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Verizon Goes on Offensive Against iPhone Again With 'Droid Does' Teasers
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So what is worse, Verizon or Apple fan boys? I think the jury is still out but I am not sure of any negative Verizon articles that resulted in death threats for the author which were taken very seriously by the FBI.
In the end Verizon wants to be a competitor in the market the iPhone has found a nice place in and they have thus far done a good job at highlighting some of the things surveys have shown users don't like. I think it is a great move for Verizon, if they can manage to grab market share (or even satisfy the hordes of corporate customers they have) the profit margin will be much larger over the life of the device.
Competition is good for the user, in this case even the many Apple Zealots.
I am sure taking a picture in the middle of the night would be nice, but wondering how long the battery would last?
My wife always gives me a hard time about how quick my iphone battery dies and her phone happily takes pictures with a flash, which does a great job at improving the balance of indoor shots. You might say she doesn't talk, trust me she gets most of the credit for the voice minutes and SMS on the account.
oh yeah THIS is the phone to do it ... i say YEAH RIGHT not going to happen ..
remember when the PRE was big news and going to be competition for the iphone
or the g1 was going to be competition
or the instink
or the storm
or 100 other phones that everyone thought was going to do good but FLOPPED
i dont see any competition for the iphone for a long time IMO
the iphone just surpasses ALL other phones in EVERY category
not too bad
sure it looks ugly, and I'd love to get a iPhone. But c'mon ... 800euros (~1200 USD) for a Phone without a contract? WTF? I can get 2-3 netbooks for that price! (btw. I'm still waiting for a OSX netbook). And the contracts are a mess!
This and not to be able to download any app from the internet are a no go for me (apt-get, ssh, java, ... all the goodies are only available to the jail braked versions). If Apple doesn't address these issues, I'll get a droid!
And if Apple implements a App store for OSX in the future and doesn't allow me to download any app, I'll switch back to PC.
sure it looks ugly, and I'd love to get a iPhone. But c'mon ... 800euros (~1200 USD) for a Phone without a contract? WTF? I can get 2-3 netbooks for that price! (btw. I'm still waiting for a OSX netbook). And the contracts are a mess!
This and not to be able to download any app from the internet are a no go for me (apt-get, ssh, java, ... all the goodies are only available to the jail braked versions). If Apple doesn't address these issues, I'll get a droid!
And if Apple implements a App store for OSX in the future and doesn't allow me to download any app, I'll switch back to PC.
...a lot to worry about??
The iPhone needs competition. This is not competition...at all.
The best thing out there STILL, is a jailbroken iPhone.
The biggest problem with the iPod/iPhone "killers" is that in aiming to be that type of device, they are already doing themselves a disservice. Apple succeeded with the iPod and iPhone because they started with an entirely new vision (all Steve's vision, no doubt) of how music and portable devices should be. They were aiming to create a new category. If you want to defeat the iPod or iPhone, you need to create, define and corner the next big category, or at least substantially redefine or change the game in the current category, not try to chase down and beat someone else's vision. Staring at iPod/iPhone/Apple through the crosshairs will simply mean you miss out on the bigger picture going on around you.
Apple never tries to launch a <something> Killer. They do the work and research on coming up with where they can make their own niche and then they go for it. They're not trying to be the Windows killer, they're not trying to kill Exchange or Windows Mobile or Adobe Premiere or Linux or any of that. They're not even disparaging the PC in the "I'm a PC" adverts (which as I understand is what Verizon is doing in their ads). Apple knows that the PC guy is loveable, and the Mac guy frequently offers him support or whatever. Apple themselves have said that they love the PC. So, to those suggesting hypocrisy, the adverts aren't even comparable, so your claim is laughably invalid, even before we start quibbling over the boring minutae.
The problem for Verizon (and I have to admit I haven't watched the advert as I'm not in the US, and frankly I don't really care enough to bother watching it) is that naming the features and lining them up reinforces that not only is iPhone the one to beat, but it also reinforces that they are, at best, providing only incremental improvements, no revolutionising the segment or creating a new one.
These companies need to do their own thing, and make their products stand on their own, not always targeting someone else like Apple. Because even if you succeed at being a Killer, there's always someone coming up behind you in the food chain.
Apple never tries to launch a <something> Killer. They do the work and research on coming up with where they can make their own niche and then they go for it. They're not trying to be the Windows killer, they're not trying to kill Exchange or Windows Mobile or Adobe Premiere or Linux or any of that. They're not even disparaging the PC in the "I'm a PC" adverts (which as I understand is what Verizon is doing in their ads). Apple knows that the PC guy is loveable, and the Mac guy frequently offers him support or whatever. Apple themselves have said that they love the PC. So, to those suggesting hypocrisy, the adverts aren't even comparable, so your claim is laughably invalid, even before we start quibbling over the boring minutae.
