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Verizon scoop extravaganza: Motorola Venus with portrait QWERTY, Stingray LTE tablet, and more?

Chris Ziegler
Updated ·3 min read

We've been tipped by multiple sources today on some interesting developments in Verizon's roadmap over the next couple quarters, and if you're a BlackBerry fan, an Android fan, or a fan of exceptionally fast data, you're probably going to want to tune in. Let's get right into the meat of it, shall we? Follow the break!



  • The BlackBerry 9570 Storm3 has been canceled. It could still launch somewhere, but it won't be on Verizon, apparently -- and considering that it was shaping up to be an ever-so-slightly-retuned Storm2, we can't say we blame them.

  • The Tour, Bold 9650, and Curve 3G will all get updates in October. "Known issues" and the like.

  • Samsung SCH-i400 Continuum on tap for late October. We'd heard from our other source that it'd be on tap for early November, but either way, the wait shouldn't be a long one. It's got a 1GHz processor and is known internally by the codename "Garnett."

  • Motorola Venus in October. This is an interesting one -- Verizon bills it as having "BlackBerry look and feel" with a QWERTY keyboard up front below the screen, possibly mimicking T-Mobile's Charm, but higher-end thanks to a 1GHz processor and both CDMA and GSM / HSPA radios on top of Froyo.

  • Motorola Droid Pro tentatively scheduled for late October or early November. It's listed as having a 1.3GHz processor, Froyo, global radios, and Flash 10. We still have every reason to believe this is the phone we've been calling the Droid 2 World Edition (or Global Edition), but it's unclear whether it'll replace the Droid 2 altogether.

  • HTC Merge / Lexicon / Lexikon coming in late October / early November, too. Don't be fooled: all of these code names refer to the same device, and even Verizon's communication uses both "Merge" and "Lexicon" interchangeably. As expected, it's a global phone with a 1GHz Snapdragon.

  • LG enV Pro -- with Android -- coming in November. In all likelihood, this is the phone we referred to as the enV Touch 2 back in August. It'll maintain the enV Touch form factor and feature a 1GHz processor plus a global radio, making it the best enV (and frankly, possibly the best Android phone from LG anywhere in the world) to date.

  • Motorola Stingray tablet in Q1 of 2011. Now this is interesting. We'd previously thought the Stingray would be a smaller tablet, but it now seems it'll be a full 10 inches with Android 3.0 Gingerbread, 16GB of on-board storage, and Tegra 2. Oh, but that's not the best part: it'll also be "hardware upgradeable to LTE," initially launching with CDMA alone. Whether that means you'll need to purchase and insert some sort of module or something, we're not exactly sure.

  • FiveSpot next month, three USB modems for LTE in November, LTE MiFi after that. After a few fleeting rumors that it had been deep-sixed, it seems that the ZTE-sourced FiveSpot mobile hotspot will finally launch on October 7. We'll then get a trio of USB LTE modems in November from LG, Pantech, and Novatel -- perfect for Verizon's first round of commercial LTE launches -- and an LTE MiFi (from Novatel, naturally) either in the fourth quarter or first quarter. The "initial launch" of it will be domestic only, presumably meaning no GSM support.

It's a lot to take in, we know -- but if this is all legit, it looks like we can probably rule out a launch of Windows Phone 7 hardware in the near term, which makes sense considering Microsoft's decision to delay CDMA support into 2011. Hope you like Android, folks!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]