Why Doesn’t Verizon Support VCast On Their BlackBerrys?

As big a fan as I am of Verizon’s network, I’ve never really understood why the do some of the things they do. Some of their practices just plain don’t make sense. At least not to me.

We know that Verizon locks the GPS down in their BlackBerrys. We may not like it, however, they can and do charge you a premium to use their brand GPS service. I understand this… Don’t like it, but, understand it.

Conversely, Verizon BlackBerry users don’t have any access to VCast, Verizon’s 3G streaming media service. It is safe to say that both the BlackBerry Pearl and the BlackBerry Curve are attractive to consumers… Consumers who are more likely to pay for VCast than those who pay for VZNavigator. Why doesn’t Verizon offer these services? This, I don’t understand.

Written by Robb Dunewood on May 21st, 2008 with 53 comments.
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Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com bluehorseshoe
#1. May 21st, 2008, at 8:45 AM.

It would take another year to release the product due to integration.

Just kidding. :)

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com portorikan
#2. May 21st, 2008, at 8:54 AM.

I wonder if it has to do with Blackberrys not supporting/able to display the mp4 versions of the videos displayed or available. I believe that they use quicktime encoding by Apple. I’ve tried to import podcasts in mp4 format to my blackberry and they won’t work properly.

I hope RIM fixes this soon.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#3. May 21st, 2008, at 10:09 AM.

I work for verizon, why would u want get it now or vcast on a blackberry? Pda’s are work tools not toys! What grown business man or business woman would want to tool around with vcast? Its not professional! That’s why! Leave vcast to children who wanna download 3d games and such.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#4. May 21st, 2008, at 10:13 AM.

I work for verizon, why would u want get it now or vcast on a blackberry? Pda’s are work tools not toys! What grown business man or business woman would want to tool around with vcast? Its not professional! That’s why! Leave vcast to children who wanna download 3d games and such. If u want media u have the media center on ur phone! U want vcast go get a cheap chocalate or crappy razor-plainly put!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com bluehorseshoe
#5. May 21st, 2008, at 10:17 AM.

@ Alonzo

So as a Verizon employee, you’re saying that your company isn’t interested in making more $. Just because it’s a BB, they shouldn’t go after the consumer market?

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Verizon Store Manager
#6. May 21st, 2008, at 10:29 AM.

Well Alonzo,

I certainly hope that you don’t work in a retail store. If you worked in the any of the 3 stores I manage and ever responded to a customer that way, you would be terminated before your shift ended.

Believe it or not, VCast is probably one of the most requested add-on services that we have to tell customers isn’t available to them on the BlackBerry, especially the BlackBerry Pearl. We haven’t sold enough Curves in the store as of yet for me to say but I bet it will be highly requested on the 8330 as well.

I’ve heard rumors that some of the next gen BlackBerrys that we have coming out over the next year will support VCast.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#7. May 21st, 2008, at 10:29 AM.

To bluehorseshoe What company isn’t interested in growing monetarily? Verizon will never do it! Its plain stupid to put vcast capabilities on an already remarkably great phone, its like putting a childs seat in a ferrari! It doesn’t belong there- that’s why the motorola Q9m is a piece of ****!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#8. May 21st, 2008, at 10:37 AM.

I hope ur not a managr still bc if u are ur professionalism is lacking and it shows-and ur overal knowledge of the use of a bb is nonexistant! Bb works great the way it is! I repect ur opinion but don’t agree!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#9. May 21st, 2008, at 10:47 AM.

Oh and mr. Anonymous store manager believe it or not u just revealed that ur not a store manager! There can only b 1 store manager per STORE! And #2. Store managers don’t have time to lolly gag around on bb forums!u have shown ur true colors. But ur comment and perspective have greatly been appreciated by teens worldwide! Have a great day sir.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com bluehorseshoe
#10. May 21st, 2008, at 10:50 AM.

Guess I need to remove the baby seat out of my Porsche.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#11. May 21st, 2008, at 10:52 AM.

U don’t have a porsche bluehorse!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com bluehorseshoe
#12. May 21st, 2008, at 10:57 AM.

And also have a BMW. :)

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#13. May 21st, 2008, at 11:02 AM.

I wish I had a beemer! M5 or the new M3 those cars are sick!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Norman R.
#14. May 21st, 2008, at 11:33 AM.

Actually Alonzo, depending on location, Verizon Store Manager may be a District Manager with 3 stores and probably 5 to 7 Kiosks that report into those stores.

