Verizon pitches the LG Voyager as its iPhone killer
Verizon have joined their parent company Vodafone in pitching an alternative mobile phone as their 'iPhone Killer'.
In Vodafone's case, it's the new Samsung Ultra Smart F700, a super smartphone with touchscreen and a suitably huge feature set that makes the iPhone look like the 2004 relic it is beneath its shiny user interface.
Verizon, meanwhile, has chosen the new LG Voyager, which is similar to the Samsung Ultra Smart in that it has both a touchscreen and a proper slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
More details of the LG Voyager after the jump.
The LG Voyager comes with 3G, a measly 2 megapixel camera (why don't US phones have better cameras? I know 3G support is poor amongst the networks, but that shouldn't stop the bigger and better camera phones from being sold), V-CAST Mobile TV, MP3 , WMA and unprotected WMA files, and a microSD card capable of storing 8GB.
It also comes with a rather familiar-looking interface.
According to Verizon, the LG Voyager is an 'iPhone killer', but it would say that, as it lost the battle to secure the iPhone for its own network. Vodafone said the same in Europe when announcing the Samsung Ultra Smart, again after losing out to O2 in the race to get the iPhone.
Not that it's sour grapes by these companies. Miss out on the phone of 2007 and claim that your phone is an "iPhone killer" - obvious really!
And in reality, these phones are better than the iPhone. Well, the Samsung is, the only thing the LG Voyager has over the iPhone is 3G, but its browsing experience isn't as good.
"The Apple iPhone shook things up. If you look closely at the iPhone, it's just an ordinary phone in an extraordinary package," said Jeff Kagan, a wireless and telecom industry analyst. "That's what this Verizon Wireless phone is doing. It is competing with the iPhone in this segment of the cell phone marketplace. It is Verizon's answer to AT&T's and Apple's iPhone."
However, that still doesn't mean it'll sell well, as the iPhone, for all its flaws, is still one seriously sexy bit of kit, and will sell by the bucketload this Christmas.
After that, my guess is it'll have just 6 months of good sales before the other mobile phone manufacturers bring out similar interfaces and add them to far superior phones with less draconian network tariffs. But the LG Voyager an iPhone killer? Not yet!
[Source: EETimes]
