UPDATED: Verizon Attack Ads — Claim iPhone iDoesn’t do What Android 2.0 Droid Does
UPDATE: TiPb asked a few non-geek friends and most of them didn’t even realize Verizon was targeting the iPhone in these ads (some thought the commercial was saying whatever device they were talking about didn’t do the things listed). Is that an ad-failure, or was it deliberately targeting geeks?
Secondly, Sacha Seagan over at Gearlog brings up the now apparently dual, and now opposite meaning behind “open application” buzzwords – a device totally controlled by Verizon.
Thirdly, does the push for the Droid explain why Verizon seemingly buried the BlackBerry Storm2 announcement?
Original post after the break!
Verizon has now aired their first new Android 2.0-centric, anti-iPhone (technically “iDon’t iDevice”) attack ad and placed a new website online to go with them. Surprise, surprise — like that leaked BlackBerry Storm2 vs. iPhone 3G(!) chart Verizon put together, the ads contain blatant inaccuracies (even if typeset in Apple’s typical Myriad Pro):
- iDon’t have a real keyboard: Er, it does. Not to get all Spock, but nothing unreal exists, the iPhone’s keyboard exists, therefore it’s real. Sure, it’s soft/virtual (like the Verizon BlackBerry Storm2’s) rather than hard, but it’s certainly not imaginary.
- iDon’t run simultaneous apps: Again, it does. The iPhone can run iPod, Email, Phone, Messages, App Store/iTunes downloads, Quicktime streams, and other functions in the background with full multitasking. Apple restricts two or more 3rd party apps from running at the same time, but that’s obviously too subtle a difference for Verizon. (iPhone on HSPA can also multitask voice and data. Droid on CDMA — no data when you’re on the phone.)
- iDon’t take night shots: Well, we guess they mean the camera’s ISO doesn’t produce good results in low light. Fair point. Arguably nothing short of a really good DSLR sensor does, tiny LED flash included. Though 5 megapixels is still nice.
- iDon’t allow open development. Really, Verizon, with your history, you want to play that card? Android is an about face for you, not a two-face. We’ll wait and see on this one.
- iDon’t customize. Okay, fair point. One out of how many so far? UPDATE: Shawn Roberts points out it remains to be seen how customizable the Droid is. If it’s just re-arranging icons, the iPhone can do that too.
- iDon’t run widgets. What’s a widget? Arguably iPhone Stocks and Weather are widgets not far removed from Mac OS X’s Dashboard counter-parts. We’re guessing they mean little, persistent on-screen information snippets. We’ll give them a second point for that.
- iDon’t have a removable battery. Third point. Apple’s driven away from that entire concept towards longer life, built-in batteries and external charging packs. If that’s something you can’t stand, fair enough.
Wrap all that up in an Adobe Flash-only site for Verizon’s upcoming Android powered Droid phone, and we’re thinking Verizon better hope that the handset ends up a lot better than the marketing thus far. And, that’s the key point here, as Daring Fireball points out:
“Droid” is going to be a Verizon-owned brand. It’s purportedly a Motorola-manufactured phone, but Verizon is the licensee of the “Droid” trademark. (Which name, by the way, strikes me as the perfect name for an Android OS phone — sort of implicitly establishes it as the Android phone.) That’s the big thing. Verizon doesn’t see itself as a mere carrier for other companies’ phones. It sees itself as being bigger than the phones. It’s Verizon-vs.-Apple in this spot, not Verizon-vs.-AT&T.
It’s exactly the opposite approach, with Apple leading the carriers with iPhone (hopefully hastening them into their “dumb-pipe” future), now Verizon wants to turn back the clock by owning an OS like Android. They want to put carriers at the front again. Is that something that tempts you to switch?
