BUSINESS BRIEFS
iPhone rival due by Thanksgiving
Advertiser News Services
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NEW YORK — In time for the holidays, Verizon Wireless is launching a cell phone that looks a lot like the hottest phone so far this year: Apple Inc.'s iPhone.
Like the iPhone, the LG Voyager features a large touch screen, a camera and extensive multimedia, Web browsing and e-mail capabilities.
But it one-ups the iPhone by folding open lengthwise to reveal a QWERTY keyboard and a second, non-touch sensitive screen. The lack of a hardware keyboard has been one of the main complaints about the iPhone.
The Voyager will connect to Verizon Wireless' latest data network, providing speeds much higher than the AT&T network the iPhone uses. The Voyager also has direct access to Verizon Wireless' online music store.
However, the Voyager will not come with a large built-in memory for songs and video, offering instead a slot for memory cards up to 8 gigabytes.
Verizon Wireless did not say how much the Voyager would cost and didn't give a specific launch date, saying only that it would be in stores before Thanksgiving.
FORD SALES DOWN 21% IN SEPTEMBER
DETROIT — Ford's U.S. sales plummeted 21 percent in September while Chrysler and Toyota posted slimmer declines and General Motors held steady. Despite a 4 percent decline in September, Toyota's sales lead over Ford widened for the year.
General Motors Corp. said yesterday its sales were flat compared with last September. The company got a boost from its new lineup of pickups as well as the new Cadillac CTS, which posted a 73 percent sales increase.
Chrysler LLC said its U.S. sales fell 5 percent, although retail sales were up and fleet sales were down compared with the same month last year.
HERSHEY PICKS NEW PRESIDENT
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Hershey Co. board said yesterday that another former Nabisco executive will follow in the footsteps of Richard H. Lenny at the helm of the nation's largest candy-maker and owner of Hawai'i-based Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp.
David J. West, Hershey's chief operating officer, was named president and chief executive yesterday, the board said in a statement. The move came a day after Lenny announced he was stepping down following six tumultuous years at Hershey.
Lenny will remain as chairman through the end of the year, when director Robert H. Campbell will take over, the company also said yesterday.
