Apple May Bring a Non-iPhone To Verizon Wireless

The Narrative Fallacy writes "According to BusinessWeek, Verizon Wireless is in talks with Apple to distribute two new iPhone-like devices that are not iPhones. (Apple has created prototypes.) AT&T's contract with Apple, which has not been made public, is believed to cover all models of the iPhone, but only the iPhone. So if Apple builds something that isn't an iPhone — and perhaps doesn't even make cellular calls — they won't be violating their exclusivity contract with AT&T, which runs through at least 2010. One device is a smaller, less expensive calling device described by a person who has seen it as an 'iPhone lite.' The other is a media pad, said to be smaller than a Kindle but with a bigger screen, that would let users listen to music, view photos, watch high-definition videos, and make calls over a Wi-Fi connection. (And read books?) Apple could use the prospect of an iPhone-esque device as leverage to prevent Verizon Wireless from introducing the Palm Pre, or at least to delay its introduction on Verizon's network. 'The media pad category might go to Verizon,' said one person who has seen the device. 'We are talking about a device where people will say, "Damn, why didn't we do this?" Apple is probably going to define the damn category.'" Reader stevegee58 writes with word that Verizon may be playing both ends against the middle. Marketwatch reports that Microsoft and Verizon are in talks to develop a touch-screen mobile phone that would run on Windows Mobile.

Palm Pre

[get quad]

I dont own an iPhone because it doesn't have a tactile keyboard. I believe that when Verizon realizes how much of a gimmick the Blackberry Storm was and finally picks up the Palm Pre, AT&T will lose millions of customers to Verizon/Palm.

Re:This sounds exciting...

[DragonWriter]

Its an ok email/text message reader, but it utterly fails at the main task of a phone- calls.

My current "smart" phone is a Windows Mobile device, and compared either to my previous Palm OS device or the iPhones I've handled, the OS seems not only not great as a phone, but not great for the PDA features of a smartphone, either. When I replace it, I can guarantee that the one thing I won't be considering is another Windows mobile offering.

Me want a TouchBook and here's why

[Lord Satri]

I hope the 'Media Pad / TouchBook' end up being true. Because it would be a product that would be useful to me.

I don't want a laptop. I have an old one, and even if my old iBook is rather small, over the years, I realized that it's not small enough for a lot of uses. Example: we don't use it at the dinner table to refer to Wikipedia and I don't bring it often when going to friends and family unless I know I'm going to use it because it's slightly too big and heavy.

On the other end, there's the iPod Touch and the like. Doubtlessly useful, and despite not owning one (I really try to buy as little stuff as possible because 'the things you own end up owning you' ;-), I fear the screen is too small to enjoy it as an input device (very small virtual keyboard) and media device (small screen too). On the plus side, smartphones / iPod Touch *are* really portable, and to a level that won't be attained by any "media pad".

NetBooks. Almost, but I don't think they're for me yet. Waiting for the next wave. Why? It's not really a laptop but it's not really that portable either. (that's obviously subjective)

And last but not least, Apple products integration. I don't consider myself a fanboy, but I want to be productive [me.com]. Despite using Debian at work everyday, Linux is still not up to my expectations yet (yet!). Is there some lock-in with Apple? Yes. Is this a problem with me? Not that much, as long at it doesn't get in my way too often. I'm ready to pay to have more pleasure using a computer. I don't want crap, even if it's free. (this is a general statement, not specifically related to software)

Now, I guess I did not need to write all this other than to have feedback from you: what do you think? Where am I wrong?

Re:This sounds exciting...

[cawpin]

That's odd. I have a Samsung Omnia and it's the best phone I've ever owned. The screen response isn't as good as the iPhone's, but nothing else is either. The Omnia is #2. It also allows me to do things for free the iPhone can't, such as SSH and VNC, flawlessly. Its camera is also the best I've used on a phone and, at 5MP, has plenty of resolution.

Re:This sounds exciting...

[Darkness404]

Exactly. In the USA there are no perfect phones. The perfect phone would be:

Full Keyboard and Captive touchscreen
Decent enough resolution camera with built-in video recording
Copy/Paste
Bluetooth Tethering
Full Bluetooth features
Built-in GPS
An OS with the ability to easily add in software from any source (and the official source must not have stupid restrictions like the app store on the iPhone)
A decent media player with all major codecs supported
Flash, and if not Flash then YouTube and other video site viewers as applications
Wi-Fi
MMS
Not painful to use browser
Standard USB port
Standard headphone jack

As of yet no phone even comes close to that. Sure, the G1 is a great phone, yet it has so many easy to fix flaws such as the lack of a standard headphone jack. The iPhone is a great phone, but it has the stupidest design issues such as the lack of basic features like MMS, copy/paste, multiple codecs for audio and video (OGG is a no brainer), lack of Flash along with usability issues such as the application "approval" process and the lack of a decent camera (with no zoom or video recording features).

Re:Verizon + Microsoft + Windows Mobile = FAIL

[c_forq]

does it really cost $95 a month for all that stuff?

I think it actually may, in a way. Last I saw iPhone users were using WAY more data than users of AT&T's other phones. I've heard AT&T has struggled to keep up with this in some locations. Think of the $95 a month as keeping out the vast hordes that would rape and pillage their inadequate infrastructure. So for someone to compete on this aspect I think they would have to have a much more robust network with plenty of bandwidth room.

Sounds like wishful thinking

[qazwart]

Two things: Apple doesn't do cheap, so a iPhone Lite is out of the question. Same with the "media pad". Nor, does Verizon allow third parties to do whatever they want. Verizon isn't going to have a WiFi only device that's not going to get people to sign up for Verizon. Nor, do I think Apple wants to work with CDMA which is now officially an obsolete technology. Apple will stick with AT&T which allows Apple to do whatever they want on Apple's terms. Verizon doesn't need Apple. AT&T does. I do predict that Apple will come out with a "Netbook" like device based upon the iPhone OS. It will probably have a keyboard, but no mouse.

Re:FTW

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when has success been the watermark for antitrust? I'm not a Mac fan but they have hardly qualified for antitrust over iPods or iPhones. They haven't attempted to suppress competing products. You can load content that wasn't bought from Apple so you can't even say they are locking you to their services. iTunes has more issues there not iPods. They aren't required by law to license their technology to companies to make cheap knock offs. Really all they are guilty of is making a product that more people want. The fact people want iPods isn't grounds to file antitrust against Apple. If they were dumps cheap products and trying to force retailers to not carry competing players it'd be a different issue. It's ironic because Apple hardware is considered on the expensive side so they aren't a goof candidate for dumping charges. If you don't like Apple then by a Zune. You probably will be not only the first one on the block to have one but probably the only one.

Re:Call it the Newton Phone

[macshome]

FWIW, the Newtons did run on ARM processors.