3G iPhone coming in 60 days?

According to a blurb from CNET, The Wall Street Journal's technology columnist Walt Mossberg predicted last week that the 3G iPhone will hit store shelves within 60 days.

Mossberg made the comments at an executive summit held by Beet.tv. Most of his talk is about how broadband networks in the U.S. are lacking compared to other developed countries, and how that's a big problem for video-over-the-Internet businesses.

Mossberg is part of a select group that gets early access to important Apple products, and he was one of the first to review the initial iPhone last June.

Mossberg Reviews the Voyager

According to a December report from Compete, the LG Voyager from Verizon was the most popular handset in November for online shoppers.

Compete tracks the number of page views a handset's webpage gets on carrier sites. You can see the Top 10 handsets in the chart we've posted here as well.

You'll notice that it even surpassed the iPhone (listed as #4) on the list. The Voyager got a lot of buzz when it was first announced as an iPhone competitor.

The Mobile Phone Blog was certainly skeptical that LG could produce anything close to the iPhone and our doubts were validated last week when Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal reviewed the Voyager.

The title of his article?: "Verizon's New Voyager Looks Like the iPhone, But Software Is Inferior"

The whole review is worth reading, but a couple of the highlights (or lowlights depending on your perspective).

Voyager advantages over iPhone:

- runs on a fast, 3G data network
- $100 less expensive ($299 vs $399)
- has GPS and thus provides real-time navigation
- can receive live TV programs
- has a physical keyboard for typing

Voyager disadvantages as compared to iPhone:

- is bulkier - about 50% thicker and 40% larger overall
- lacks the ability to use Wi-Fi hot spots and home networks
- has only about half the battery life
- has a smaller, lower-resolution screen
- has just a fraction of the internal memory

Mossberg goes on to discuss the significant software disadvantages of the Voyager and ends the article with the following:

"Verizon is promising to improve the Voyager, but right now it's a classic example of how the leading cellphone makers are going to have to step up their games, especially in software, to match Apple's upstart device."