Camera Phones Plaza

After AT&T got the exclusive rights to sell the most expected phone in recent history, the Apple iPhone, for the next five years, Verizon is trying to come up with something to keep up with AT&T. In a recent interview with USA Today, Verizon COO Denny Strigl stated that the carrier will have a response to iPhone by late summer. So what's it going to be?

Well, most probably it will be the recently introduced LG Prada (or its geek name, the LG KE850). The sleek handset from LG is similar in look to the iPhone and it supports GSM network, Flash user interface, 2 megapixel camera featuring Schneider-Kreuznach lens, music and video player, Bluetooth 2.0, EDGE and microSD card slot.

The Apple iPhone features a 3.5 inch touchscreen and offers a wide range of innovative features when it comes to music, audiobooks, TV shows and movies. Moreover, it supports email, widgets, Wi-fi and EDGE services at top quality.

As for the price, the iPhone will cost around $500 while the LG Prada is expected to retail for around $600. Verizon is giving a lot of attention to this issue as AT&T will record a major tide of costumers after the launch of the iPhone, which will be next month, and they need to cope with that.

Is Verizon going to succeed? We would say no. Why? First of all, the iPhone will be out next month, in June, while Verizon Wireless will only start to sell their "counter phone" in the late summer, and second of all, we don't think the LG Prada, even if it's a superb phone, will have the ability to resist, after all the recent buzz around the iPhone. But hey, who are we to tell? We'll wait and see.

According to a market research made recently by IDC, Verizon is again the market leader with a total of 56.8 million subscribers, compared to Cingular's 56.3 million.

"Verizon became the new market leader in terms of total direct retail subscribers/customers, with a total of 56.8 million, against 56.3 million for Cingular," said IDC's Julien Blin in a statement.

The market research firm said there were 236 million U.S. wireless subscribers at the end of 2006. Their data revenue totaled $4.8 billion in the fourth quarter and that figure represented 13.5% of the ARPU, or $6.74 a month. Also, Sprint earns more wireless data revenue per subscriber than any other carrier, with $8.32, regaining its lead over Verizon, which only has $7.91.



Via mobileburn.

After being announced at CES 2007 together with the Mobile TV service, Verizon Wireless and Samsung today launched the Samsung u620 Mobile TV slider phone.

The Samsung u620 comes equipped with a QVGA screen, a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, microSD card slot and Bluetooth. The Samsung u620 is available for $149.99 after a $50 online discount and a 2-year contract.

Via phonearena.

After everybody got crazy about the Chocolate, it's time for the LG Shine to rule the world when it comes to fashion phones. Asia got it first, followed by European announcement and now we have a spy photo of clamshell version for Verizon Wireless with the same brushed-metal look.

Still there is no information about the final specifications of the phone, but it will probably have a QVGA internal display and 2-megapixel camera, as the one used in the ENV. Also it is not sure if Verizon will use the "Shine" brand name exclusively in the States (as it happened with Chocolate) or will just use numeric model for the phone.

Via engadget.

Verizon and Motorola have already prepared the promotional materials about the latest phone (part of RAZR family) they plan to launch – the Motorola maxx Ve, or the CDMA version of the MAXX. We’ve known this will happen for a few months now, after a Motorola image of the MAXX with Verizon logo on it leaked, but the promo materials hint us about soon-to-be release date.

The Motorola MAXX Ve Ve has large external color display and music dedicated touch keys like the one of the KRZR K1m. Its internal display is QVGA and it has 2-megapixel camera with large LED flash. Still it is not sure if it will run on the standard Verizon’s UI, or will feature Flash UI themes.

Via slashphone.