Verizon Launches BREW Blitz
By Jay Wrolstad
Wireless NewsFactor
September 23, 2002
Motorola also inked a deal with Qualcomm and Nextel to deliver a BREW-enabled handset in the United States. Qualcomm has built an application on its BREW platform for Nextel's direct connect service, and all of the carrier's new phones will be BREW-enabled
Verizon Wireless has launched a major marketing blitz, pushing a new service based on Qualcomm's (Nasdaq: QCOM) BREW wireless applications platform and featuring a new color handset made by Motorola (NYSE: MOT).
Dubbed "Get It Now," the new offering constitutes an upgrade of the Qualcomm platform rolled out nationwide in the United States in June. With BREW, phone users can access content ranging from entertainment to news and personal information management applications.
"We have streamlined the service," Verizon spokesperson Jeffrey Nelson told Wireless NewsFactor, "and we now have a cool new color phone that lets people get games, get tones and get pictures." The initial focus is on entertainment, Nelson said.
Motorola Delivers
The Motorola T720, priced at US$200 with a service agreement, enables BREW downloads over Verizon Wireless' CDMA (code division multiple access) digital network and is compatible with the carrier's high-speed data Express Network. Access to the service is also available on the Verizon Wireless Z-800 and the Kyocera 3035e phones with an upgrade by the carrier.
Motorola also inked a deal with Qualcomm and Nextel to deliver a BREW-enabled handset in the United States. Qualcomm has built an application on its BREW platform for Nextel's direct connect service, and all of the carrier's new phones will be BREW-enabled.
Minimal Impact?
The principal advantage of BREW, according to Nelson, is that it is a self-provisioning platform that gives consumers control over the applications they want over the air. "It is a lock-and-load, turnkey platform," he said. Nelson also pointed to BREW's flexibility -- including the ability to add Java-based applications in the future -- and its attractiveness to developers.
Aberdeen Group analyst Isaac Ro had a lukewarm reaction to news of Verizon's marketing push. He told Wireless NewsFactor that BREW will have a minimal impact on Verizon's bottom line, at least initially. "This is not a core strategy for them. They really need to maintain their core subscriber base, and this has limited appeal right now," he said.
While the carrier is introducing a broader array of applications, it has only a few BREW-enabled handsets available and will need to convince more customers to switch phones, said Ro.
Boost for Qualcomm
Qualcomm could stand to gain from the partnership, though, Ro added, with the leading U.S. carrier leading the charge for BREW while others, such as Cingular and Sprint, lend their support to Java's J2ME wireless applications platform. Also, he noted, Qualcomm gets a percentage of every BREW-enabled phone sold.
Nelson said Verizon Wireless will introduce a half-dozen or so new BREW-enabled devices in the coming months, with the number of available applications increasing as the handsets are released.
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