Store manager or not, the point they make is interesting. I wonder if Verizon actually captures that type of customer feedback and does anything with it.

It makes sense to me that a lot of consumers buying BlackBerrys in stores would want some of the cool consumer oriented services.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Kells
#15. May 21st, 2008, at 11:37 AM.

Hell-Alonz-No,

Did you find another IP address to troll under? Its been a few months…

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Norman R.
#16. May 21st, 2008, at 11:43 AM.

That’s not Hellno… Hellno would never admit to working for Verizon.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#17. May 21st, 2008, at 11:45 AM.

To norman! I undrstnd the perspective! But do u undrstand Blackberrys perspective? What about verizons perspective on who these devices are geared for and applications that these phones work with etc ……think about that guys before posting again. Thanjs for the feedback

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#18. May 21st, 2008, at 11:49 AM.

I have one word! MARKETING! Think about it! And whoever this other guy is that wants to misspell my name…I won’t even waste my data time!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Naor
#19. May 21st, 2008, at 2:59 PM.

isnt the vzw software like this what ruins their phones? why would we ever want this on our phone messing with the OS and compatbaility with other 3rd party apps.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#20. May 21st, 2008, at 3:15 PM.

@ naor
That’s what these kids aren’t understanding! Lol they wanna play video games and use the phone like a krazr not for its intended purpose! U knucklehead need to listen to naor! He makes perfect sense!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com paul
#21. May 21st, 2008, at 5:05 PM.

To alonzo.

Have you ever been on a train during “rush hour”?! All those professional people, bored out of their minds looking for escape. Have you ever heard of Ipod?

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Ben
#22. May 21st, 2008, at 5:11 PM.

Alonzo…you might want to learn how to type and/or spell. It might help your trolling skills. Even if you are posting via a blackberry, there is no reason to use shorthand unless you are speaking with your friends.

Lastly, why couldn’t a business person use their blackberry for personal and business? I certainly do.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com bluehorseshoe
#23. May 21st, 2008, at 5:11 PM.

To sum this all up, the more a phone offers, the more attractive it becomes…to any targeted market, corporate or consumer. It’s real simple. More = $$$.

While I personally don’t have the need for vcast, I can certainly understand the argument that those are making for it to be added on to the BlackBerry platform on VZW.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#24. May 21st, 2008, at 5:40 PM.

Ben,
Come work for me and do spell check for me!
Sometimes I don’t cross my Ts and dot my I’s. Get a life ! Seriously get off the bandwagon!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Cedric Bosch
#25. May 21st, 2008, at 6:46 PM.

Could it be that data support is thru RIM servers?

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#26. May 21st, 2008, at 7:33 PM.

BlueH-and anyone else that has something to say.
Take a moment out of ur day and go to a local cellphone store.
Observe what the customer says they want in a phone… I guarantee you that they aren’t going to say oh I want a bb8830 or bbpearl or even a curve and I want mobile tv or instant access to downloading games or downloading music…..to sum it up any company that’s willing to dish out an extra 700,000 possibly for the capability of downloading music that maybe 25% of BB users would actually use would be a waste! U always have to look at things in the long run! That’s why companies have marketing departments to position the product geared towards a specific age group and push hard on that to get the sale. Think. Take care my fellow bb lovers!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Thought
#27. May 21st, 2008, at 9:43 PM.

While VCAST seems kinda cool, I wonder if it would really be used that much by the BB market in the long run.

Many of the same functions one can get just using the web browser on a BB.

So for instance, rather than use vcast to check sports scores or news or movie times or weather, etc. on a standard cell phone, I could do that using the BB browser.

As for games, well I can find plenty of games to install on the BB without vcast.

Now the only real application in vcast that I think may be useful for a good number of BB users would be the video functionality.

So if VZW were to come up with a kind of TV type of broadcast or video on demand for the BB that may work. But the other functions of vcast are just not that needed on a BB.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com New BB User
#28. May 21st, 2008, at 11:57 PM.

Because Verizon suck.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com bluehorseshoe
#29. May 22nd, 2008, at 1:21 AM.

