Google Mocks iPhone in Musical ‘Wicked’ Ad Claiming Pixel Firsts

[justanotherdave]

In 2010, sure. In 2025, no one cares.

People cared a LOT when Android devices were faster than iPhones. Benchmarks were the hottest topic in online discussion forums.

Then the A7 debuted (first 64bit ARM mobile processor with advanced features no Android device had like wide superscalar architecture) and crushed processors from Qualcomm or Samsung. Suddenly benchmarks didn’t matter anymore.

You can literally trace this shift in thinking to the Anandtech article in 2013 where they did a deep dive on the A7. All Anandtech did was tell the truth about the superiority of the A7 vs everyone else and they were accused of being Apple shills. Shortly after benchmarks didn’t matter and new fake benchmarks appeared (like App races).


Benchmarks still matter and processor power still matters.

 

[Bsj80]

Curious why Apple pays Google billions a year for this but there we are

It’s cheaper than creating your own AI… tons of money is being poured into AI right now.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

People cared a LOT when Android devices were faster than iPhones. Benchmarks were the hottest topic in online discussion forums.

Then the A7 debuted (first 64bit ARM mobile processor with advanced features no Android device had like wide superscalar architecture) and crushed processors from Qualcomm or Samsung. Suddenly benchmarks didn’t matter anymore.

You can literally trace this shift in thinking to the Anandtech article in 2013 where they did a deep dive on the A7. All Anandtech did was tell the truth about the superiority of the A7 vs everyone else and they were accused of being Apple shills. Shortly after benchmarks didn’t matter and new fake benchmarks appeared (like App races).


Benchmarks still matter and processor power still matters.

Benchmarks didn't matter then, and they don't matter now. Internet forums are not where the average person decides what phone to buy.. they see their friends, their family, and what the carrier has to offer. What looks nice and what is familiar is lightyears beyond benchmarks...

Benchmarks are nerd enthusiast crap, and the average person doesn't care...and they didn't care when Android was faster.

I have literally not looked at phone benchmark since the 6 series of iphones; not a single one, for Android, for iPhone, for Mac or PC. I couldn't tell you how much ram my last 5 iPhones had either, or my current iphone.. no clue.

It does not matter.

 

[klasma]

What an gawd awful commercial that tells me nothing about the product.

It literally enumerates three product features.

 

[Nyx1]

Google more give Apple advertising for iPhone instead they advertising for pixel

 

[klasma]

Until you pull back the black curtain to reveal that the Great and Powerful Oz is just a droid pulling the strings. An Android, to be exact. But hey, if that's your thing, you've got options, so good for you.

The Wizard of iOS is an Android?!

 

[justanotherdave]

I don't do either or those, and neither does my wife (on her Pixel), so for me or her, why would it matter? I do edit GoPro Video quite a bit..on my Mac.. why the hell would I want to do it on a tiny-ass phone screen?

Liquid Glass sucks so bad that I'm considering switching, and with how happy my wife has been for years on the Pixel line, I'm considering one.

Keep deflecting to Liquid Glass to try and change the topic from the fact Pixel processors are trash.

A LOT of people use phones for video. That’s why there’s a MASSIVE aftermarket industry of hardware & software for people related specifically to video. Maybe you don’t, but many others do.

Processor power has other advantages besides games/video. It directly affects device longevity. An iPhone with a top-tier processor is going to perform far better down the road than some Pixel with a mid-tier processor.

Google announced 7 years of updates for Pixel devices. Wonder how those processors are going to cope down the road.

 

[TJFDenver]

iApples hardware is superior to iGoogles

iGoogles software is superior to iApples

 

[Baseiseough]

Maybe I’m completely out of touch on this subject, but is phone speed soooo important nowadays?? I mean, i can feel speed difference on a computer with GPU and all. But a phone??? What does people do on a phone that computing speed is so important? I am still using an iPhone 12 and there is nothing I want to do that I can’t do with it and there is no moment I feel I am wasting my time waiting for it to compute.

 

[Mousse]

It literally enumerates three product features.

Those feature are "meh" at best, screening calls is the only one that's useful, IMO. And known to most android users for quite some time. I didn't know about the ability to disable wifi and/or celluar data on individual apps until someone told me about it. Being able to control data access on your phone is a big deal. It keeps pesky apps from phoning home with you data or banish annoying ads in games.

 

[Joker1977]

Google are so full of themselves!

If we could travel in time and it was 2007 the world bowed at Apples feet. That was only about 20 years ago and fan boys didn’t even need overrated MMS!

 

[justanotherdave]

Funny, I daily drive a Pixel because it feels lightyears more secure due to the constant updates pushed out to parts of the OS instead of waiting for an every-other-month update as a package of fixes. Looking at my Play Store history, I got an update to Photos, Drive, Messages, Wi-Fi provisioning, Wallet, Phone, Calendar, Contacts, Device Intelligence, Calculator, Files, and more in the last 3 days. Meanwhile, Apple last updated my iPad on Nov 3 and no patches since. Those long gaps mean there are security issues and Apple is just too big to still think they have security through obscurity. Things get exploited fast when issues are addressed so slowly.

This is a myth. The vast majority of Android updates that affect security are sent out via AOSP and not done through Google Play Services. You can see for yourself by going to the Android Dashboard and reading the content of security updates.

In an ideal world Google Play Services could update the entire OS when a problem occurs, but due to OEMs using different hardware/processors and having their own custom builds of Android this isn’t possible.

If you’re running an older version of Android you’re NOT getting all the important security updates.

iPhones started getting incremental security updates since iOS 16 and it was expanded in iOS 26.

