Tag Archives | Verizon Wireless

Microsoft Kin Gets a Price Cut…Already

Posted by Ed Oswald on June 28, 2010 at 4:32 pm

Microsoft probably could have picked a better time to launch its Kin line of mobile phones, especially with the focus of the tech world right now being on the iPhone 4, flawed or not. It appears as if the company is already ready to price these things into consumers’ pockets.

The Kin One will drop from $49 to $29 with a two-year commitment from Verizon, while the Kin Two drops to $49 from $99. Each phone requires a $29 per month or higher data plan, so their cost of ownership from a service standpoint is about the same as the iPhone.

Verizon is playing it off as part of a set of price reductions across its entire lineup, however most times when you see a price drop this early into a product’s lifespan, it has something to do with poor sales or not meeting certain goals.

Even with a fairly robust marketing effort, Microsoft has seemingly failed to grab those of us out there who may not want an iPhone but are in the market for a smartphone overall. Ina Fried at Cnet has relayed a story of one Verizon Wireless store that claims sales are so bad that even older Palm Pre devices are outselling it. That’s not good.

I have played with the Kin One, and can say for the first time I am truly impressed with a Windows-powered mobile device. Yes, it does have some quirks such as issues with how the touch-enabled area operates, but these are not showstoppers.

Maybe the problem is that consumers are increasingly seeing Microsoft as losing its innovative touch, and thus paying attention more to its competitors. It’s a shame, I think: the Kin should be able to do well on it’s own merits.

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Verizon's Droid X is Official

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 23, 2010 at 11:29 am

At an event in New York City–which I watched via Webcast from here in San Francisco–Verizon Wireless just announced the Droid X, its latest Motorola Android smartphone. I’ve given up trying to determine if any particular Android phone is the most impressive one to day–the honor changes every few weeks–but the X is clearly among the top ones so far in terms of sheer specs. It’s got a 1-GHz TI CPI, a big 4.3″ LCD display with 854-by-480 resolution in a thin case, 512MB of RAM, both 8GB of fixed storage and a 16GB MicroSD card, HDMI out, an 8MP camera that does 720p video, Android 2.1 (2.2 will come along late in the summer), and the ability to act as a wireless hotspot for up to five devices.

[NOTE/UPDATE: Verizon made a big deal out of the X supporting Flash–Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen was in New York for the unveiling–but it’s not shipping with Flash. Instead, it’s “Flash ready,” which is a total misnomer: Flash requires Android 2.2, which the X doesn’t yet have. But this phone will run Flash. Eventually.]

The X will go for $199.99 after a $100 rebate with a two-year contract, and Verizon customers whose contracts are up in 2010 can get it for that price. Data plans cost $29.99 for “unlimited” access; the Wi-Fi hotspot feature is $20 extra a month for 2GB of data.

Oh, and it doesn’t go on sale until July 15th…although you don’t need an advanced degree in marketing to figure out why Verizon is announcing it today.

More thoughts–including hands-on impressions–soon.

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Verizon Wireless's New Plan: So Long Unlimited Data, Hello Buckets?

Posted by Jacqueline Emigh on May 27, 2010 at 5:28 pm

Remember the bad old days, before the advent of unlimited wireless data plans? Well unfortunately, with the vaunted arrival of 4G, it looks like those times might be returning if Verizon Wireless has its way. At the Barclays Capital conference in New York City this week, Verizon Wireless’s CEO Lowell McAdam said he hopes to ditch unlimited plans entirely on the company’s upcoming 4G LTE network, charging instead for “buckets” of megabytes.

McAdam also noted that, after the release of the first LTE-enabled device, Verizon anticipates using its 4G LTE network for voice starting in 2011. It remains unclear, however, whether Verizon’s LTE will also spell the end of unlimited voice calling plans.