When I walked into a VZW store and got my BB, I didn’t ask for GPS, but eventually got it because I heard from a friend who used it and mentioned how accurate it was. People get a BB primarily for email and phone usage. Anything else is gravy. Not sure why vcast couldn’t be gravy as well. It wouldn’t hurt to add it, especially since the BB is trying to penetrate the consumer market versus the iPhone. What the hell. Maybe people would ask for it in a store if it was offered on the BB.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Albert
#30. May 22nd, 2008, at 2:23 AM.

doesn’t it just come down to the fact that vcast is a brew app and BlackBerry runs on J2ME

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com henry
#31. May 22nd, 2008, at 7:50 AM.

This is why I chose sprint, $99 bucks a month…just as good coverage wise if not better than VZW and the best applications in town hands down. (plus the VZW Curve is so restricted) And the customer service is getting better. Nobody can compete….so sorry. I can already anticipate every VZW fanboy response already…well we don’t mind paying more on a montly basis for whatever reason and getting an inferior device blah, blah, blah….

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com JHP2
#32. May 22nd, 2008, at 8:48 AM.

I think part of the answer lies in the robustness of the data network. Blackberry users are already major users of network resources and they probably want to keep usage a manageable levels to keep latency and the like down. At Sprint, they did not have voice coverage as VZW but were very strong on the data side as the network was not as subscibed. Therefore, on data, we had an advantage. Remember, it is only wireless to the towers!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Ben
#33. May 22nd, 2008, at 10:30 AM.

What bandwagon? I never even liked Vcast when I had Verizon. (it was too expensive for my tastes) However, many people do like it. I know how to get much of the stuff free through alternate means.

Bad grammar and spelling is always frowned on.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com ASJ
#34. May 22nd, 2008, at 11:40 AM.

Enough with the bickering… sheesh. I thought this thread was about VCast and Blackberries.

We all know that all Blackberry’s data goes through the OZ-like wall of RIM’s servers in Canada before it hit’s our devices. Verizon and RIM have not negotiated traffic agreements and sending VCast data threw RIM’s security servers would slow the traffic down incredibly… making the VCast experience pretty much suck.

So, if you want VCast then get a VCast enabled phone. If you want rich media on your Blackberry, then look into streaming services as they start to appear. For now… just suck it up and use the browser to get the information you’re looking for on VCast.

ASJ

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#35. May 22nd, 2008, at 3:15 PM.

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#36. May 22nd, 2008, at 3:17 PM.

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Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com jeep
#37. May 22nd, 2008, at 6:13 PM.

I asked verizon and all they said was vcast is a sixteen bit program and bb is 64. It’s like trying to play a 20 year old video game on tour ps3. But it shut me up and that was probably the goal.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com jeep
#38. May 22nd, 2008, at 6:14 PM.

I asked verizon and all they said was vcast is a sixteen bit program and bb is 64. It’s like trying to play a 20 year old video game on your ps3. But it shut me up and that was probably the goal.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com SKhan
#39. May 23rd, 2008, at 7:40 AM.

It’s entertainment with the richness of broadband, only from Verizon Wireless. The hottest entertainment clips, sports highlights, breaking news, weather and so much more.. every thing but nothing for Blackberry devices :((((((((

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com john
#40. May 26th, 2008, at 4:13 PM.

Alonzo,
Didn’t you ever notice the curve and pearl are CONSUMER bb’s. What true corporate traveller is going to use a suretype keyboard on the pearl for business use? Also, what business use does a camera add to these phones? If anything, the camera makes it harder (sometimes impossible) to enter buildings. The true “business” bb’s are the 8800 and 8700.

How many execs use an ipod video or portable dvd player when travelling? Most do. If they aren’t working on something why just sit around bored when you can watch a tv episode or movie? Does that somehow make you a non-exec? I’m sure executives all over the world watch tv and/or movies in their downtime.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com alonzo
#41. May 26th, 2008, at 4:41 PM.

Omg!? John…..don’t u have anything else better to do on memorial day! Guess not huh. Get a life loser.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com john
#42. May 26th, 2008, at 5:03 PM.

Alonzo,

Actually, I did that from my bb while waiting for my buddies to be packed up to go home. See, unlike you, I don’t work for under 15 dollars an hour and rely on commissions to pay my bills. Then again, your on the site too.

Or it could be the ridiculousness of you thinking it takes much time to type a 2 paragraph response on your bb from the couch or beach or boat or airport.

If you ever wanna vacation though, please feel free to find me on this board. My beach house in avalon goes for 5k a week but you get access to my boat slip and 2 waverunners for free. Or you could take your wife/gf out on my yacht for a night with my crew at the AYC. We can negotiate that price.

