Verizon to topple AT&T, take smartphone lead?
updated 05:15 pm EST, Mon November 2, 2009
Verizon adding 15 smartphones in 2 mths
A slip of new data today suggests Verizon may be planning a full assault on AT&T's command of the US smartphone market. One historically accurate contact for BGR says Verizon is watching its launch of the Motorola Droid very closely and, if successful, will accelerate smartphone launches it would have put off until early 2010. These would include particularly advanced devices like the Android-based HTC Dragon and Motorola Calgary, the former of which could launch on November 27th in place of the BlackBerry Curve2.
A second major device would show in mid-December, though its name isn't known.
If put into motion, the plan could have as many as 15 new phones on Verizon's network in the two final months of the year, including the Droid, Droid Eris, Calgary and Dragon among Android phones as well as the Curve2, Storm2 and several more handsets. The launches would be staggered but could continue through to the end of December.
While most carriers deliberately avoid grouping too many high-end phones together, Verizon's opposite approach is purportedly deliberate and intended to prove that it has both the best cellular network as well as the best smartphones. Publicly, Verizon has often been complimented for its network but criticized for adopting few desirable phones and in the past imposing limits, such as forcing Wi-Fi out of the original Storm or reducing the amount of RAM on HTC's Windows Mobile devices.
Decisions like these are believed to have regularly given AT&T front runner status both through the iPhone as well as exclusives like the original BlackBerry Bold. The majority of AT&T's 4.3 million smartphone activations this summer were iPhones.
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Joined: Aug 2001
No...
It's "Verizon to try marketing and product blitz to topple ATT's lead".
It's a huge difference.