Verizon Tech Tour - Fall and winter lineup

We received some news about Verizon's Tech Tour, which was held in the east coast. Vendors such as Palm, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, HTC, LG, and RIM were on sight previewing their fall and winter lineups.

Fans of Samsung's OMNIA smartphone can rejoice, knowing that Big Red is speculated to release the fantastic Windows Mobile handset some time around December 15. The company representative showed off the OMNIA with Verizon's logo on it to on lookers passing by their booth. The audience was amazed with the animation they used for flipping the screen from a portrait to landscape position. Typing e-mails and text messages seemed relatively easy thanks to the virtual QWERTY keyboard. Overall, the i910 retains the design elements found on the original OMNIA. U.S. consumers can now look forward to see this phone out in time by the holidays!

Knowing that the Samsung is poised to bring out their latest premier Windows Mobile phone for Verizon, the representative from PCD/HTC informed everyone that the Verizon Touch Pro should be available as early as November 14, which comes in contrast to our previous information for November 24th release. When asked about the existing VX6900, the rep stated that the CDMA Touch Diamond should be released some time around January to replace it. Seems quite odd to see that the Pro will beat out the Diamond in terms of release dates, but we are glad nonetheless to know HTC will be upgrading their lineup for Verizon.

Neither Motorola, nor LG showed any upcoming models. It seems that during the holidays, consumers will be stuck with their current offering, but that’s not so bad, having in mind the Dare and the Krave.

Traditionally Nokia's presence in the U.S. Market has been lacking. The Nokia rep stated that a "high end" Nokia 2605 aka Mirage will be released some time in the near future. No details were revealed about this upcoming phone though except for the fact that it will be a clamshell.

Palm featured the Centro for everyone with no new phones being released by the manufacturer this holiday season. Some people asked if Verizon would get the new Palm Treo Pro, but the representative stated that nothing was coming out in the near future. Luckily though, they did mention that Palm will be coming out with a refreshed version of the Palm OS soon. Let's hope it can provide the WOW factor needed to win back some smart phone customers.

RIM grabbed most of the attention with their demo of the Storm and new updates for the BlackBerry operating system. The company clearly made their presence known with over three kiosks dedicated to them with the Storm stealing the show. A rep was demonstrating some of the features of the new smartphone and how it will have the latest OS with Rhapsody and visual voicemail support. VZ Navigator will also be included with the new 4.2.5 software. The rep did not reveal what new features will be included with this version but said that the Storm will be the only phone to have it. Although it will include only 1GB of internal memory, an additional 8GB microSD card will be included. Now this clearly will make fans happy to know that RIM is doing everything they can to steal the thunder away from Apple. Durability of the phone looks to be top notch thanks to its stainless steel back covering. The rep detached the battery cover and informed the audience that the battery was removable and protected quite well.

One new accessory displayed with the phone was a dock for the Storm which looked to emulate an alarm clock. The phone would be placed horizontally on the dock and would go into park mode where the digital clock takes screen. Today Verizon Wireless announced that the Storm will be available for $200 after a $50 MIR, begginning November 21. With a lot of buzz, RIM definitely has something big brewing in the next few weeks and we can't wait for it.

If you want to know when Verizon is expected to launch its next device, keep an eye on our Upcoming phones section.

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