Verizon Wireless unveiled a new cell phone today for the holiday season: a LG handset named “Voyager” that Verizon hopes “will compete with Apple Inc’s iPhone,” Sinead Carew reports for Reuters.
“Verizon Wireless hopes the new phone will attract customers put off by the iPhone’s lack of a traditional keypad — the Voyager hinges open to reveal a small computer keypad and a second screen,” Carew reports.
MacDailyNews Take: The only people “put off by iPhone’s lack of a traditional keypad” are people who haven’t used an iPhone.
Carew continues, “‘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.”
Carew reports, “Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said the Voyager may attract existing Verizon subscribers who do not want to switch service providers, but he doubted it would hurt iPhone sales. ‘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,’ he said.”
Verizon Wireless would not give exact pricing, but the “Voyager” is expected to retail for about $400 according to the report. Apple’s iPhone costs $399. Voyager will offer a 2-megapixel camera and a slot for 8GB of extra memory. “Voyager” also looks to be at least twice as thick as iPhone. Apple’s iPhone has a 2-megapixel camera and 8GB of built-in storage. Oh, yeah, unlike the “Voyager,” Apple’s thin iPhone also has a multi-touch UI, a real OS, and a real iPod with access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. Voyager will launch “before the end of November,” Carew reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers too numerous to mention for the heads up.]
Yet another phone made to look externally somewhat like Apple’s iPhone. How stupid do they think people are? Verizon’s Chief Marketing Officer Mike Lanman is one seriously delusional bastage if he really believes that thing is “the best phone this year” and that “it will kill” Apple’s iPhone.
Lets hope the Voyager gets lost 70,000 light years away.
Guess which company is pissed off because they never got the iPhone deal?
Mike Lanman is a tool. By the looks of it, Apple could probably sue Verizon/LG and win serious CAAASH!
re: I can’t believe these cheese whizzes copied the chrome bezel. that designer should be drawn, quartered and shot.
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They dont have Designers at Verizon or LG – they have people with photocopiers and the brain power of an omeba and the creativity of Bill Gates.
This phone is the worst idea ever!!!… Oh, other than this guy saying: “‘We think it’ll be the best phone … this year. It will kill the iPhone,’ Verizon Wireless Chief Marketing Officer Mike Lanman” I’d like to take his place as CMO please.
The iPhone keypad is very easy to use, idiots..
No one wants a clam phone like this! Slide, flip around, have a full front touch screen(you took the idea enough from the iPhone, why not just steal the whole thing!) …but we’ll just be very boring and simply, fold open.
I haven’t left because the service is the best around, hands down, but they don’t do anything else right!
Annoyed.
This article is begging for Fark’s “UNLIKELY” tag.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Mike Lanman is a stupid: his LG phone is not cool!!
iPhone is iPhone !!!
AHAHAHAHA
People who complain about the touch keypad are in one of two camps:
1. They are jealous of the iPhone and are suck in their current provider contract, so they pick on the touch keypad as the “real” reason they wouldn’t buy one.
2. They cannot afford an iPhone, so they say they don’t want one because of the touch typing.
Both are smoke-screen arguments that don’t hold water. Anyone who has used the touch pad can attest it is different to use – at first – but can be as fast, or faster than the platic keypad.
Anyone who cannot stand to take a few days in getting use to the touchpad to type is using it as a smokescreen argument, and has other reasons they can’t/won’t buy an iPhone, and those reasons are #1 or #2.
It’s funny how everyone always copies Apple’s Products and then it’s always a Apple ????whatever??? Killer.
I’ve owned 2 LG phones. Both were CRAP. Good luck to anyone that buys this POS.
how big is the screen on that thing? 2.5″? Seriously. It won’t compete. Like the “Q” it will be $199 before the end of the year.
Knowing Verizon, each of those icons on the front accesses a service you have to pay extra for by the minute.
I currently have verizon, and dont want to switch just for the iphone…frankly because my verizon service is paid for already. The best thing about the Voyager is that it has REAL internet, with actual EVDO speeds…unlike ifone…oops…iPhone.
There are many things this phone has going for it that iPhone doesnt, and most of these things stem from the carrier itself. iPhone + Verizon would be a perfect marriage!
Either way, I will buy a Voyager next spring when I am eligible for a phone upgrade. Good job Verizon and LG for coming out with your best phone to date.
I currently have verizon, and dont want to switch just for the iphone…frankly because my verizon service is paid for already. The best thing about the Voyager is that it has REAL internet, with actual EVDO speeds…unlike ifone…oops…iPhone.
There are many things this phone has going for it that iPhone doesnt, and most of these things stem from the carrier itself. iPhone + Verizon would be a perfect marriage!
Either way, I will buy a Voyager next spring when I am eligible for a phone upgrade. Good job Verizon and LG for coming out with your best phone to date.
