Following a week of reports preceding its formal unveiling, Verizon Wireless today finally announced a new touchscreen home phone with integrated wireless and broadband functionality.
The Verizon Hub, to hit Verizon Wireless stores nationwide on Feb. 1, is “a dynamic move sure to rattle devotees of plain old home phones,” the company wrote in a release to be issued shortly by Verizon Wireless. The idea here is for the Hub, which is manufactured by OpenPeak Inc., to be a central point at which families can quickly and easily access information and manage their communications and schedules.
The Verizon Hub is designed to connect to any broadband line, be it from Verizon, any other telco, or a cable modem-enabled service from a cableco, according to Verizon. Features of the Hub include visual voice mail; an address book; text message calendar alerts; and directions (via audio), which the Hub delivers to Verizon Wireless phones. It also can provide content including local traffic, weather, quick access to information on local businesses, and the ability to view trailers and purchase tickets for movies. And Verizon Wireless customers share text and multimedia content, including V CAST content, between their wireless phones and the Hub. When not in use, the Verizon Hub doubles as a digital picture frame.
Although introduced by Verizon Wireless, the new product appears to be an attempt to help Verizon’s wireline business primarily. Mike Lanman, vice president and chief marketing officer at Verizon Wireless, is quoted in the company release as saying, “The Verizon Hub is going to change the way you think about what you want and need your home phone to do. Whether you’re thinking about getting rid of your home phone or can’t live without it, now is the time to try out the Verizon Hub.”
Devices such as the Verizon Hub have been in development for years. Back in 2005, Westell Technologies Inc. discussed with xchange what it called Verizon One, a multifunction home networking device it designed for Verizon that included a 5.8GHz cordless phone with speakerphone; and a 802.11g wireless hub with ADSL2+ modem. It ran a Microsoft CE as a base platform, and delivered the touchscreen features described below via a Verizon proprietary software platform called iobi. Verizon did not respond to requests about whatever happened with the Verizon One and iobi efforts.
The Hub will retail for $199.99 after mail-in rebate and requires a $34.99 Verizon Hub and Digital Voice service plan.