Meanwhile, big carriers haven’t even been waiting for 4G to get here before doing whatever they can to increase people’s phone bills. A survey released this week by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) shows that one in six mobile phone users has been hit by “bill shock,” or an unanticipated hike in their monthly service fee not caused by a change in their calling plan. The majority–or 52 percent–of these “shocks” added $25 or more to the consumer’s monthly bill, with the hikes amounting to $100 or more 23 percent of the time.

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Google/Verizon Tablet: A Quick Wish List

Posted by Harry McCracken on May 11, 2010 at 5:18 pm

Google and Verizon Wireless are working on an tablet together. That bit of scuttlebutt comes from a pretty well-connected source: Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam, who spilled the beans to the Wall Street Journal today. The device will run the Android OS, and that’s about all we know about it so far–but Verizon says it’ll have more details later this week. (And maybe Google will have something to say at its I|O conference next week.)

This gizmo will, of course, compete with Apple’s iPad. It joins the land rush of  would-be iPad killers that don’t actually exist yet (and, in some cases, may never exist). I’d like to see something emerge as the iPad’s most formidable archival–and here are a few features that would help Google and Verizon’s tablet get there.

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The Verizon Nexus One is Vaporous–and That's Okay

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 26, 2010 at 12:18 pm

Ever since Google announced back in January that it would be selling be a Verizon Wireless-compatible Nexus One in the spring, I’ve known people who planned their whole smartphone-buying strategy around that fact. As of January, the Nexus One was the hottest Android handset on the market, and plenty of folks swear by Verizon. It sounded like a match made in heaven–or at least a potentially attractive combination,

Well, spring has sprung, and it sounds like the Verizon Nexus turned out to be DBA (Dead Before Arrival): Bloomberg is reporting that the handset has been scrapped. It’s not entirely clear why–the story begins by saying that Verizon “retreated” from being involved with the Nexus One, but then it quotes a Google spokesperson saying that Google decided to skip it because of “amazing innovation happening across the open Android ecosystem,” and a Verizon spokesperson who seems to say that the carrier is still interested. Maybe it was a mutual decision.

In any event, it’s no biggie. Verizon has already launched the Droid Incredible, a well-reviewed phone that’s essentially the Nexus One only more so. And for all Google’s talk of changing the way people buy phones, it remains unclear what the benefit is of getting your phone from Google rather than a carrier–especially in the case of Verizon, since there’s no such thing as a Verizon-compatible phone that’s unlocked and able to work on other networks. The Verizon Nexus One was going to be a Verizon Nexus One, even if it was Google doing the order fulfillment.

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Skype on Verizon: Coming This Thursday

Posted by Harry McCracken on March 23, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Last month, Verizon and Verizon Wireless announced that they were working together to bring a mobile version of Skype to users of BlackBerry and Android handsets on the Verizon network. Today at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas, they’re divulging the details, including the precise timeframe: Skype Mobile will begin to  be available for download this Thursday at 3am ET.

Russ Shaw, general manager for mobile at Skype, told me that the version of Skype that BlackBerry- and Android-toting Verizon customers will get has been optimized for the Verizon network and the devices in question. For instance, it runs in the background in always-on mode, but won’t drain the battery too quickly, he said.

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Exclusive: TheStreet.com’s Tech Exclusives Are a Crapshoot

Posted by Harry McCracken on February 18, 2010 at 4:07 pm

TheStreet.com’s Scott Moritz has an exciting exclusive: Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar has learned that Microsoft is working on a Microsoft-branded phone based on its Windows Phone 7 Series OS. It’ll be manufactured by HTC Asus, and software problems have postponed its release into 2011.

The story would seem to give new life to old rumors about a Microsoft phone, code-named project “Pink.” Except…Scott Moritz stories headlined as”exclusives”–usually crediting Kumar for the scoop–have a crummy track record of exclusively revealing stuff that turns out to be true. When I see them, my instinctive response is skepticism, not bland acceptance of anything in the story as gospel.

Shall we recap?

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