The Dodge Retort

By now, everyone and their mother has heard about the Bloomberg story yesterday that Verizon will get the iPhone by early next year. We’ve heard this before.

Here’s the top of the story.

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone next year, ending AT&T Inc.’s exclusive hold on the smartphone in the U.S., two people familiar with the plans said.

The device will be available to customers in January, according to the people, who declined to be named because the information isn’t public. Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, and Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, declined to comment.

I was just on the phone with Verizon Blackberry support tech, who out of the blue offered me the iPhone – in jest, of course, but it was bold offer by a guy whose ilk are usually pretty scripted. This guy was good technically and spoke freely. “Both [Apple and Verizon] denied it so it must be true,” he said (they actually had no comment, which is even more of a loaded non-response).

“Let me tell you, it has been a roller coaster. Yes [we going to get it], no (we’re not going to get it], yes, no, yes, no. Our CEO has told Apple “we are waiting for you…we’re ready when you are…we want it,” he said.

Assuming it’s as powerful as the iPhone 4, the new addition would be one more step to Verizon’s domination of the U.S. wireless market. The Bloomberg story guesstimates Verizon could sell 12 million iPhones in the first year and it fair to assume many would be defections from AT&T’s inferior network.

“We can put AT&T out of business,” the Verizon spokesman volunteered (I was not playing my reporter self – this guy wanted to talk about this as we established a rapport). Coincidentally Verizon just launched it Rule the Air ad campaign to drive home that its network is superior to arch rival AT&T’s. The massage? To make sure “the signal is strong so the most important transmitter is you.”

Last week, I blogged about the blitz of phones Verizon is unleashing, which is hedging its bets if it doesn’t get the iPhone. Today’s expanding crop of Droids do just about as much the iPhone so that base is covered. The iPhone would be just one more red hot offering to Verizon’s 92.8 million wireless customers (to AT&T’s 85.1 million).

How can Apple ignore Verizon’s huge installed base any longer? Fact is, it can’t. Outlook for AT&T? Gloomy.

Follow me on twitter.

Like me, you may have had something to do that prevented you from watching the U.S. versus Ghana World Cup match on TV. I had a wedding that started at 1 CDT in Minneapolis suburb Wayzata, Minn. Two hours for pictures and the ceremony would prevent from situating in front of the TV for the duration.

And representing AT&T....

Smartphones to the rescue. Not really. It was AT&T 3G and an iPhone v. my Blackberry Curve and Verizon 3G. Neither performed admirably. My son had the iPhone and for 30 minutes tried to get a video feed over the Internet and specifically over iTunes. That did not work. Waaaaaaay too slow. My aging Curve doesn’t do video.

So he abandoned that effort and went to live blogging at Guardian.co.uk. I opted for the ESPN live blog of the game which provided minute-by-minute (and very opinionated) updates. My live blog worked well for the first half, but completely shut down in the second. My son’s live blog worked throughout (yes, AT&T prevailed over Verizon).

Neither feed worked inside the church where the ceremony was held. Divine providence, perhaps! We only got reception in the vestibule, which improved near the windows.

By no means is this a definitive test. This was just my experience and where I happened to be when I REALLY wanted connectivity.

The inability for 3G to provide video and consistent connectivity reminded how badly we need 4G before the potential of the latest smart phones can be realized. Follow me on Twitter.

Verizon, which offers more  Smartphones or cell phones for that matter, added the Droid X to its expanding stable of hot Android phones. [Follow me on Twitter.]

The new Droid X has a BIG 4.3 inch display.

Motorola’s Droid X not only competes with its intended target, Apple’s iPhone 4, but other Verizon offerings such as the HTC Droid Incredible, which if you ordered today would not be shipped July 22nd. I chatted with “Charity” on the Verizon Wireless’ site and she offered me $30 off the the Incredible if I bought an accessory. Discounting a phone I can’t get for month!? Seems weird.

Verizon’s strategy is simple: blitz the market with powerful Android-based smartphones, which offer a great web experience, cam/camera, video, music – you know, the stuff brought to us first by the iPhone – and get all those customers to sign up for two years of Verizon wireless. Verizon could care less which phone you buy. It wants to send you those monthly bills which include a data plan.

