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Vapour ware!! the best response a man under the cosh can produce!

He can't wait to pop one open and see what is inside to copy...problem for him is...you can't just copy OS X, which is really what is so cool about the iPhone...it is all about software. Go ahead, copy the touch screen.

Much, much TOO late summer.

Strigl-"an answer to the iPhone."
Answer: "It's the Mac OS stupid!"


MW: court-Strigl, that guy who was unwilling to court Apple and lost his business!

Yawn. I guess he can't publicly admit that his company is scrambling for an answer. Besides, they only provide the network - their only concern is raping their customers for more money. So, I'm sure that every time you press a key on this new device, you get charged 15 cents for it.

"Verizon CEO: We have ‘very good response’ to Apple iPhone coming ‘late summer’"

They're filing for bankruptcy?

In the meantime check this article out for a good laugh!

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2007/05/22/microsoft-will-jeff-raikes-succeed-ballmer-as-ceo/

Verizon will respond with the zPhone from Microsoft! zOMG!

Amazing that so much of the world makes it's living by copying the few really creative people...

Oh, let me guess its a Treo 1000XYZ piece o' crap. I have a treo on verizon and it is truely awful: horrible UI, buggy OS and software, useless features, s-l-o-w, oh and, it looses files, emails and applications stop working correctly for no apparent reason. I've returned one to get another thinking this was just a bad copy - nope, the replacement is just as bad.

The second happiest day of my life will be buying an iphone. The fist happiest day will be when I sell this treo-crap to some unsuspecting sap on ebay.

'The issue is not the Apple-ness of the iPhone itself, but with the cellular network that it is running on,' Strigl says, picking his words carefully. 'That will be the true test of the iPhone: What will the iPhone experience be?'"

This is idiotic. The network will be about as important as who your ISP is at home. If I go to a friend's house and use her computer, what will affect me experience more: Her ISP, or the fact that she uses Windows? The days of the network controlling the UI are over, my friends.

Strigl may say he has no regrets, but you can't tell me that Verizon is happy missing out on all the free publicity.

Note to Verizon:

You made a bad decision. I am switching to AT&T;.

"on an answer to the iPhone"

Yeah, but I'll bet all Strigl will get is a busy signal. That has a nice ring to it.

Okay, so he has no regrets, then why are they readying a response?

The iPod has proven to the marketplace that Apple's competitors in the consumer electronics space probably will not be able to match it's designs and application in time enough to stop the iPhones momentum.
Precisely because consumers have rejected every other MP3 player on cost, cool, features, etc. Most consumers will not wait for any competitor's counter to iPhone to see if it will stack up, and they won't believe any claim that it will either.
Strigi is correct in pointing to the network and caller experience as the one hurdle in the iPhones way not yet addressable. If this is as promised there is no chance for any other iClone to take a hold of this market space.

BURN VERISON... BURN!

You can have a great network but if you make things difficult to use for your customers what is the point? Then you screw your customers over by making them pay for features that every other provider gives their customers for free. Furthermore, your employees can get cheaper service from other providers than with their verizon employee discount. How exactly are you going to get people to stay? Because of your network? Sure, not every company has great service in every area but other than that how is the network really going to matter. Does the consumer care how many SONET rings or DS3s or DS1s you own? NO. As long as they can get reliable coverage they will go with whomever has the best offering. The network is really a footnote in the minds of the average consumer.

I wonder what's coming on the Horizon

Strigi will be looking for a job next year.

Strigl's answer about it all "being about the network" is just a rehash of Verizon's marketing message from its commercials. Just another clueless robot looking for a chair to throw.

Their response project is headed up by his wife..uhh Morgan Fairchild, that's the ticket!

Note to Verizon:
There is only one company that could in theory compete with the iPhone's OS in a reasonable amount of time and that's Microsoft with Windows Mobile. The fact is the other OS's used by other smart phones is not even close with what the iPhone OS can do and Microsoft's Mobile OS is years away from having what Apple does.
Core Video. Core Animation. Power Management (that works). seemless networking. Security. I'd really like to see RIM's or Symbian's attempt at core animation. Good luck with that one. They have neither the resources or experts in house to pull that off, much less 'by late summer'.

The Blackberry succeeded for one simple fact: it allowed easy access to corporate [read: Exchange] email. It wasn't because of its ease of use, user interface, media content, speed, design or anything else. It was the simple fact that it had 'push' email so the high strung executives that wanted email instantly could have it and those that rarely sit down in front of an actual computer to check email would have access to corporate email. Has anyone tried browsing on a Blackberry? Its aweful. Attachments like Work/Excel? Also aweful.

