Verizon Targets Tween Market with New Blitz Phone
In a move to cash in on the back-to-school mobile phone-buying sprees, Verizon Wireless on Monday launched a new phone dubbed “Blitz.”
Verizon Wireless is billing the phone as a device designed for the heaviest of texters. Loosely translated, that means tweens, or preteens.
The Blitz comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a dedicated My Messaging key. The tween-friendly phone also offers a 2.2-inch screen for browsing the Web or checking e-mail.
Also important to the youth demographic, the Blitz is a music player. Verizon’s latest product comes equipped with an MP3 player that can access the Verizon V CAST Music with Rhapsody service.
“The nice part about technology, as with most things, is that mature platforms fragment,” said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile research for Jupiter Media. “So we have these youth-optimized devices that we really have never seen just a few years ago.”
Priced to Sell
The Blitz is selling for $69.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year customer agreement with Verizon. Customers can sign up for V CAST Music with Rhapsody for a $14.99 monthly subscription.
“What’s nice about it is that it appeals to a demographic that doesn’t have a whole lot of money in their pocket,” Gartenberg said. “These kids don’t have $200 or $300 dollars to spend on a phone, although they’d like to. The Blitz is cool enough that you don’t have to be branded as the person using the cheap phone in school.”
The Blitz also incorporates a 1.3-megapixel camera with color effects and a self-portrait mirror. It supports Bluetooth devices; is mobile Web-capable; offers mobile e-mail functionality through MSN, Hotmail, America Online and Yahoo; and offers a media center that lets young people download games, ringtones, wallpapers, location-based services and other media.
The Blitz also comes with mobile instant-messaging capabilities and picture messaging, as well as a calculator, alarm clock, notepad and phone book that holds up to 1,000 entries.
On the music front, Blitz lets its users download more than 5 million songs to a PC. Most music downloaded onto the PC using V CAST Music with Rhapsody is free of digital rights management software, so kids can play the music on multiple devices.
“The Blitz looks like a nice addition to the lineup and really optimized in a way that this demographic uses their devices, where messaging and music is as important as phone calls,” Gartenberg said.
Expanding the Lineup
Verizon and LG Electronics also announced on Monday a new addition to the touch-screen phone world: The Voyager in Titanium. The new phone offers visual voice mail, which lets users delete, reply and forward voice-mail messages without having to listen to old messages or instructions. The LG Voyager in Titanium is available for $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.