Verizon Wireless takes on the Iphone

US CARRIER Verizon has released four new phones designed to take apart the Apple Iphone.

The LG touchscreen-with-QWERTY keypad model is likely to be in the shops within a few weeks. Top of the range is LG’s Voyager which will be cheaper than $500. and come with a 2.8-inch touchscreen and opens to provide a QWERTY keyboard too.

Memory is expandable to eight GB, which is poor in comparison to the Iphone's eight GB of embedded flash memory.

It has multimedia, HTML browser and access to all Verizon Wireless services.

Also in the release is the LG Venus which a display for media and a touch-sensitive screen for selecting the phone’s applications. There is also a keypad slides out for traditional input. It will cost about $130.

Samsung's Juke, which opens to create a device twice as long as the closed handset, is the third in the range. It has two GB of on-board memory, a cable for sideloading and headphones. It will probably be priced under $100.

Last up, there will be the LG Chocolate with support for six GB and eight GB expandable memory at about $130.

None of these comes with the street cred of the Iphone, but do more or less the same things a lot cheaper. There is no chance that the price will be halved for early adopters and there are no daft proprietary lock ins. The top of the range models have traditional keypads which is proving an asset now that the novelty of touch screens is wearing off on the Iphone and people are starting to think they want proper keyboards after all.

More here. µ