Verizon Launches Blitz in Tween Market

It’s back-to-school time, and Verizon Wireless is hoping to appeal to the touth and “tween” market with its new Blitz messaging phone with an integrated camera and media player capabilities. The Blitz phone features a slide-out QWERTY keypad to keep those teenagers running up the text-messaging and email charges, while offering Web and email capabilities that’ll make acing classroom tests a breeze. Why guess when you can Google?

The Blitz features a 2.2-inch 220 by 176-pixel LCD screen, and integrated 1.3 megapixel camera (with self-timer, self-portrait mirror, and color effects built right into the phone), mobile Web and email capability (supporting MSN Hotmail, AOL, and Yahoo), mobile IM, and an integrated MP3 player. Users can pump up the phone’s storage using microSD cards, and the Blitz offers Bluetooth support for hands-free driving and wireless music listening. Of course, the phone also ties in with Verizon’s VZ Navigator mapping service, Verizon’s partnership with the Rhapsody streaming music service, and can be tied into Verizon’s Chaperone service so the phone’s location can be tracked by parents (who can opt to receive alerts if the phone strays too far).

The Blitz is available now for $69.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate, so long as customers sign a new two-year contract.