“Here come the fake iPhones,” Scott Moritz reports for TheStreet.com. “Verizon is launching its hotly anticipated LG Voyager today [Wednesday] . The touch-screen phone with the flip-open keyboard is sells for $299 with a two-year contract, and is intended to answer Apple’s much-heralded iPhone from AT&T that fetches $399.”
“Here’s the bleak truth about the Voyager: It’s not the thrilling gadget adventure people were waiting for,” Moritz reports. “While some of Voyager’s borrowed looks make you think iPhone, it’s an entirely different device. For starters, it isn’t a true smartphone. There are no PDA functions such as document creation, email program or desktop syncing. In fact, the menu system is exactly the same as you’ll find on many of Verizon’s music phones.”
“The Voyager is probably the best illustration yet of Verizon’s fundamentally flawed wireless strategy. Put it this way: If Verizon’s V-Cast lives up to your dream of what mobile broadband is all about, then the Voyager is your vessel,” Moritz reports. “Alternatively, if you want a true Internet device with a real browser and fast Net access anywhere, keep up the good search.”
MacDailyNews Take: iPhone, bitch! Search result found.
Moritz reports, “Verizon has chosen to stick with the paltry Openwave browser that’s been lamely rendering Web pages ever since phones could access the Net… Old standby sites like Yahoo Finance and Gawker are too daunting for navigating on the touchscreen.”
“Apple’s perch atop the cool phone market will not be threatened by the wayward Voyager,” Moritz reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
But, but, Verizon Wireless’ Chief Marketing Officer Mike Lanma said in early October that the LG Voyager would “be the best phone … this year. It will kill the iPhone.”
So much for that.
Mike Lanma in 2008:
“Thank you for your order. Please drive to the next window.”
Well you know that middle school girls most important reason for picking a particular cell phone is what it looks like and easy texting, so………………can you blame Verizon for pandering to that incredibly important market?
Yes, I am a middle school teacher.
wonder if/when Apple with pursue any legal action on LG for this phone… it’s clearly a rip-off.
verizon just keeps getting lamer and lamer… sigh
How cheezy!!! They even try to copy the iCal icon to make one think they are looking at an iPhone.
I almost feel sorry for these saps!
These cats will never get it.
The mistake cell phone manufacturers are making is the keyboard. They can’t get it in their heads that a keyboard isn’t required but for a few applications, and only then when you are using those applications. The iPhone’s keyboard disappears when it isn’t required.
“How cheezy!!! They even try to copy the iCal icon to make one think they are looking at an iPhone.
I almost feel sorry for these saps!”
Look at the phone again. They also copied the iTunes and iMovie 06 icons.
I did a search of the net for images of this thing. The icon you think is copying imovie 06 is actually a calculator and doesn’t look like iMovie 06 in a closer inspection. The calender, bluetooth, and music icons are a direct rip off of iCal, Bluetooth, and iTunes though.
Sometimes, when I squint really, really, hard, I can see all de way to de verizon. And let me tell you — de view is really perfect . . .
FOR ME TO POOP ONNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL – having got an iPhone anything less than using the fantastic web experience on it seems a step back by 15 years.
These people havent a clue.
This coming from Scott Moritz? Wow.
“Alternatively, if you want a true Internet device with a real browser and fast Net access anywhere, keep up the good search.”
“MacDailyNews Take: iPhone, bitch! Search result found.”
I love my iPhone, but I flatly disagree with MDN’s take here… the EDGE network sucks balls, and not in a good, pop-a-nut way either… Yes, the iPhone is a true internet device… Yes, it has a real browser… but NO, it does not have fast ‘net access “anywhere.”
The face with it’s line up of icons should be yet another item Apple sues the pants off of.
However, Apple is extremely smart.
They know they ain’t being up staged by any of these competitors and the more knock off their are the more Apple shines.
When a knock off does come close… Apple will leap forward with a newer model… staying infront of the pack.
That is the innovators advantage.
Only when Apple starts to lose market share to the competitors will we see lawsuits emerge.
3G Apple and unlocked service will come to USA when Google gets their right to buy the 700 Mhz band.
See ya in May 2008 when all goes even better for Apple.
Spock, this is the network you want to tie to the iPhone?
Eric, sorry to disagree, but I get quite good performance on EDGE. Do I wish it was faster? Sure, who doesn’t want al net access faster? But the balance of battery life and network speed on my iPhone is probably good enough for now. “Sucks balls”? Apart from your need to use vulgarity in place of discourse, I would say that it is a bit of an exaggeration. The other day, I used my iPhone to register on a secure electronic data room during due diligence of an acquisition, while receiving email on multiple accounts. I took time out to make a restaurant reservation for a restaurant I found using Google search, and then returned to reviewing multiple documents in the data room. I snapped a pic in a store of an item my wife and I are considering and sent it to her. Then, I bought movie tickets on Fandango [well optimized for the iPhone] and ordered my brother’s birthday present at Amazon. Gee, maybe it does pop a nut. Or maybe you just need a reality check. I dunno, count me happy with my phone and generally pleased with my network.
