LOL. If I'm not careful, I might end up being a client of sixftunda.

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-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

Reminds me of a joke:
After 20 years of marriage the husband was tired of being stepped on and letting his wife wear the pants in the household. When he came home from work, he slammed the door and announced to his wife, “I am going to sit in your easy chair and guess who’s gonna bring me a beer and rub my feet?…..YOU! Then, guess who’s gonna go into the kitchen and make me a hot meal?……YOU! Then, guess who’s gonna take me upstairs and show me a wild time tonight?….YOU! Then do you know who’s gonna clean me up and get me dressed in the morning?”

“Yes I do,” she replied, “The undertaker”.

I don't know a lot about cell phone deals and marketing plans between verizon and different cell phone manufacturers so maybe someone in the know could comment, but when I asked the guy in the verizon store about the i760 he said it was a great phone, hes seen it and played with it and that the reason its not coming out til later has to do with a deal that verizon made with some other PDA, maybe he said a blackberry that just came out. He said they have to wait a certain period of time before releasing or marketing another PDA. Could this be true? Would Verizon sign onto a deal like that in order to get a specific phone from say blackberry?

This is VERY possible.

Good one, particularly for your profession.

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-Jay
The Fine Print:Nothing in this post (or any of my other posts) is intended to constitute legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. For purposes of this forum, I'm just another nerd like you. :-)

nice to see a cat in your profession with such a great sense of humor!

dude, stick around fow-shizzzle

I wish I could avoid those mind numbing iPhone commercials. [TONY SOPRANO] But hey what can you do?[/TONY SOPRANO]

But in a practical sense it would seem frustrating to have your phone in portrait mode then having to type on a tangible landscape keyboard. Perfect example put your i730 screen in landscape mode and type on the keyboard. I remember trying it for 30 seconds when I got my i730...never did it again. Some might be skilled but I find it stupid on a $600 dollar device.

Also I notice on the i760 two buttons on the left and right on the keyboard are those buttons or what? I'm a pretty good guesser so I would think they are buttons for the selections on the touch screen when you want to use a real button versus pulling out the stylus to check a notification or dismiss one.
Just looking for clarification.

Now this is what I call a step in the right direction for functionality.
Hopefully we will see this form factor in the near future i.e. Q3 2010.

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It is possible for Verizon to agree to give a certain period of time before they release another phone, but Verizon doesn't like being told what to do, which is one of the reasons they turned down the iPhone... But let me repeat myself. Asking people at the stores about upcoming phones is useless. They are the LAST to know, and usually just make up stuff to get you to purchase a phone they have on hand... Unless you are connected to Verizon through a business rep, then it does zero good to ask a CS rep about anything dealing with an upcoming phone, whether at a store or by calling their service department. They are the last to find out.

Those two buttons on the keyboard to left and right with the dots, those are the "soft" key buttons, which correspond to the two small buttons on the bottom of the screen, which all Microsoft PDA Phones have...

I like the larger screen, but hopefully they will also change some of the other locations on the phone, and hopefully by 2010, we will have a watch with a mid air projector that we don't even need to carry a device like this, and we simply have a small device in (or behind) our ear. I want to minimize the stuff I carry, and hopefully in the future they make our stuff small, barely noticeable, powerful, and functional. They are SLOWLY moving in that direction, but I want that crap that was in Minority Report (remember that Minority Report actually talked to some of the best "futurists" to come up with their ideas).

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-Michael
Need help setting up your i730/i830 or other WM2003/WM5 Phone, as well as the other hacks I have done, check out the MRailing Guides and Links

fokis,

You raise good points:

1) VZW Marketing
As our advertising specialist, brassMONKEY, will attest, VZW (or parent VZ, for that matter) isn't very good at marketing. Even now, what we see from this carrier does not resonate much above the level of...Ma Bell.

Arguably, VZW's biggest sins are A) failing to understand devices and the culture of advanced mobility, and B) a lingering contempt for subscriber empowerment. No example better illustrates this lack of will than the nearly invisible 2-year reign of the ix30.

In contrast, Jobs is a master. In 5-1/2 months, snappy spin of a cute-but-modest handset that *isn't even available* has hyped the value of Apple's shares by nearly 44% (an increase of $31.7B in Apple's market cap). For those keeping score, the math for stockholder wealth works out to $3,174 per phone for the first 10mm iPhones shipped. Now THIS is marketing.

Still, we don't really care. Our marketing plan for VZW is simple: Release the i760 and get out of the way!

