Verizon Wireless thumbs its nose at the iPhone
It's not the only game in town
(Credit: Apple.com)With the iPhone completely dominating cell phone news this week, it's easy to forget that other cell phones exist. Crave wonders why any manufacturer or service provider would see the PR benefit in making an announcement this week, but that hasn't stopped T-Mobile from unveiling its Hotspot @Home and Sprint from taking the wraps off its new LG Muziq phone.
But today Verizon Wireless revealed that it was hosting its own party to match the Apple and AT&T events on the iPhone launch day. In a press release, the carrier invites shoppers to test-drive "the leading wireless company with the most reliable voice and data network". Meow.
The carrier also invites shoppers to check out its selection of music cell phones, including the LG VX9400, which is on sale for $99.99. That's a good deal for a cool phone, but the keep in mind that the spiffy V Cast Mobile TV service (something the VX9400 supports) is available only in a few cities. Yet unlike the iPhone, the LG handset does offer 3G.
Get 'em while they're hot
(Credit: CNET Networks)Buyers will also be able to download songs wirelessly at the stores from Verizon's V Cast Music service. As everyone knows, the iPhone will not support tune downloads over the air. But the best news is that customers will get a free Music Essentials kit, which normally sets you back $30. That's exceedingly generous of Verizon, considering the kit is needed to even sync a phone with a PC. We don't know why Verizon just doesn't give you the kit in the first place, but that another story.
So if you've decided you're too cool for the iPhone, or you refuse to leave Verizon for AT&T, you'll be pleased to know that Verizon has you covered. Verizon stores and kiosks will stay open until 9 p.m. And you can be sure these stores won't have a line.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent. 
For the past 7 months, I've had the pleasure of owning a phone that does pretty much everything the iPhone does and then some. It's a Motorola A1200 - aka the Ming.
It runs Linux, has a touch screen, does MP3s - REAL ones, mind you, all DRM free, it has stereo bluetooth capabilities, has a 2 MP camera that takes decent photos, does the PIM stuff, syncs with my PC, does web surfing via Opera Mini, has a built in FM radio, has handwriting recognition that's actually fairly decent, has a slot for a transflash SD chip, does email, views Office and PDF files, and the ususal PIM stuff. It also has a removable battery.
Oh. Yeah. It also has a business card scanner that imports contact information from business cards. Simply take a picture of the card with the camera, it OCRs the image and fills in the blanks.
And the price - about 1/2 of what the pod people will be parting with for the iPhone.
Is it perfect? No. It doesn't have 3G or 3.5G surfing either. But then again, I don't even bother with that. There's no point in spending $30 bucks a month to surf the web on a tiny screen when I pay about half that for DSL and can do my surfing at warp speed and can see the results on a (relatively) HUGE monitor.
As a matter of course, I DO care about having a 3G-capable phone, relatively puny screens notwithstanding. Besides, it's not like the iPhone's display is small as phones go. Shame that Apple had to choose [i]SIN[/i]gular/ATT. I know they're finally ramping up their next-gen data network, but they've been brutally slow about it (a lot like the old ATT was with emerging technologies--and 3G is far from emerging). If I have to continue on with putt-putt EDGE performance, I'd rather stick with my battle-tested BlackBerry and T-Mobile. [i][b]IF[/b][/i] I ever was going to do an iPhone, at the very least it would have to be some future gen model with the sort of performance I crave, [i]without[/i] reliance on Wi-Fi to do the job. And it'd better have an accessible battery compartment AND media card slot (voice calling would be good, too). And frankly, I'd rather have my apps with me, and not relying on Web 2.0 and broadcasting all my stuff around as a result. And certainly life would be sweeter if I could nuke that ATT part as well, but sometimes I suppose one has to put up with those nasty thorns...
With my occasional use of my wife's Samsung on her Verizon 3G network, there's quite simply nothing like that sort of performance, particularly when I'm on the road or stuck for hours in some airport. I can live with the tiny screen for what I use the web for in these circumstances.
No 1G iPhone for me.
- Verizon isn't even on the charts
- by bousozoku July 1, 2007 12:23 PM PDT
- Despite being big, Verizon is so restrictive that you can't easily use their phones, as they've turned off typical features in order to support their interests. They're probably the number one reason people go to Cingular/AT&T.
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(7 Comments)It's sad that the iPhone doesn't support 3G networks because it's so useful, not only browsing on the small screen but having the phone act as a conduit to the computer almost anywhere in the U.S.A. and at 3g speeds in towns of 100,000 people or more.
Verizon can shout that they have something better but they only have the holes that the iPhone has yet to fill.