[Video via Engadget]
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You all are arguing that the commercial lied, it didn’t. I own a G1, and I can say that I love this phone a lot more than my ipos. The android phones do a lot more than the iphone’s do. Period. If you don’t think so, your more of a fanboy than anything. I can’t say the G1 is the best phone, because I don’t think it is, but I can say its better than any iPhone I’ve played with. The android OS is open source, so there is always going to be more customization to the phone than others. I have rooted my phone, and installed the hero rom, the pulse rom, the ion rom, the sense rom, and the blur rom. That’s 5 totally different OS’ for those of you that don’t know that. Oh I can also install a FULL linux distro os with GUI on my phone. How about you?
The ads are being run by Motorola, not Verizon. This has been reported nearly everywhere by now. The ad is designed to pull on-the-fence iphone users to Motorola (and Verizon by proxy). To claim the iphone has a real keyboard because it exists is absurd and is honestly more desperate a defense than anything in the commercial to begin with.
New Microsoft Ad for Windows 7 should follow the Motorola iDont campaigne:
“iDont randomly delete user accounts and data files.”
Has Apple done anything yet to resolve this HUGE bug in Snow Leopard that deletes user accounts and any files associated with that account? Apple is so quick to throw mud perhaps someone should fling that back at them. Perhaps they should spend more money on quality assurance and testing instead of advertising. Seriously, they nickle and dime their fan-base to death through paying for what should be free service-packs disguised as “new” operating systems (10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6…. all version 10 of OS).
Let’s be realistic here folks. First of all, who’s going to read 200+ posts? I didn’t – I scrolled. Second, if you’re just a kid that doesn’t actually need a reliable network and would rather have the newest coolest toy around, there are plenty of options for just that purpose, and the Droid doesn’t aim to be one.
Apple did a superb job on the OS and case-design for the iPhone. The device is simple for anyone to use, and is attractive in almost any circle. However, and as previously posted several times, it’s not perfect. It amazes me that an Operating System vendor that focuses on media completely missed the mark with their flagship mobile device. As elegant as the iPhone is, why on EARTH can it not do MMS? To me, that’s just ridiculous. I’m a business-user, so it’s not as though I’m missing that feature, but c’mon – that should have been a no-brainer from the start.
As stated, I’m a business user, so for me the most important feature is by far the network. I’ve used all the major carriers, and NOBODY – bar none – has better service than Verizon. As much as I hate to go with a company that locks things down so tight, I will not go with any other carrier simply because I’ve yet to drop a call on the Verizon network with one single exception when I was in rural Texas, down in a valley. 5 seconds later, I had coverage again. My job requires that I’m in constant contact, and Verizon delivers consistently.
I’m really looking forward to the Droid. It’s (supposedly) 100% customisable given that it’s open-source, and the device appears to be elegant enough for the board-room.
And at a $200 price-point, it’ll be interesting to see if Apple continues to carry the less-than-stellar AT&T, or jumps ship to what 89 million people have come to know as the superior network. Game on Apple, it’s time to get your feet off the desk and make the iPhone a Droid-killer!
yeah, well I have been an iphone user since 2007. I have had the first one, the 3g and now the 3gs. But, I am tired of this phone. Starting November 6th I am going to get a call from Best Buy to come setup my new Droid and Verizon account. Goodbye ATT – Goodbye Apple. I have been waiting on Google to improve Android and for a manufacturer to create decent hardware. Well despite it’s shortcomings they did it!
Not only that I echo the poster above Alex111683. YOU ARE ALL SCARED OF ANDROID!! And you know why? Because like Ants… Android will mass on many devices unlike the iPhone!! Not only that the Android Army will slowly like it is now take over this market. Have you seen the predictions already for 2010? So this is beyond DROID. DROID is the first Impressive Android phone ahh, the leader so to speak. There will be more! and More! and more!
There will not be any 1 iPhone killer. But Android in numbers. In many devices. Everywhere. Apple cannot stop this. Get over the iphone. its ok and getting old. the droid is impressive. Android is beautiful.
iphone is good phone but it indeed frigile and have to take good care of it