When I asked Charity what the difference between the Incredible and Droid X, she said she was “unsure” and seemed intent on selling me an Incredible. From the looks of it, the main difference is bigger display. Note that HTC’s Evo 4G from Sprint has a 4.3 inch display – bigger displays is where smartphones are going.

It’s the razor blade strategy on steroids. Give the phones at a discount, which could be lot steeper, by the way. Here’s the Droid X details lifted from the Verizon press release (hype removed) that came out today.

“DROID X [offers] a 4.3-inch high-resolution screen (compared to the Incredible’s 3.7 inch display – TDR)  for viewing movies and video from BLOCKBUSTER On Demand^®presented by V CAST Video, the newest addition to the Verizon Wireless V CAST application, which also includes access to favorite TV shows.  The DROID X video capabilities let customers capture spontaneous fun, combining a dual-flash, 8-megapixel camera, HD camcorder, as well as DLNA and HDMI connectivity to download, stream and share personal HD content.

DROID X also [offers] Android 2.2 and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 with an over-the-air update in the latter half of the summer.  With the update, the Flash Player will allow mobile users to experience hundreds of sites with rich applications and content inside the browser, including games, animations, rich Internet applications (RIAs), data presentations and visualizations, ecommerce, music, video, audio and more.”

Boy Genius liked the Droid X – a lot, according to its first impression. I hope to get my hands on a review unit very soon. Here’s Boy Genius’ summary:

“Our first impressions are very, very positive. Between the phones impressive stat sheet and our initial tests we can’t wait to start really putting this thing through its paces over the next several weeks.”

By the way, a site called Shrinkage is Good sent me a handy chart comparing total cost of smartphone ownership when you commit to a phone and the service agreement that go with them.  Verizon is the most expensive of the four for both unlimited data plans and the minimum plans, which goes to show how relatively inconsequential the price of the phone is: it’s the phone bill, stupid!

The Droid  X isn’t on the chart, but would cost the same as the Droid Incredible. The chart is accompanied by a blog post which explains the usual apple to oranges comparison:

source:  Shrinkage is Good.

Follow me on Twitter.

I wish I could tell you this is my first post composed on my new iPad, but its on-screen keyboard doesn’t come when I use WordPress 3.0 in the Safari browser.

That’s just one example of things I can’t do on the iPad that I can on my netbooks, notebooks and tower PCs. Actually, I just found WordPress in the iPad App Store and with a couple tweaks, adapted my blog editor to the iPad. But going into WordPress straight through Safari was a bust.

Apple's WordPress app for iPad

So this post was half-composed with the iPad and I am still figuring out details like embedding links and that sort of thing.

Don’t get me wrong: there’s plenty to like about the iPad:  it’s a great reader, photo and video viewer with a fantastic display, but to three decade PC vet like me, it feels quirky. And the tablet metaphor has some drawbacks.

For instance, I recline using my netbook and notebook. With the display flipped up, I plunk the notebook down on my belly or chest and type with two hands. The tablet requires one hand to hold it up (it feels heavy at one pound, six ounces), leaving only one hand with which to peck away. For me, this is a downside of the tablet.

I have this idea for a sling like device attached to the iPad and fastened to my forehead. That would free up my left hand for typing. Or I could really grow mountainous beer belly and lean it against that.

No Adobe Flash on the iPad also means I can’t play my favorite Facebook game, Word Twist. And funneling everything through iTunes onto the iPad (save a the Camera Connection Kit, which my Apple store seems always out of) is a pain. iPad like Macs are closed systems.

I  like the iPad the more I understand its trove of features, but I won’t be giving up my PCs any time soon.

Follow me on Twitter.

Like two million others before me, I am getting my iPad – today. Yes, t minus 90 minutes before I head to the Apple store in Salem, N.H. to pick up my  64 GB 3G iPad.

It seems so appropriate for Father’s Day. Just plunk down the $829 cost on plastic (add $30 for the cover and god knows what else I’ll get while I am in the spending mood) and worry about paying later. Truly the American way…

As many of you know, the iPad is seriously back-ordered. I put my iPad reservation in 4-5 weeks ago and checked on it Friday. The store salesman told me it had no reservation for me on record, but that he’d re-enter it and I should expect to wait two months for delivery.

