You have to love marketing guys. They’re they best. Over at Verizon Wireless they’re over the top. Describing a new Apple (AAPL) iPhone knock-off from LG,, Verizon Wireless Chief Marketing Officer Mike Lanman "We think it’ll be the best phone … this year. It will kill the iPhone."
According to Reuters, Verizon Wireless will launch three new phones for the holidays. One will have a big screen and touchpad like the iPhone. Built by LG, it will have faster wireless access than the iPhone. It also has a hinge that opens to offer a second screen and traditional typepad. In other words, it’s a compromise.
As one industry analyst put it "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."
Apple and AT&T (T), its exclusive partner for the iPhone in the US, can rest easy. What Verizon Wireless people don’t want to admit is that the iPhone is part of the Apple culture. It is part of the iPod lovefest and the huge iTunes store. It’s the reason that people stand in lines to get the new iPhone or the latest Mac. People want the handset because it is different. Consumers think it makes them different.
If Verizon wanted the iPhone, it should have outbid AT&T. A dual screen, dual keyboard handset from LG is not an iPhone. It’s just lame.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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