 

[fatTribble]

Strangely, my opinion of google is unchanged.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Keep deflecting to Liquid Glass to try and change the topic from the fact Pixel processors are trash.

A LOT of people use phones for video. That’s why there’s a MASSIVE aftermarket industry of hardware & software for people related specifically to video. May you don’t, but many others do.

Processor power has other advantages besides games/video. It directly affects device longevity. An iPhone with a top-tier processor is going to perform far better down the road than some Pixel with a mid-tier processor.

Google announced 7 years of updates for Pixel devices. Wonder how those processors are going to cope down the road.

You say keep deflecting, but I hate it enough to potentially leave the iOS ecosystem because of it, and I'm not joking. Liquid Glass. Is. Crap.

As for 7 years of support, my wife used the Pixel 2 until the Pixel 8. It worked just fine when she retired it, and the only reason she bought a new device is because we had a free line on spectrum, and they didn't support the 2.

 

[justanotherdave]

Benchmarks didn't matter then, and they don't matter now. Internet forums are not where the average person decides what phone to buy.. they see their friends, their family, and what the carrier has to offer. What looks nice and what is familiar is lightyears beyond benchmarks...

Benchmarks are nerd enthusiast crap, and the average person doesn't care...and they didn't care when Android was faster.

I have literally not looked at phone benchmark since the 6 series of iphones; not a single one, for Android, for iPhone, for Mac or PC. I couldn't tell you how much ram my last 5 iPhones had either, or my current iphone.. no clue.

It does not matter.

It matters. You don’t get to rewrite computing history because you don’t like the fact Apple dominates a specific category.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

It matters. You don’t get to rewrite computing history because you don’t like the fact Apple dominates a specific category.

I'm talking about the average person, not "computing history". My kids don't care, my wife doesn't care, my parents don't care, my siblings don't care, my coworkers don't care. Why? Because none of them are tech-enthuiasts.

Example, a coworker (mid 30s woman, with a doctorate in pharamcy) just bought a new iPhone, a 17 Pro Max, because she lost her previous phone in Mexico. She didn’t even know what model her new iPhone is, or what number model her previous phone was. Do think she looked at benchmarks?

Again, you're in the enthusiast camp. Most aren't, never have been, and never will be.

 

[HouseLannister]

Keep deflecting to Liquid Glass to try and change the topic from the fact Pixel processors are trash.

A LOT of people use phones for video.

And a lot of folks don't. But Google has cloud processing that makes your video better, so why does it need to throw more teraflops at the problem? Their CPU is designed for AI, not benchmarks. And it does what it targets to do extremely well. My Pixel 10 Pro has never once felt slow. In fact, it feels faster than an iPhone because I turned the animation speed, which is something I can't do on iOS with it's slow look-at-me animations. Which are pretty, but soooo slow.

 

[idrewuk]

Pixel is a waste of time, waste of resources, and a poorly selling sub-brand. This reeks yet again of ‘please notice me!!!!’ because customers just aren’t interested.

 

[justanotherdave]

I'm talking about the average person, not "computing history". My kids don't care, my wife doesn't care, my parents don't care, my siblings don't care, my coworkers don't care. Why? Because none of them are tech-enthuiasts.

Again, you're in the enthusiast camp. Most aren't, never have been, and never will be.

All you’re doing is proving a saying I’ve used over & over:

Nothing upsets people online more than bringing up how fast Apple processor are.

It’s amazing how people claim they don’t care or it doesn’t matter yet feel the need to tell as many people as possible that it doesn’t matter.

From where I’m sitting it appears to matter. A LOT. Otherwise, why devote so much energy to something you don’t care about?

 

[Gherkin]

These ads don’t really hit anymore considering they are both amazing phones.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

All you’re doing is proving a saying I’ve used over & over:

Nothing upsets people online more than bringing up how fast Apple processor are.

It’s amazing how people claim they don’t care or it doesn’t matter yet feel the need to tell as many people as possible that it doesn’t matter.

From where I’m sitting it appears to matter. A LOT. Otherwise, why devote so much energy to something you don’t care about?

I have a 16 Pro and have been an iPhone user since the 3g, and an M4 Pro. Been a computer builder/user since the early 90s.

I know it doesn’t matter.

 

[justanotherdave]

And a lot of folks don't. But Google has cloud processing that makes your video better, so why does it need to throw more teraflops at the problem? Their CPU is designed for AI, not benchmarks. And it does what it targets to do extremely well. My Pixel 10 Pro has never once felt slow. In fact, it feels faster than an iPhone because I turned the animation speed, which is something I can't do on iOS with it's slow look-at-me animations. Which are pretty, but soooo slow.

So you’re going to use cellular data (if you’re not near WiFi) and wait until a very large video file is uploaded to the cloud, then wait some more while it’s being processed and then wait while it downloads?

All to get a pre-canned video that Google thinks you’ll like instead of deciding yourself how you want it to look?

 

[justanotherdave]

I have a 16 Pro and have been an iPhone user since the 3g, and an M4 Pro. Been a computer builder/user since the early 90s.

I know it doesn’t matter.

Keep telling yourself that. Seriously, who are you trying to kid?

 

[ab2c4]

That commercial was weird. I miss the commercials from 10-12ish years ago when Samsung was making fun of Iphones. Now those were funny.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

That commercial was weird. I miss the commercials from 10-12ish years ago when Samsung was making fun of Iphones. Now those were funny.

I’ve never seen Wicked, so not totally sure what I watched. I did see the musical 15 years ago.

Our 15 y/o is obsessed with it.