I’ve been with Verizon for 7 years.
I’ll be opting out at the end of my contract in 2008.
Guess which phone I’ll be going with?
I’ll give you a hint. It begins with an “i”.
I’m tired of Verizon being so far behind the curve on the new technology.
Here is how geeks argue: “This new device sux!” Then they buy one and say, “This new device sux because it can’t do this or that!” Then the manufacturer makes it do this or that. Then they complain, “This device sux because it’s old!”
The geek is the male equivalent of the PMSing woman. Unfortunately, geeks are that way ALL the time, not just occasionally.
Mike Lanma in 2008:
“Would you like fries with that ?”
Man, this thing is really ugly…….
Please check out Verizon’s webpage comparing the Vogager to different objects, like a deck of cards, post-it, and even an iPod… but they are using a 3rd generation one!!! (the model with the row of buttons on top) Isn’t that something?
That is the place where Verizon is technologically… 4 years behind in the past!
I wonder why they are not comparing this killer with the iPhone… mmmhhhhh…
Ridiculous.
@cogitoergomac..
I just did a test of EDGE speeds compared to Wi-FI visiting MDN’s home page three times over EDGE, and three times over my home Wi-Fi, and here are my results. Note that I turned the iPhone off and restarted it between each test to be sure the cache was cleared. Note that I am getting 5 bars of signal strength from AT&T;, and
First the EDGE results (in seconds): 74, 138, 102.
Wi-Fi results (in seconds): 11, 15, 34.
Those numbers were a bit wild, which I attribute to MDN’s arguably abusive amount of advertising, so I decided to do a second series of tests with a website that is ad free and known to be very speedy, Folklore.org.
EDGE (in seconds): 24, 23, 23
Wi-Fi (in seconds): 1, 2, 1
The rounded average for MDN over EDGE is 134 seconds, and over Wi-Fi, 20 seconds. For Folklore.org over EDGE, I get 23 seconds, whilst over Wi-Fi, it is only 1 second.
So, 6 times slower over EDGE for MDN (which is already annoyingly slow), but a stunning 23 times slower over EDGE for Folklore.org.
By my standards, that means that EDGE’s performance, at least where I live, sucks balls.
@Eric: Whoa, stop the presses! OMG! You are effin’ kidding me? WiFi is speedier than EDGE. Who the heck would’ve thought that? Geez, Eric, you deserve the Nobel prize. Especially for taking so much time to prove the obvious.
C’mon, please tell me you are not in a job that requires intellectual work, No kidding. WiFi trounces EDGE. Heck, Eric, WiFi in my home trounces ANY phone’s network. I’l bet that’s why Apple set up the phone to prefer WiFi over EDGE. What do you think?
WiFi kicks butt on both my Sprint and Verizon EVDO cards, too. So effing what? What does proving that WiFi is faster prove? Wait, wait, I know: it proves that Apple was smart to have both. It DOESN’T prove anything about EDGE’s relative merits versus other networks. As I said before, would I like EDGE to be faster? Absolutely.
You want a real comparison, use the same phone on multiple networks to see if EDGE truly “sucks balls,” to use the vernacular you seem to prefer. Maybe it does, but in the meantime, STFU until you have something meaningful to say. In the meantime, I’ll keep using my phone to get work done, thanking Apple for making something worthy of the Mac platform.
@cogitoergomac,
Dude… Seriously… You don’t need to be a total fucking asshole about it…
I was merely replying to your comment directed specifically at me, by attempting, feeble though it may have been, to make my point that EDGE “sucks balls” (aka, TOO slow) in my opinion and in my experience, though I would not part with it for any current competing product, 3G or otherwise… since all the current competing phones suck balls pretty much all around.
So, yes, the iPhone wins hands down, but it’s not perfect either, but with it’s one major flaw being the EDGE network, it’s and acceptable tradeoff.
Oh, and I had T-Mobile before switching to the iPhone… EDGE there sucked balls too (to use the vernacular that I prefer). In fact, it was probably noticeably slower than EDGE on AT&T;, at least where I bothered to use it, which was out of sheer desperation, since the T-Mobile phone only had a WEP browser, which sucks not just balls, but also totally sucks ass (to use the vernacular I prefer :p< )
” . . . at least where I live, sucks balls.”
That’s a bad thing? Seriously? If so, someone was doing you wrong. Were braces involved?
It’s yet another case of the CARRIERS dictating to the HANDSET MANUFACTURERS what is good for the user. They wouldn’t know cool if it hit ’em in the face. Can’t anyone see that the carriers are the culprits here? Handset manufacturers typically have their hands tied SO HARD behind their backs because of the tyrannical carriers, that even if a handset manufacturer had a great idea, it would never see the light of day because some marketing manager at the carrier didn’t dream it up first. Good for Apple for telling AT&T;(yeah I know) to sit down, shut up, and take the iPhone as-is. If other handset manufacturers can do that with other carriers, we’ll all win.