by Playfuls Staff |
31st July 2006
“Part M3 player. Part phone. Totally sweet.” This is how Verizon Wireless describes on the official site the phone from LG included in the “Chocolate” fashion.[more]
It resembles to iPod but you can talk on it and has a “sweet” look. And, just as the ad promoting it says, “everybody loves chocolate”, isn’t it?
Probably it is Verizon’s answer to Motorola RAZR, but it doesn’t matter since it is a darn cute phone.
The estimated cost of a Chocolate LG is around 150 dollars, but only for a two year contract.
The music-download industry grows rapidly and phones are considered to be the next platform for this industry, due to the large number of users. According to research companies more than 7.5 million songs have been downloaded on smartphones in less than a year. Still, it is iTunes who takes the king’s crown, with more than 1 billion songs downloaded from the site since its launch on PC platforms.
The step made by Verizon is to be accompanied by another measure meant to attract customers in buying songs for LG Chocolate: you will no longer have to pay the $15 monthly charge to access a tune.
This is Verizon’s response to growing criticism about its music-download service launched in January 2006, which did not allow MP3 tracks to be played on Verizon handsets.
Now, with the help of a USB cable, you can transfer songs in the copy-protected WMA format from your PC to your LG phone and, thanks to the memory slot, you can store on a 2GB card more than 2,000 songs.
"The customers spoke, and we listened," says John Harrobin, vice president of digital media for Verizon.
“Are we going after the young adults? Well, it’s a segment we’re targeting, but we believe Chocolate has mass market appeal,” said Verizon marketing product manager Nikki Learakos, who’s based at Verizon’s Midwest headquarters in Schaumburg.
The Chocolate series is now very appreciated for its design, with LG KG800 (another phone in the series) receiving the IF Design Award 2006 for its innovating architecture.
LG says the Chocolate will include a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth support and a micoSD memory port.
The navigation system is similar to the iPod’s, except for the fact that you can also find the buttons for accepting and ending a conversation, just like on any other phone. But that is only for the “physical” part of Chocolate: you can also download the VZ Navigator software to find out many things about your whereabouts.
According to the official site, the VZ Navigator uses GPS to tell you where you are at, what’s near you and it indicates places like landmarks, restaurants or ATMs.
The navigation feature offers you turn-by-turn directions to any destination.
The phone that registered strong sells in Europe and South America will be available in about 1,900 Verizon Wireless stores, including those inside Circuit City, starting Aug. 7.
Phone-spotter Mobile Burn's review of the phone at least was enthusiastic: "The black slider style handset looks incredible, and backs up its fashion tendencies with a great feature set. The LG VX8500 sports a large, 262k colour TFT display, which disappears when not active, along with touch sensitive navigation controls that work off the heat in your fingertip. A 1.3 megapixel camera sits on the back of the VX8500 Chocolate, and a microSD memory card slot is included, which can be used to store music downloaded from the Verizon V CAST music store."
The Chocolate LG is a bit taller than a lipstick and its slick chocolate-colored cover includes a 1.25-inch-by-1.75-inch color screen and a wheel-shaped control which is very similar to the iPod’s.
The screen is bright and easy to read, and the controls are touch sensitive and work smoothly. They're backlit with cool red symbols, and while this looks extremely hip, it's also confusing to use until you learn what all the strangely shaped symbols mean.
The size of LG VX8500 Chocolate is 96.5mm x 47.7mm x 17.5mm (3.8" x 1.88" x 0.69"). It works using the CDMA standard (code division multiple access) and supports data-transfers of up to 2.4 Mbps with EV-DO.
It weighs 100g (3.53oz) and has a battery autonomy in stand-by of 384 hours, and 210 minutes of talk time.
It also boasts with the fact that it can make video capture or playback at QCIF (176x144).
“It’s a niche product and it’s gotten good reviews,” said John Slack, an analyst with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. “Phones are definitely becoming more like multi-media devices.”
“With sophisticated American users in mind, this is the next generation of the Chocolate design for the U.S. Verizon Wireless’ features and functionalities, such as VCast and VCast Music, which make Chocolate the ultimate entertainment and communication device,” Juno Cho, LG president, said in a statement.
LG hopes to enter with Chocolate in the music industry, after SonyEriccson, Nokia or Motorola have reported strong sells of smartphones with MP3 (or other format) capabilities.
Learakos said Chocolate offers more than the typical music phone. Besides offering more features, it allows users to talk, send text messages or photo messages with music in the background.
Rival download service Sprint- which declared it had sold 4.5 million songs since October- takes $15 to $25 in monthly fees for data access from its customers, where the downloads include music and other entertainment.
Verizon will continue charging $1.99 for downloads to the handset, or 99 cents a song for customers who download directly to PCs. Sprint charges $2.49 for its downloads, whether to a cellphone or a PC.
By dropping the monthly fee, Verizon "now opens up the market to the youth segment," says Roger Entner, an analyst with market tracker Ovum. "Let's be real: You want to download a song or two, you're not going to sign up for $15 a month to do that."
Ovum says that 32% of new phones shipped this year are equipped to play music. That's forecast to grow to 75% by 2010. That's 309 million handsets today, vs. 898 million by 2010.