The simple fact is, this will play out just like the iPod has but on a faster timeline. Consumers will by the iPhone. It will be the must have device and it will have a cool factor 10x anything else out there. And it will work seemlessly. One by one, users of other smart devices will want and then switch over to an iPhone and one by one, those IT managers running those BES systems to push email to the blackberries will be asked to make it do to the iPhones. And it is pretty easy to figure out who wins those battles [CEO vs. CIO]...

buckle up, because its going to one fast ride for the rest of the year.

Who wants in on a board to pick how long before someone who 'shouldn't' have an iPhone is spotted with one?

Strigl reminds me of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

What's really funny is that this Verizon moron thinks mentioning a "very good response" to iPhone will cause me to delay a purchasing decision. With an Apple iPhone I know that I am starting at the top with an upgradeable OS X device and everything else will be an also-ran for years to come.

I guess this is what happens when you place Apple in the same basket as all the other phone manufacturers. There's a reason why Apple doesn't got to the Consumers Electronics Show, or present the iPhone alongside other phone makers at mobile phone events. There's Apple, then there's everyone else.

Okay, Verizon, show us what you've got.

"Can you hear me now?"

"Hello?"

"Anybody???"

"All about the network"?

Who cares if my phone is a piece of crap, you lock me into proprietary formats and you block out Bluetooth access to mobile devices so consumers are forced to purchase your lackluster content.

That's so… Microsoft.

Yes we have a good answer to the iPhone. The phone we are bringing out will detect when an iPhone is around and mess up it's signal.

Mark my words guys and think about it, that's the only way we can do it.

I would like to say that I had Verizon for about 3 days a few years ago. It was the single worst customer service experience of my life, and a long weekend that I'll never get back. 3 phones died in those 3 days, and the company flat out lied to me both from the call center and the retail store (Silverdale, WA, you punk asses). I wouldn't use their service again even if THEY were the ones that got the iPhone first. Thank Zeus they didn't.
Good luck, Verizon, hope you die.

-c

Strigl has no regrets because he didn't want to give up any of Verizon's control over the handset makers. So he's made a bet that Apple will fail to change the model.

He knows what Apple asked for in generalities but he doesn't yet know exactly what Apple and AT&T;are going to do to change the way people sign up for service. There's rumbling that something is afoot and it could be a very big surprise.

Verizon's iPhone response:

The Stringl. Every subscriber gets a paper cup and a treehouse.

Agreed.

I don't think it's in Verizon's DNA to relinquish control to cell phone makers or set free the formats/DRM built into their downloadable offerings like AT & T appears to be doing with Apple.

These Verizon guys would get along great with M$. They both operate from the same anti-customer business model as the frightened mice in Redmond.

Verizon doesn't know what they don't know.

@ChrissyOne - You have expressed my exact sentiments about Verizon in only slightly less colorful language than I would have.

But alas, I have no choice here in the outback of southern IL.

Oh I mourn,
Oh I pine,
For an Apple iPhone I do pine.

P.S.

Verizon is so screwed - it doesn't even realize what a huge mistake they've made. And if they do, you can be sure that this little thing they supposedly have to answer the iPhone with is nothing more than tentative and secret negotiations ongoing with Apple Inc.

Somethings afoot? Yes! A big Monty python style foot crushing down on Verizon et tal!

@ C1 Heard you loud & clear!

He clearly has plenty of regrets. He is now realising he made a bad business decision. During the discussions about iPhone, he was obviously thinking only about how much he was going to have to give up; he probably talked to some of the music labels' execs, who hated their deal with Jobs, if only for the fact that they ceded control of their own business to him, in the end grumbling all the way to the bank... (irony's getting pretty thick here). In the end, he didn't want to give up the total control Verizon, much like other wireless carriers, have over their offerings, including the design and distribution of phones. Jobs wouldn' t have none of it.

Cingular saw business oportunity. They knew that Jobs was out to transform their business. They also knew that this transformation was going to take the control away from them. In the end, they knew that Apple was going to guarantee millions of new 2-year contracts. This was the bottom line that Verizon failed to recognise.

It is possible that Verizon will live through iPod's onslaught. They will shed a chunk of their customer base, who will defect to AT&T;. Perhaps an exec or two will leave because of that. The business will survive, but an opportunity will be forever lost and Strigl knows that already.

What will really be interesting is to see if Apple really does have all its patents as tightly filed as it claims. If it does, how will anyone match the iPhone without infringing on those same patents. If, on the other hand, they don't have it as locked up as they think, then there is going to be a messy free-for-all.

