Thu Oct 04, 2007 9:45 am

Verizon...again an also ran. "See, we can make one too."

If immitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the iPhone is the Apple of everyone's eye!

Give me a break people. Won't any of these companies go out and design something ORIGINAL?????????????????????????

Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:02 am

I wonder how users will synch the "killer" with their computer. How do you get music onto it and photos off, how do you synch your address book? Is there a synch cable, a dock, or do you email stuff to an fro? The article doesn't say much about that, well I didn't see it anywhere in the Reuter's article. There is more to the usability of a device than raw technical features. Without an easy way to synch with your computer I don't see this product sinking the iPhone.

Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:10 am

If they _really_ wanted to create an iPhone killer, they would charge less than the exact same price. I don't think they really expect it to be an iPhone killer. They are just capitalizing on the name and notoriety they hope to gain (read hype) from their claims.

And like others, I'm really curious as to how well this will work with my Mac, syncing names calendars, etc. Also, will it even be as functional as my Palm?

-Jon

Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:52 am

I agree with Vasic - Verizon wants/needs publicity - especially after passing on the iPhone when they had the chance. Now that they have everyone's attention, it is Verizon's turn to do something with it. We'll know exactly how Verizon really feels about this phone by how they sell it. If they heavily subsidize it eventually then we'll know they either cannot compete or they view it internally as a me-too product.

Burrito - While I agree with your sentiments and feel there is a target market that echoes the thoughts you've presented, I also feel there is a huge quantity of phone users who will buy a me-too product because it's just good enough. (Lord knows they do it with operating systems.) They'll take one look at a Voyager and declare it to be just as good as an iPhone, whether or not it is. IMHO this is Verizon's target market - the vast uneducated masses.

Thu Oct 04, 2007 11:53 am

	Guest wrote:
	Most iPhone users are already locked to a two-year contract. Not a lot of killing is going to be happening until those contracts expire, if even then (I highly doubt it).

True, but the majority of the cell phone users do not have an iPhone, or even a smart phone of any sort, and are not the AT&T service. Those are folks who will be targeted by this killer.

Thu Oct 04, 2007 1:48 pm

Verizon doesn't have a real iPhone. That's not their problem. Verizon's real problem is that they take very capable phones and cripple them. The Moto phones that the wife & daughter have are blessed with a mini-USB port that can be used to... charge the phone. Verizon has crippled their ability to transfer files (pictures out, ringtones in, whatever), and I'm not even sure you can sync the address book. Same with Bluetooth phones.

This Voyager thing could go far beyond the iPhone (unlikely, but go with it for a moment), but if Verizon doesn't let it breathe it's gonna suffocate on the shelf.

Thu Oct 04, 2007 2:44 pm

daemon wrote:

It's sad to see that everyone feels a need to market their products by saying it's an Apple product killer. Let's face it, this thing could generate 16 oz bars of gold every time you hit the pound key and just about everyone on this site would rag on it simply because it wasn't Apple that was embosed on it's back. We all know that Foxconn is the most likely actual manufacturer of the iPhone as Apple doesn't make a single one of their own consumer electronic devices themselves but rather buys them from a chinese manufacturer and rebrands 'em. I bet dollars to donuts that this Voyager is being made in the same plant as the iPhone and the manufacturer is laughing uproarously at all the stupid Americans while they rake in our money.

Rebrand? That implies that it was an existing design that Apple took and put their name on it, which is not the case. The ZUNE v1 could rightfully be called a rebranded Toshiba Gigabeat, but I don't think that is a valid thing to say about the iPhone. Apple has contracted a company to manufacture the iPhone (and iPod and whatever else) based upon a design created and owned by Apple, and are not rebranding anything. Semantics? Maybe, but a very important distinction in the manufacturing world.

Fri Oct 05, 2007 7:15 am

There's no definitive way to say who designed what without the inside story. That said, I view anything that is manufactured by a third party company that is then sold with the first party's brand on it to be rebranding. Foxconn has a long history of making the best computer parts in the world for other companies to rebrand and sell as theirs'.

So to recap, if company A owns manufacturing plant C then any product that is made at manufacturing plant C and sold by A under A's brands is not rebranding. But when B owns C and sells the products to A to sell to the public under their brand, then it is rebranding.

Foxconn is an Original Design Manufacturer, they design and make products for other companies to brand as their own.

ODM

Which ODMs benefit

Intruder wrote:

daemon wrote: It's sad to see that everyone feels a need to market their products by saying it's an Apple product killer. Let's face it, this thing could generate 16 oz bars of gold every time you hit the pound key and just about everyone on this site would rag on it simply because it wasn't Apple that was embosed on it's back. We all know that Foxconn is the most likely actual manufacturer of the iPhone as Apple doesn't make a single one of their own consumer electronic devices themselves but rather buys them from a chinese manufacturer and rebrands 'em. I bet dollars to donuts that this Voyager is being made in the same plant as the iPhone and the manufacturer is laughing uproarously at all the stupid Americans while they rake in our money. Rebrand? That implies that it was an existing design that Apple took and put their name on it, which is not the case. The ZUNE v1 could rightfully be called a rebranded Toshiba Gigabeat, but I don't think that is a valid thing to say about the iPhone. Apple has contracted a company to manufacture the iPhone (and iPod and whatever else) based upon a design created and owned by Apple, and are not rebranding anything. Semantics? Maybe, but a very important distinction in the manufacturing world.

Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:28 pm

daemon,

Do you really think Apple would buy and re-brand someone else's product? There's no way. Apple never made a retail iPod in their own factories, but the iPod is most assuredly an original Apple design. They pride themselves on their design. What about all those APPLE patents that cover the iPhone? The inventors were not Chinese or Hong Kong citizens, they are Apple employees who assigned their inventions to Apple Inc.

Also, no modern company owns all their own manufacturing anymore. It doesn't make sense. Foxconn, Flextronics, Solectron and a few other Asian manufacturers (the last 2 merged last June) do the lion's share of consumer electronic manufacturing and there are a whole host of others in China, India, Brazil, and don't forget the maquiladoras in Mexico.

Now, ODMs are on the rise. Those companies who honed their manufacturing skills and took advantage of their relatively low labor costs are finally seeing a flattening in their business. So where do they turn? To design. But they are nowhere as sophisticated as Apple is today. Will they ever be? I would not count them out, but as of today, they are designing incremental improvements, not game changers.

Also, a company may chose an ODM as opposed to their own design when it's not a core product. Suppose I'm an electronics company with a great name and excellent TV designs, but no radios. Well my engineers COULD design a radio, but since there are many mature designs why not just purchase one from an ODM company and put my company's good name on it. The risks are low because radios are a mature technology. The radios will sell because they have a trusted name behind/on them.

There may be an example or two out there, but I don't know of a revolutionary product that ORIGINATED at an ODM. Certainly the iPhone is not one.

I think I can definitely say that Apple is NOT re-branding someone else's design.