Verizon’s Chief Marketing Officer Mike Lanman will be looking for a new job at the end of the quarter.
They couldn’t come up with a calendar icon that looked different than the iCal icon?
Jack:
The iPhone does have international access. You just need to use AT&T;’s plans properly (call them and arrange it before you travel internationally). And if Apple had used Verizon, it would have been a CDMA phone, which virtually locks it into the US only, while AT&T;uses GSM, which is almost universally used internationally.
3G data also means much less battery life or a larger battery (meaning thicker and heavier phone) to get the same battery life.
A zoom button cannot possibly match the usefulness of multi-touch. Have you used an iPhone?
The argument of Verizon v. AT&T;is stupid. I had Verizon before getting my iPhone and AT&T;, and frankly, haven’t noticed much difference. All mobile phone companies have good coverage spots and bad ones, so most of it depends upon where you live. None has exceptional customer service.
The iPhone also has the “plus other stuff” in droves.
I predict that once OS X.5 is released, the iPhone will get opened up to third party apps. Perhaps Apple hasn’t finished APIs or SDKs for Leopard, and that may be the real reason why third party apps are not allowed at present.
Remember, OS X.5 was supposed to be released in late spring, just before the iPhone was released, so a six month delay means that the OS simply wasn’t ready. That may have everything to do with third party apps, which are usually the source of many bug problems, crashes, etc. in a new or upgraded OS.
If Leopard was having troubles with many common third party apps, it makes perfect sense to ban them from the iPhone until those problems are sorted out. But that’s not something Apple wants to publicize.
Also, notice who is complaining most about the lack of third party apps – small developers and the media. Why aren’t the large developers complaining? Perhaps because they’ve been secretly informed that third party app support will come once Leopard is released.
Is it a MULTI-TOUCH phone?
AND since it looks so so similar to iPhone…
why is APPLE not sueing LG… hmm cos LG works on iPOD stuff?
Or is that Samsung?
Oh too many questions.
“None has exceptional customer service.”-Ibusch jr.
T-mobile does in my experience.
You guys are complete idiots if this os is a rip off the iphone. The iphone is a rip off of the prada. This has the the prada UI. And we all know who was first. Lets see navigation check, 3g check, digital tv check, removable battery check, tactile keyboard check, removable memory check, being able to use your phone when you need it PRICELESS…
Apple give us voice dialing!!! Got to have voice dialing over Blue thooth to drive a 6 speed Audi. Thanks for the built in iPod/iPhone support.
Well after getting a Verizon Razr & discovering that they had disabled Bluetooth file transfer & just about every other feature that would let you customize the phone without paying extra for Verizon services, I’d expect that this is going to be just as much a closed platform as the iPhone. I’m counting the days until my Verizon contracts ends to switch….
The thing I don’t get with these copycat devices is why would anyone want something that is clearly a knockoff of something else? It’s like driving one of those Hyundais that are basically Jaguar body knockoffs — it says “I’m too cheap to get the real thing”.
Some bastard has chosen to ignore the fact that the iphone was demonstrated months ahead of its release in order to give people the opportunity not to renew their bi-annual contracts.
That period which was just over six months gave the likes of whatever they are called the opportunity to quickly stitch together a look alike based on a model that was just about to be released as the rival to the Razr for the fashion concious or should I say unconcious! Even a Chinese company got into the act with a replicated shell of the “god phone” combined with an OS marketed by bald people who are not bold in their product development.
Listing the very components that make mobile phones the clumsy products we now know they are is not crediting those products, it is highlighting the very reason the “god phone” cannot be challenged.
*3G is crippled by the fees demanded by qualcom or whoever they are.
*Digital tv has crap quality & reception that cannot supercede recorded formats such digital video.
*Removable batteries are subject to damage by dropping, moisture, heat and dust.
*Tactile keyboards that are the size of a pin head insult the name “Tactile”
*Removable memory is an indication of how little memory the product has that it needs a constant supply of memory sticks to cope with data that takes forever to recieve thus fattening the profit margins of the operators, you also do not have space to label the memory sticks so that you can pick the right one every time without trial & error which is the current model.
Drink Camel’s Milk…the sulphurous fart you blow out will give you time to think before you blog.
Just as with iPod’s these new would-be iPhone killers will come and go… Apple has successfully tainted the waters with quality and user-friendliness… and the want-to-bee’s just don’t get it!
The iPhone is here to stay and the industry has shifted even if the other plays don’t fully understand that yet!
Bring them on… the more that hit the street the smaller the share of that ” 20% share” that Apple saves for ” others”
I would just like to say that Verizon and LG have been working on this phone for quite some time. I would also like to point out that Verizon TURNED DOWN AN OFFER from Apple to sell the iPhone.