: 3
Not just you, it seems Verizon is being very secretive.

Hope it is WM6 based, if so I may switch from Tmobile. I would greatly appreciate the speed increase. And with WM6 the integraton with exchange is so easy, basically if your company has Outlook Web Access, you are all set.


RE: Hmmm....
By UNCjigga on 10/4/2007 1:49:10 PM , Rating: 2
The Voyager is not a smartphone, it is a media-centric phone. It does NOT use Windows Mobile, but rather a custom OS that is the next-generation of the standard BREW OS on Verizon's feature phones.

I can't release full specs, but this phone does feature MediaFLO support, so you can watch Mobile TV. You also have much better gaming support than what's currently offered on the iPhone.


RE: Hmmm....
By Locutus465 on 10/4/2007 5:57:19 PM , Rating: 2
That kind of sucks, I like being able to install any Windows Mobile app that I like onto my smart phone, i.e. chat clients...


RE: Hmmm....
By geeg on 10/3/07, Rating: -1
RE: Hmmm....
By rudy on 10/3/2007 12:00:47 PM , Rating: 2
What do you mean there is hardly a phone out there that would not be considered an mp3 players and a phone. The real reason apple has an advantage is cause they have a powerful market share. When motorola says we want to make a phone that has wifi internet access, VOIP, is an mp3 player and all the rest, all the telcoms say no VOIP, no wifi but you can make it an mp3 players so long as we can program it to only take our mp3s. Apple was so successful only cause of marketing with the ipod and really isnt any different since they will attempt to keep you only buying from itunes that they could break free from those constraints.


RE: Hmmm....
By theo king on 10/3/2007 12:02:56 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
Now, why big companies like Verizon and Sprint didnt invest on a product like iphone? Because those companies are extremely inefficient and they are happy with the big bucks currently they are earning.


Verizon turned down the i-phone which is in the washing post as else back in january. Rumor has it sprint did as well. As far as Verizon is concerned, Apple wasn't interested in sharing data but was interested in a %20 percent cut of data revenue. So they use at&t's slow mobile web 2.5. (wi-fi is faster if you can get it). Also apple requires that you have a minimum $20.00 data service if you want the i-phone. Since all of these companies rely of data & voice services..What's the investment? I'll take freedom of choice!

Do a little research before you spout nonsense


RE: Hmmm....
By Silver2k7 on 10/6/2007 3:25:27 AM , Rating: 2
"But doesn't it seem like Apple is the first to come out with a product (or the first to make it successful) and then all the other companies are left to come out with a product as direct competition. "

Apple did not make the mp3 player.. im not even sure who did, fraunhofer perhaps atleast they invented the format.. Diamond was perhaps the first to really sell lots of mp3 players, but they got sued practically to bancrupcy for that.

Even the beloved graphical interface was invented by Xerox.. even thought such a thing would seem like a natural progression that would have happened sooner or later.

There was phones with touch sensitive screens before the I-phone, Swedish Neonode was one of them even if it had its share of production problems.


Probably not
By SavagePotato on 10/3/2007 11:13:28 AM , Rating: 5
I guess verizon are not students of history.

Making a superior product doesn't work in the case of Apple. There are tons of superior mp3 players out there, Macheads (ironically similar to crackhead)still buy 2nd 3rd and 4th replacement ipods when theirs tank, or when the newest extra overpriced edition comes out.

Fanatics buying overpriced junk based on being trendy is the foundation of Apples successes, and as it would seem, will continue to be.

As someone once said, you could box a turd and call it the iTurd and people would likely buy it.




RE: Probably not
By FITCamaro on 10/3/2007 11:28:27 AM , Rating: 2
iMoney

Your money, in our pockets.


RE: Probably not