LG KU990 Viewty: The YouTube phone is unveiled
LG isn't renowned for high-end camera phones but that doesn't mean that the company behind the fashion-centric Chocolate phone can't make one. In fact it can and it has — and no, we're not talking about the LG KG920.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Viewty is the productization of a story CNET and AFP reported in early July 2007, when LG confirmed it was working with YouTube on a co-developed handset — see the July agreement between YouTube and LG. What was then a partnership announcement is now a shipping device with upload integration built in, giving LG a flagship camera phone angle beyond its fashion-led Chocolate line.
Timing matters on YouTube's side too: the phone lands in the same week YouTube introduced its InVideo overlay ad format (August 21-22, 2007), a monetization push layered onto what remains the largest video site, serving roughly 3 billion minutes of video a month.
First-order effects
- LG gains a differentiated flagship: the KU990 Viewty pairs high-end camera hardware with direct-to-YouTube uploading, moving LG beyond its reputation for style-first phones like the Chocolate.
- YouTube acquires a dedicated capture device at the top of its funnel — every Viewty sold is a camera pointed straight at the service that dominates online video.
Second-order effects
- Rivals in the camera-phone race — Nokia and Sony Ericsson chief among them — face pressure to match service-integration deals rather than compete on sensor specs alone, since LG has claimed the 'YouTube phone' positioning outright.
- Carriers lose a layer of control over mobile video: upload paths that bypass operator portals route user-generated video traffic to the open web, where YouTube's ad-light strategy and new InVideo ads set the commercial terms.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, handset differentiation shifts from hardware specifications toward exclusive software-service partnerships, making web brands like YouTube gatekeepers of phone appeal.
- A structural split opens between carrier-controlled mobile media and open-web upload pipelines, with regulators and operators eventually forced to take positions on which side of that line handsets sit.
The trend: Handset makers are increasingly differentiating phones through exclusive partnerships with dominant web services rather than hardware alone, with camera phones becoming capture endpoints for online-video platforms.