Remember the Saygus VPhone? A powerful Android smartphone, it got a lot of press in late 2009 and promptly vanished. Coming from a company nobody had ever heard of, we anointed it one of "6 Amazing Cell Phone Failures" in early 2011.
It turns out that Saygus is still in business; the company has pushed the VPhone through Verizon Wireless's "open development initiative" (ODI) approval process, and Saygus plans to start selling it soon. And the handset may have a lot going for it, including video calling that actually works over 3G and a super-open, hacker-friendly philosophy.
"The device is certified on our network and yes, it is the first Android phone to get [ODI] certification," Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney told PCMag. The phone also now appears on Verizon Wireless's website.
Don't Try This At Home
The VPhone story shows how insanely difficult it is for new mobile phone companies to make it through U.S. carrier labs. It also shows that even though Verizon now claims to have an "open" approval process, that doesn't mean products will be approved quickly.
"We thought, and Verizon thought, it would only take us three to five months on the high end," Saygus CEO Chad Sayers told me recently. Verizon's website woos phone developers like Saygus, telling them to "expect the typical lab time to be weeks rather than months."
Yet it's taken more than a year for Verizon to approve the VPhone.
Saygus isn't the only company that's had trouble with Verizon's tough approval process. Sayers referred to a "multi-billion-dollar handset maker" which "couldn't get any of three handsets through Verizon's labs" and then went to smaller, Tier 2 carriers instead. He may have been talking about Huawei, which has had success with its Ascend smartphone on Cricket and MetroPCS.
"The time it took to get through the lab was unbelievable," Sayers said. "But this is our first handset, and we're working through the bugs."
Verizon's ODI initiative was primarily designed for machine-to-machine devices like thermostats and power meters. Verizon's online showcase shows 148 devices, including 10 phones approved through the ODI system. Eight of those ten phones are rugged Windows Mobile devices for businesses built by Intermec and Motorola. One is the VPhone, and the last is ZipIt's super-duper hospital pager, which I wrote about in March.
Saygus has had more than just lab approval problems. In a cutting post on GigaOm in 2009, James Kendrick used Sayers' past in the shopping-deals business to conclude, "I'm still unclear how Saygus could be in the top-tier phone business." Sayers last week sent me a point-by-point rebuttal of the questions raised in that story.
Sayers acknowledged that he's been working in "the shopping network industry" since 1994, but has been trying since 1997 to shift his business to mobile phones—thus the appearance on his shopping Web site of a 2003-era concept for the VPhone. He's just never been able to break through to U.S. carriers, he said.
But it sounds like he also understands that if you're going to promote vaporware, you're going to take some hits. So he decided to "go the quiet route" between early 2010 and now, when he's sure the VPhone is passing the labs.
Fortunately, it sounds like Sayers has enough of his own money to be patient. In a brief bio he sent me, he said he "made millions developing property pre-crash" and his family owns a construction business, as well as his other ventures.
From a tech side, Sayers is guided by Linux guru and former Sharp and TI developer Tim Riker, and former LG vice president Ash Darwish, who helped set up the relationship between Sayers and Verizon.
"Now we have some fantastic associations and relationships in the industry. We haven't had an easy run at this, and I believe that will only make us stronger," Sayers said.
VPhone, Coming to Verizon
While it's been sitting around in Verizon's labs for more than a year, though, the VPhone has gone from being a high-end Android handset to more of a mid-range model. In 2009, the Android phone's specs looked spectacular: a then-fast Marvell processor and two-way video calling were the highlights. Now, those features are outclassed by the dual-core processors and LTE modems in the latest top-of-the-line smartphones phones.
Which isn't to say the phone hasn't had some upgrades since 2009. It's now packing an 806-MHz processor and runs either Android 2.2 or 2.3, but it's still mid-range. And even Sayers acknowledges that the phone looks pretty chunky.
We had a hands-on with the VPhone back in 2009 and found the hardware pretty uninspiring. The device's body feels like a generic Chinese Android phone, but it sounds like the VPhone's secret sauce may be in its software.
The company's proprietary software lets Android phones make clear video calls over 3G networks, something we haven't seen with any Android video calling software yet. And Saygus will separate out the software and make it available for download, Sayers said.
In a post on AndroidGuys.com, Riker explained that the VPhone will be full of developer and hacker-friendly features like an open bootloader and "the ability to run entire ROM distros from the sdcard." That could gain the Vphone cult status among Android geeks.
The VPhone has also had some "unique features" and "hardware modifications" added since 2009, which Sayers said he doesn't want to announce before launch.
With the VPhone almost ready for its close-up, however, Sayers is already looking at his next model. Now that he's gotten one phone through the labs, the second one will be much easier, he says. Saygus' next phone, due in late 2012, will feature "the most advanced NFC technology" available and will hopefully clear Verizon's labs within three months of submission, Sayers said. He's also working on "some very unusual tablet designs."
"If it took a year, it was worth it. We needed to pay our dues," Sayers said. "I believe we had to pay the price and earn our right to play with the big boys."
Sadly, we still don't have a price or exact release date for the VPhone, but Sayers says it's coming soon.