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 Jupitermedia. “So we have these youth-optimized devices that we really have never seen just a few years ago.”

Add comment August 26th, 2008

Intuit Brings QuickBooks To Blackberry and iPhone

For business professionals who can’t stand to waste a minute, Intuit is delivering the ability to do accounting on a smartphone. On Monday, Intuit announced integration for both the iPhone and Blackberry with QuickBooks Online, a Web-based business accounting application.Intuit is billing the integration as a means to give small-business owners more freedom to manage their business anywhere, anytime — with or without a computer — in what it calls an early version Web-based mobile application.

“A growing number of small businesses are looking to mobile technology to run their business,” said Rick Jensen, senior vice president of Intuit’s Small Business Division. “Our goal with these new mobile services is to give QuickBooks Online users the edge they need to compete and manage their busy lives by keeping tabs on their business even when they are out of the office.”

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Add comment August 26th, 2008