“Verizon Wireless plans to release of a mobile phone with a design that resembles the iPod, according to a report published Monday,” CNNMoney reports.
“The ‘Chocolate’ cellphone will be available Aug. 7 and will only be available to Verizon customers, the Wall Street Journal said. Customers with a one-year contract can expect to pay $249 for the phone, the newspaper reported,” CNNMoney reports. “‘Verizon’s model seems to be going after Apple and iTunes more than anything else we’ve seen,’ Linda Barrabee, a wireless analyst at Yankee Group, told the newspaper.”
Full article here.
“The new phone has a ‘look and feel’ like an iPod, though without the signature click wheel. The phone has limited storage capacity, but an attachable drive can hold as many as 1,000 songs, and will be part of a $100 package that includes headphones and a cable to sync songs to a computer,” Mick Weinstein reports for SeekingAlpha. “Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer commented in the last conference call: ‘[w]e do not think that the phones that are available today make the best music players…We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change, and we are not sitting around doing nothing.’ Dean Bubley lays out the numbers showing Apple still has a huge lead over music-phones, even in nations where music-phone adoption is far ahead of the U.S.”
Full article here.
Is it just me? I don’t see that much of a resemblance…
Must be a slowwwww news day. That thing looks nothing like an iPod. Just because it has a navigation button in the middle thats a circle doesn’t mean it looks like an iPod.
I have had enough situations in which one side of a mobile connection has the batteries go out. Playing music on the same device on which you are connected is not a smart move, IMHO.
LG has come close to my vision of what an iPod/iPhone would look like. The problem is that its still too complex.
Take all the button positions that are dedicated around the display and click wheel and put them on the screen.
Now you have a phone with a screen, a click wheel and a 12 button keypad. You don’t need anything else.
Frankly, I think this phone (LG) will cause Cingular, T-Mobile or Sprint to align with Apple, should they introduce such a phone.
It looks like a cell-phone, not an iPod. What iPod have you ever seen with so much clutter? None.
Those bizarre icons make it look more like a Zen Vision:M. I wonder if it’s also an inch thick.
the big news associated with this article, is that Verizon is doing away with its subscription service and going to the itunes model. Maybe, just maybe, someday the music execs will get it that people do not want to thier rent music.
inaccurate story. this is just a cell phone. nice PR for LG and that’s about it.
Damn, that’s an ugly-ass phone. Why anyone with a Mac would buy anything other than a Sony-Ericsson phone is beyond me. They look great, have a gorgeous GUI, and they sync perfectly. (Yeah, the Razr looks great on the outside, but those buttons, screen and the gui are just awful.)
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Here in sweden that phone have been available for a while. It’s not an iPod killer and I actually think it doesn’t look good at all.
Wake me up when someone designs a good looking phone. I would do a better job.
I saw a commercial for it last night. The number pad slides into the unit making it look much more like an iPod.
Unlike Apple’s design – they tried to cram everything onto the cover, which means the underlying software to run the darn thing is going to be hell to figure out, too.
mmmm… chocolate
Really…more of a click circle…wheels move.
The actual LG Chocolate available in Europe and Asia looks much better than the US version, because it doesn’t try to look like an iPod. It has an illuminated touch interface; you don’t actually see the controls until you touch the surface area containing the control button.
Typical “bait and switch” sales tactic. It won’t work, though.
Certain to be as navigable as… well if it’s anything like the RAZR, I’ll pass.
And you have to pay how much to actually hold a decent number of songs?! (extra $100) And how much are the songs online? ($2)
Yea, Verizon simplified things but they still ain’t simple enough.
At least, it appears you can download any mp3s from your computer if you like. (Which, of course, begs the question “Why pay $2 for a Verizon song?”
What’s the DRM on the songs for this phone? TFA did not say.
I agree. This doesn’t look very much like an iPod and the interface still is too complicated. Why bother with more complex gadgets in your life sucking away your free time and jumping on your last nerve? Then to top it all off, $2 a song with mystery-meat DRM? No thanks, Verizon.
This implementation may not be the best, but it will get better and eventually someone will come up with something that is close enough to iPod functionality that it will be successful. Apple needs to get with the program on the iPhone.
They mention the iPod to generate some traffic plus hopefully get some free press by doing so. Marketing veiled as an article.
“Verizon to launch iPod-like ‘Chocolate’ phone’
Well, it should sell well in New Orleans. <ducks>
iPod licks chocolate.
I must agree with “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” in that I have a most difficult time keeping the cell phone batteries charged for a full day. To intentionally suck the life out of them wouldn’t make sense.
Whenever you put two devices together, you’ll have problems unless there is a huge advantage to the merger.
But, then again, I must admit that I am not a huge iPod fan. I’m from an older generation where I still like interacting with the people around me, even if they are strangers… that’s how life-changing opportunities are found. My last portable music device was a cassette player when I was 16 years old and my adolescent ego didn’t want to interact with anyone.
Life’s richness is inversely proportional to the height of the walls you build around yourself.