2) i760 Feature Set
We can only presume that VZW gets the product for which it asks. The way the program likely works is that Sammy presents a design concept, a tentative feature set, and a mock-up. VZW kicks around the proposal, suggests mods (or worse, "delete options"), and signs off. As we see, VZW's guiding principle isn't performance, it's...perceived profitability (largely from service agreement lock-ins).

As VZW apparently knows what we want better than we do, it wasn't, and isn't, about to ask for our input along the way. And this is why the i760 isn't the leadership handset it could have been, or should have been.

As Mark_A_K will certify, until device control and distribution is liberated from CDMA carriers (which ultimately should occur), the cycle of low-tech, crippled performance and subscriber frustration will continue.

--BAM

Fokis: I'd really love to see a Windows Mobile device with the SGH-F520 form factor.


It seems to me something like that would combine the best of the i730's portrait slider with the ease of dialing and larger keyboard of the i760's landscape slider and the iPhone's large screen.

Now that is a sweet device!

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VZW, It's 2009! Time to embrace technology, not suppress it. - oops too late I've moved on over to the iPhone w/ AT$T!

The other form factor I'd like to see is a WM6 Pro flip phone, with dual screens and the ability to "pivot" the screen 180 degrees. This would let you close the phone with the main screen on the outside and use it as a touchscreen PDA. Put the camera on the hinge like the Samsung SCH-a970 and it could make a great video device as well.

Jobs clearly is a "master" at creating buzz for the products apple developes. However, the true comparison should not be between Jobs/iphone and VZW, rather we should be comparing apple/samsung and VZW/at&t.
Samsung is clearly outmatched from an R and D standpoint as well as the resulting product buzz. More on what I think of Samsung's earth-shattering innovation later in my rant...
I'd call the VZW/at&t marketing matchup a tie, as both do a decent job marketing their respective brands, but lack considerably in differentiating (marketing) the products/devices they sell.
IMHO, the reasoning behind this is three fold. First, they feel the budget is best spent promoting their brands, as opposed to brands/devices their competition carries as well. Second, is the fact so many carriers carry the same devices. -Why promote something that doesn't set you apart from your competition? Lastly, carriers purchase devices in bulk and typically can not send unsold inventory back to the manufacture. This results in a "stealth" marketing approach to new devices. VZW is all for "underground" sites and groups like ours knowing about and discussing their upcoming devices, which is why they intentionally leak info to guys like "Ethan" before the release. Carries don't typically promote upcoming devices too far in advance in fear that no one will continue to buy the old crap they have purchased, sitting in their warehouse(s)!
I don't fault VZW for their marketing strategy, what I fault them for is their pure greed that causes them to cripple the hell out of everything they sell. Samsung, however, I completely fault for accepting the status quo in PDA innovation and for getting their ASS handed to them by apple on their first try.

It is yet to be seen who's ASS get's handed to whom.

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Don't mess with old futs...age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! B. S. and brilliance only come with age and experience!

Agreed. And in what way do you feel they are getting their ass handed to them? If we're talking UI, I agree. If we're talking overall functionality, I disagree.

Jobs is admittedly out in front on the PR front (that's Jobs MO), but no one really knows how well this new toy works, and what the competitors have waiting in the wings.

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Don't mess with old futs...age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! B. S. and brilliance only come with age and experience!

I disagree. apple has changed the game from not only a UI standpoint but from a marketing standpoint as well. the point could be made that the "end game" when creating a device is sales performance. i am sure everyone would agree the iPhone will destroy not only the i760, but probably all samsung pda/smartphones combined. -to see who is currently getting their ASS handed to them, just take a quick look at both company's stock performance (as bam pointed out) since the iPhone and i760 were announced at mac world/CES, respectively.

Dont get me wrong, I'll be first in line for the i760 the day it comes out. I believe it to be the better device for my needs. The i760 is more substance to the iPhone's style. my point is/was that rather than push the industry and their own predetermined limits, samsung chose to embrace the status quo when it comes to UI, style, design, and implementation of technology. its just frustrating samsung (and/or other CDMA developers) didnt have the same groundbreaking vision as apple/jobs. -imagine a CDMA PDA with apple's UI, style, design, and use of technology with samsungs functionality, and the soaring stock that would undoubtably follow.

:mikey:

Again, that remains to be seen!

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Don't mess with old futs...age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! B. S. and brilliance only come with age and experience!

I think VZW is keeping the devices simple so that they can continue to provide simple tech support.

One these device become fully functional VZW will have to let the support go back to the manufacturers.......where it should be in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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VZW, It's 2009! Time to embrace technology, not suppress it. - oops too late I've moved on over to the iPhone w/ AT$T!