The next day as in yesterday June 19th, I got an e-mail from Apple telling me my unit was in and that it would be held in my name for 24 hours. I’ll take that as a good sign.

I better print out that e-mail and take it with me.

Follow me on  Twitter.

The fifth Boeing 787 Dreamliner (ZA005) took its maiden flight yesterday from Paine Field. Here’s the video as it leaves its birthplace at the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington. Follow me on Twitter.



ZA005 First Flight from Liz Matzelle on Vimeo.

Deciding when to upgrade your mobile phone is not automatic when you become discount eligible. Far from it. If you commit to the wrong phone, you’re stuck with it for 12 months unless you replace it at pay full price.

As Verizon customer support just told me, you have to “ride out the phone.”

That’s the case with Veriz0n, my provider. The phone I am eying is the HTC Droid Incredible which is $199.99 discounted for re-upping with Verizon for another two years. With no discount, it’s $529.99 which I doubt many are going to pay. Customers are conditioned to paying the discounted price.

But I don’t like getting locked into further two year commitments, which has prompted to me look at  no-contract providers like metroPCS with its “all-in pricing, additional taxes and regulatory fees included, no contracts, and no hidden surprises.”

Sounds great, but is it purely value I want? I returned a Palm Pre Plus to Verizon a month ago because while it was a great value at $50 with free mobile broadband, it wasn’t the phone I wanted (I became eligible for my 12-month upgrade in March). MetroPCS has very basic phones compared to Verizon. It has only two SmartPhones. Verizon has 26.

Some day, I’ll do the math about whether switching carriers is worth it. Verizon maximally charges between $175 to $350 per line, but pro-rates it depending on when you bail. For the four lines, my early termination fees today would be $460.

Another subtle gotcha is that my family members have all upgraded on different dates, which individually resets the contract for each line. That means, I am not free and clear of early termination fees when my line’s contract runs out next March 12th. I have to wait for all four to expire.

At least, Verizon has not abandoned its unlimited data program like AT&T, but that’s story for another day.

As much as I like the Droid Incredible, I may delay gratification 18 months until November when Verizon gives me $50 off a discounted phone for re-upping. And I can see what alternatives come along (4G?) to the Incredible and most likely, it’s discounted price could go down.

Bottom line? Mobile phone decisions should not be this difficult, convoluted, trap-ridden and remorseful. Verizon Wireless bombards us with new phones and then says we can’t them at a reasonable price unless we indenture ourselves. Contracts are full of gotchas and companies like Verizon have excessively inserted themselves into their customers’ lives.

In the end, companies with an approach like metroPCS’s could win this war.

Follow me on Twitter.

Picking up your land line phone and calling anywhere in the world is cheap, right? After all, the competition are freebies like  Gmail video chat and Skype.

Wrong on the first point! I blithely picked up the phone recently and dialed an Australian cell phone to do an interview. The charge just came in for the 22-minute call – $123.30 including tax.

The good news is Verizon forgave me for it because an understanding customer support person believed me when I told her the long distance operator informed me there’d by no charge. The operator had taken pity on me because I could not dial it direct, but did not follow through on erasing the charge.

The irony is the guy I interviewed – banking technology expert Brett King – was in New York at the time of the call – a mere 230 miles away from me in Boston.

I was surprised to hear from a Verizon call checker a couple of weeks ago to check if I actually made the call because  I have never phoned anyone Down Under before. At the time, the charge was $87 so somehow it grew to the billed amount of $123.30. The Verizon customer support person gave me an explanation, but I’ve already forgotten it.

The Verizon customer support person was in Andover, Mass. ,  a mere 15 miles from me. She was terrific. Had that person been halfway around the world, I highly doubt the charge would have been dropped.

It seems the further away,  the less empowered and sympathetic they are. Certainly, far flung customer support people are hard to understand over what are often poor connections.

As it turns out, I do not have a international calling plan which would allow me to direct dial internationally…that’s $4.95 a month. In fact, the Verizon customer support person told me I am now blocked from making the $3- a-minute international calls through the long distance unless I get this plan.

Who’d want to? With the $4.95 direct dial plan, the charge drop to about 15-18 cents a minute. But it’ll be Skype or Gmail video chat for me when my daughter goes to school in Australia this Fall.

