The LG Voyager offered by Verizon has finally received the previously rumored visual voicemail application as part of a new firmware upgrade, according to today's report. Owners of a Voyager can currently bring their phone in to a Verizon dealer for a free firmware upgrade. At the same time, Verizon will offer the Voyager in a new Titanium color, in addition to the originally available black.
Verizon today corrected its false start and today officially launched Visual Voice Mail, its own response to a similar feature for the iPhone 3G at AT&T. The feature lets supporting phones access messages out of order but provides advantages not present with the rival system, including the ability to add an unknown caller as a contact, forward messages, or store permanent copies to the phone itself rather than rely on a remote server.
Verizon today inadvertedly revealed that it will give owners of its LG Voyager touchscreen phone an option that brings their devices closer to iPhone functionality. The Visual Voice Mail app would let users see who has called and play messages in any order, much like Apple's implementation. The new software would nonetheless have slightly more features, with the option of not just calling back but also of replying directly to voice mail or of sending a text, picture, or video message.
LG on Monday revealed that it has sold about seven million touchscreen cellphones since the company first introduced a full touch device through the Prada Phone in early 2007. The company claims to have the "leadership" of the category and notes that two million of these are the KU990 Viewty cameraphone; the next most popular devices are the North America-focused Venus and Voyager at 1.6 million and 1.3 million examples each, according to the company. The remaining 2.1 million are split between the Vu as well as models that are largely only available in Europe or Korea.
Apple's decision to allow subsidized prices for the iPhone 3G is an admission that it needs to follow the traditional cellphone provider model, Verizon's chief operating officer Denny Strigl claimed at the second day of the Deutsche Bank Conference. The executive downplays the impact of the new cellphone on his own company and contends that Apple and AT&T are simply learning to accept a conventional practice that discounts the phone's up-front price rather than insist on splitting monthly phone revenues.
Verizon this morning unveiled its anticipated release of the Samsung Glyde. The carrier's CDMA adaptation of the European, GSM-based F700 scales the camera down to 2 megapixels (with autofocus and flash) but otherwise aims at providing an iPhone-like experience while also mending some perceived gaps from its US rival; like the LG Voyager, the Glyde includes 3G Internet over EVDO, a full HTML browser and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Samsung, however, drops the digital over-the-air TV tuner in favor of built-in GPS navigation.
