Verizon opens Application Innovation Center in SF

CNET was among the press at the opening of a new center that encourages and supports developers creating apps and services to support Verizon's devices and LTE network.

Jessica Dolcourt Senior Editorial Director, Content Operations

Jessica Dolcourt is a passionate content strategist and veteran leader of CNET coverage. As Senior Director of Content Operations, she leads a number of teams, including Thought Leadership, Speed Desk and How-To. Her CNET career began in 2006, testing desktop and mobile software for Download.com and CNET, including the first iPhone and Android apps and operating systems. She continued to review, report on and write a wide range of commentary and analysis on all things phones, with an emphasis on iPhone and Samsung. Jessica was one of the first people in the world to test, review and report on foldable phones and 5G wireless speeds. Jessica led CNET's How-To section for tips and FAQs in 2019, guiding coverage of topics ranging from personal finance to phones and home. She holds an MA with Distinction from the University of Warwick (UK).

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Jessica Dolcourt

Aug. 10, 2011 4:38 p.m. PT

With a roomful of journalists and a live Webcast audience as his witnesses, Verizon CEO Dan Mead officially launched the Verizon Application Innovation Center in downtown San Francisco today.

"Innovation is at the very core of what Verizon does, and what we stand for," Mead said. "LTE has become one of the signature factors driving innovation."

Known as the App Wall, this first implementation of a 9-panel LCD touch-screen app store showcases apps from Verizon's VCast catalog. Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

A sister site of the LTE Innovation Center that opened last month in Waltham, Mass., the application arm is essentially an office space for a relatively small group of Verizon employees, including engineers, to work with application developers and partner companies to think up new apps, services, and ventures to complement Verizon's LTE network and 4G-enabled devices.

This morning, the center's true work space was obscured by baristas making beverages to order from the communal kitchen, app and device demos staged in the main room and offices, and a conference table piled with catered bites.

Ordinarily, traditional office fixtures like desks and swivel chairs will be among the suite's more regular occupants, along with those Verizon employees and drop-in developers, who will use the center to troubleshoot and accelerate production.

CNET was on site this morning to tour the facility and take in the inventive demos. We even got a peek into a heavily reinforced strong room whose singular goal is to shut Verizon's network out. Take a look in our Verizon Application Innovation Center gallery.

Looking in on Verizon's App Innovation Center (photos)

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