Chrissy is quite right to point out the stupidity of imagining that the network is the most important thing.

Obviously a poorly performing network can mar an otherwise excellent iPhone experience, but if the network does what it's supposed to do, you don't notice it.

You might imagine that companies would have learned from the iPod / iTunes / iTMS experience by now. You need all those things to work well together in order to have a good experience, but customers simply take them for granted and talk about their iPod, even though it depends on iTunes and iTMS.

It took Apple 2 1/2 years to envision, invent, and completely patent the iPhone -- and now Verizon says they're going to have something to rival the iPhone at the end of the summer? Yeah, right.

While most of the time I agree with C1, this time I don't. The network is important.

I went with Verizon here in SoCal because of the hilly terrain and the fact that Verizon has the best coverage. Cingular's reputation for dropped calls, and their customer service rep kept me away. I'm hoping that I'll hear reports all summer long about how the reception is great here on the coast and that the customer service has changed for the better.

Count me a hopeful 3 month adopter.

Hey, I heard that there was gonna be an opening for "Chief Operating Officer" at Verizon, beginning August 1st....

MW:heard

A very good response that's been slammed together in 6-8 months, or a phone (done by Apple no-less) under development for over 2 years that has demanded an entire cellular network be tailored to work specifically for the iPhone?

hmmmm...

Tough call.

I choose my cell phones on a single basis - do they work in my house?

Verison has a tower less than a mile form me. AT&T;has towers miles away. When the iPhone was announced I had a friend with Cingular (AT&T;) come over - his phone did not work here. I am 7 miles from a town with a major research university - and AT&T;has done nothing to serve the suburbs.

So - I will switch carriers the minute an iPhone can work at my home.

AT&T;is a non-starter for me, unfortunately. They simply don't service my area and Verizon does. No iPhone for me. It doesn't matter how awesome the thing is if it doesn't work.

"hmmmm...

Tough call."

Not on an iPhone....hahaha...ha.hahaha!

By September, Denny Strigl will be pushing a shopping cart down Lennox Avenue and sleeping on subway grates.

@ChrissyOne: "This is idiotic. The network will be about as important as who your ISP is at home. If I go to a friend's house and use her computer, what will affect me experience more: Her ISP, or the fact that she uses Windows? The days of the network controlling the UI are over, my friends."

Totally true, from a philisophical stand point. But the whole goal of the Cell Phone Cartel is to create access barriers to the features in your handset (or computer) that they can charge you to overcome: i.e. 1 Per photo charge to get pictures off of your phone; 2 Limited Bluetooth so it will be useable with a headset, but not talk to your computer; 3 Charges for ringtones and wall paper; 4 Charges for voice dialing; 5 Charges for text messages, etc, etc, etc.

For now the Cartel lives in the fantasy world that thinks substantial numbers of people want or need to watch TV or surf the internet on their telephones and will continue to waste the resources to develop these capabilities on the network side and try to convince people they need it. This is a failed strategy, witness AOL, with its centrally controlled user experience vs the "real" internet, with the dispersed control of every aspect, from computer to browser choice to ISP to content choice.

There is no refutation that networks are inherently stupid (bits is bits, regardless if they represent voice, text, music or an image). The Cartel just needs to embrace this nature and focus on ubiquitious, easy access to fast service at a fair price. If they want people to be faithful subscribers, they need to respect their customers and stop laying traps for them to spend far more that they expected (overages, text message charges, etc).

At some point, some company with substantial resources will "Think Different" and clean the Cartels clock with a cell-phone based connectivity system that respects the pipe for it's pipe-ness and focuses on connecting the devices at either end. I'm hoping that process starts in June. But, as Strigl said, it will depend on the experience with the carrier. I've had AT&T;once. I'm not sure I want to do it again.

Japan's economic juggernaut was founded on copying technology and mass producing effiecently.

There is hope in copying, but the hemming is getting sewn up tighter & tighter to the point were copying will only be permitted legally.

Ya know, its not that surprising that verizon turned down Apple. After all, if they don't know the difference between .002 cents and .002 dollars then why would they know the difference between the iPhone and what ever shoddy cheap phones they like.

'Time will tell' if he made the right call, he says. 'The issue is not the Apple-ness of the iPhone itself, but with the cellular network that it is running on,' Strigl says, picking his words carefully. 'That will be the true test of the iPhone: What will the iPhone experience be?'"


The issue is not with Apple's design, but with the <b>cellular network</i> it's running on. And who provides the cellular network, if I may ask? Oh wait, Verizon provides a cellular network. I guess that mean the issue is with Verizon. I think Strigl doesn't have enough confidence in his company's performance.