Anyhow, Verizon’s understanding on  the charge is commendable. Thank you, VZ.

Follow me on Twitter.

As the Apple iPad touched down in nine more countries, I trekked to my local Apple Store today in Salem, N.H. to buy one. My wife has expressed interest in one so it was time to spring.

No luck. There’s a 3-4 four week wait for the 64 GB 3G model, two to three weeks for non-3G models. With wide access to WIFI, I  had intended to skip 3G and maybe go for the 32 or 16 GB model, but I usually end up regretting low balling myself.

You also can turn the $30 a month AT&T mobile broadband on and off at will so for extra $130 over the non 3G 64 GB model, why not. It’ll be good for longer trips in the car.

Buy a case, wait for an iPad

So I gave them my iTunes login and password to get on their notification list.  I have 24 hours to claim it after it arrives in the store. No deposit necessary, but I feel, at long last, committed.

No iPads are sold unreserved and just off the floor. The notification list swallows them all.

Is becoming an Apple customer just a matter of time? In my case, it’s taken decades. After all, I wrote about PCs for the better part of my career.

But someone please tell me if there’s a whiff of anything exciting coming down the PC-Windows world besides some  loooong-talked about tablet wannabes.

Granted, I’ve argued both sides of cheap PCs versus Apple’s superior technology.

Interestingly, the Apple salesperson tried to lock me in a bit more. iPad cases are scarce and they had some in. Buy one now, he advised. Cart before horse, I retorted, being Dodge.

The newly ‘iPadded’ countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, U.K., Spain and Australia.

So I wait.

Follow me on Twitter.

A couple of months ago, I questioned why notebook touchpads were so bad and my sentiments struck a chord with SmartPlanet.com readers who for the most part agreed that they can make mousing around a very jumpy proposition. Upward of 40 readers commented.

Dell A920 at the ready to crumple the next sheet of paper

Next on my -hit list are PC printers. My experience with them is terrible. Paper feeds are unreliable and they always seems to send you that annoying “ink is low” message right after you’ve installed a new (and expensive) cartridge.

They fail when you’re in a hurry to print out an important document.

Yesterday, I wanted to print a letter and I spent the better part of 90 minutes shuttling between my Canon PIXMA 310 and a Dell (nee Lexmark) A920. The PIXMA 310 said it was low on ink and printed faded characters. I went downstairs and tried the Dell A920 – after five crumpled copies given its crooked paper feed and the obligatory `ink is low so you’d better run out to Staples and buy more cartridges at $35 a whack,’  it quit.

Efforts to revive the A920 by cleaning out the print queue and switching it on and off failed. I went back upstairs to the home office and inexplicably the PIXMA 310 printed a fine-looking copy the second time.

Sure, printers are dirt cheap, but you get what you pay for. When laser printers and before that dot matrix printers cost several hundred dollars 20 years ago, I remember them as far more reliable.  Back then, printing was one of the few things a PC did well.

I can recall four other inkjet printers in my household from the last 10 years: three HPs and another Canon.   The Canon PIXMA 310 I use have now is the best of the sorry lot. The Dell A920 came free with a desktop PC we bought years ago. It’s worth what we paid for it.

Actually, the A920 is not as bad as all three HP models. The paper feed on one almost never worked, constantly reporting it was out of paper when it wasn’t. The Dell A920 feeds stock into the printer like it was paper shredder. It either jams or out comes a crumpled and torn mess. But comparatively, I’d take it over HP printers.  An HP DeskJet printer from several years ago was just plain awful.

The printers no longer in use met their end at the electronics recycler. None were worth trying to peddle at yard sales. It was my sense they failed because they were poorly made and designed. In other words, they did not wear out because the problems were almost immediate after I acquired them.

Punch in “printer problems” at Youtube and you’ll witness people tearing their hair out. My favorite is the cat below banging on the printer. Make sure you read the  subtitles.

By the way, Computerworld has an excellent post about why ink cartridges are so expensive based on the explanation from an HP executive, who says the company spends $1 billion in ink cartridge R&D a year. I am not sure I buy any explanation rationalizing the expense of cartridges , but it’s a good read with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Follow me on Twitter.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/16162/hp_explains_why_printer_ink_is_so_expensive