Plus I do have a carseat in my maserati and what’s wrong with that? Since I can afford a 100k car I’m not allowed to have a kid? When did kids become the rights of the poor only?

Get a college education, learn how to spell, and maybe you can clean my house in a few months.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com john
#43. May 26th, 2008, at 6:22 PM.

John u have some imagination! Give ur mom back her 7130 bb and go outside and play. U want to continue talking **** then use ur moms phone to email me…we can then compare whatever u want. My email is johnblaze@vzw..blackberry.net

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com john
#44. May 26th, 2008, at 7:04 PM.

wow, so now your name is John instead of Alonzo? How does that happen? Did the INS deny your birth certificate? Lets be serious, you say you work at Verizon, so post your Verizon email address if you really want to get serious. You obviously know very little about the different types of uses of BB’s by executives, so there’s a high chance I make more money than you.

PS: my mom never worked, so why would she need a BB? The only reason would be my family has money to throw away. hahah, thanks for proving the point I can afford much more than you.

Then again I was at first a “loser” for checking out a useful webpage for my BB on Memorial Day, and now I am a little teeny kid on my mommies BB. How does your stance change that much John (or is it Alonzo?)?

The simple fact you haven’t realized the largest influx of pda/smartphone users these days are consumers shows your full lack of knowledge on the entire subject. How many iPhones have been sold? And what % was for exec/corp plans? So your basically saying a phone costing $400 is mainly bought by consumers. So why won’t a consumer purchase as $100 BB Pearl? Did you miss Vzw’s whole “Mothers Day” ads telling you to get “mom” a pink Pearl? What mom would need a pink pearl for business use that wouldn’t get one from her company’s corporate program? So I guess Vzw IS looking for the BB consumer user with their new phones. Proves your whole point wrong.

Sorry, your point from the start has been proven wrong yet again. It’s not my fault you made an incorrect judgment of the market. Would you like the government to bail you out of this argument while they bail out mortgages?

And what do you have to compare John/Alonzo? What items of value do you have to compare to mine? I mean, you ARE that loser on this website on Memorial Day.

Btw, does your email actually have two “periods” between vzw and blackberry? Since I’m only 5 and new to the internet and BB’s I’m not exactly quite sure what the protocol is for email addresses, but I’m pretty sure that is wrong.

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#46. May 30th, 2008, at 9:27 AM.

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#47. May 30th, 2008, at 9:28 AM.

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#49. May 30th, 2008, at 4:24 PM.

Ok mr dickhead number 1 with verizion wireless. ALONZO I will make sure all my friends all know that there is one manager in the store at a time. I think they’ll get a kick out of it. Number 2 dont lie to the public it hurts my feelings. Three get a better strategy than defending V-Cast. It Doesn’t even work. Number 4 you don’t have anything to defend when you are ripping off the public and your web pages have no opportunity to respond to criticizm. You really have to think about who you are defending. I am sure if the CEO found you half dead at the side of the road he probably wouldn’t want to respond to criticizm. I am sick of just trying to find ways to complain about the V-CAST service

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com FJL
#50. June 1st, 2008, at 2:50 AM.

Does the comment box fit in your blackberrys browser?

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com chocolate thunder
#51. June 2nd, 2008, at 11:36 PM.

Wow Alonzo got burned damn I can smell the smoke from my side of the screen lol

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com drew
#52. July 18th, 2008, at 10:59 PM.

Not to interrupt ur guys’s love fest over here but my mom is one those ,
‘Hip’ executives with a blackberry. I ,however, am one of those kids with the krzrs. Well, my mom has decided 2 put the carseat in the porche. She needs vcast. Or more specificly vcast song Id. it listons 2 10 second of music then tells u the name and artist. Do any of u managers, bullies, or bb lovers know of a simmaler porgram 4 me?

Thanks
Drew

P.s. I know the spelling sux mr spellcheck!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com miranda
#53. August 23rd, 2008, at 1:47 AM.

i have the blackberry pearl, and im not a buisness woman i’m just a kid.
i know it’s meant for that shit, but honestly did everyone think that the phone wouldn’t attract younger people too? it’s pink..
i think it should have vcast.
it’s bullshit not to have ringtones that you can actually hear right.
just because someone is a buisness woman doesn’t mean she couldn’t want a good ringtone or something ?
vcast isn’t a toy if you ask me, it’s convienient.
this is gay.

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