The problem for Verizon (and I have to admit I haven't watched the advert as I'm not in the US, and frankly I don't really care enough to bother watching it) is that naming the features and lining them up reinforces that not only is iPhone the one to beat, but it also reinforces that they are, at best, providing only incremental improvements, no revolutionising the segment or creating a new one.
These companies need to do their own thing, and make their products stand on their own, not always targeting someone else like Apple. Because even if you succeed at being a Killer, there's always someone coming up behind you in the food chain.
Every category eh?
Maybe you should go back and watch that commercial...
It's not about being a iPhone killer, its about good competition on a competing network. They aren't trying to replace the iPhone...just market their strengths, which right now is Android and their network.
You want to talk about a game-changing phone look at the HTC HD2...no phone on the market comes close to its performance.
Every category eh?
Maybe you should go back and watch that commercial...
It's not about being a iPhone killer, its about good competition on a competing network. They aren't trying to replace the iPhone...just market their strengths, which right now is Android and their network.
You want to talk about a game-changing phone look at the HTC HD2...no phone on the market comes close to its performance.
okay maybe i went over board on EVERY category but most can be accomplished on a jailbroken iphone AND i dont believe anything will beat the iphone till it does sorry
Until the HTC HD2 comes along. Which I believe is truly the first phone to outdo the iPhone.
windows mobile =FAIL
and buddy thats what EVERYONE said about the pre and we how that turned out didnt we
Let's See:
Real Keyboard - no thanks .. more things to break .. more moving parts
Simultaneous Apps - ok .. so I'd love to be able to text without closing .. but this 'feature' is not enough to make me jump to V
5 MP Pics - big whoop
Customize - uh huh .. sure, considering V disables every feature on every other phone, I doubt there'll be much to customize on this one
Run Widgets - ummm, why?
OpenDev - With 88,000 apps, I'm not sure that the iphone platform is hindering anyone
Pics in the Dark - ummm , so
Interchangeable Bat - this has never been an issue for me - so again, not something that would make me jump to V.
Sorry V .. you are reaching on all of these .. good luck to you
Real Keyboard - no thanks .. more things to break .. more moving parts
Simultaneous Apps - ok .. so I'd love to be able to text without closing .. but this 'feature' is not enough to make me jump to V
5 MP Pics - big whoop
Customize - uh huh .. sure, considering V disables every feature on every other phone, I doubt there'll be much to customize on this one
Run Widgets - ummm, why?
OpenDev - With 88,000 apps, I'm not sure that the iphone platform is hindering anyone
Pics in the Dark - ummm , so
Interchangeable Bat - this has never been an issue for me - so again, not something that would make me jump to V.
Sorry V .. you are reaching on all of these .. good luck to you
windows mobile =FAIL
and buddy thats what EVERYONE said about the pre and we how that turned out didnt we
WinMo Jokes? HTC Sense UI is not just a home screen skin. They re-did every major app beautifully and with multitouch support. The only thing that makes you remember its WinMo is the Start button. If you watched any preview videos on the damn thing you'd see that its so drastically altered......and The HTC HD2 is so far beyond the Pre its not even funny. HTC HD2 is a better phone than the iPhone. I don't see how you can argue against this.
Brilliant ad. And I personally agree with almost everything except for the keyboard. Right in the face of iPhone users like me... in need of a flash and a much better camera. And I want it yesteryear.
Two points:
1. Hopefully some of the attacks will resonate with Apple and future versions of iPhone OS will allow a bit more freedom of customization for users who wish to do so without jailbreaking -- maybe an authorized version of Winterboard that does some of the asthetic things people like.
2. I enjoy the fact that Verizon, Google, and Motorola are paying George Lucas for the right to use the word "Droid" in their commercial (which the fine print alerts you is copyright Lucasfilm LTD).
Fitting that a device designed to ape something successful also has an unoriginal name branding it.
1. Hopefully some of the attacks will resonate with Apple and future versions of iPhone OS will allow a bit more freedom of customization for users who wish to do so without jailbreaking -- maybe an authorized version of Winterboard that does some of the asthetic things people like.
2. I enjoy the fact that Verizon, Google, and Motorola are paying George Lucas for the right to use the word "Droid" in their commercial (which the fine print alerts you is copyright Lucasfilm LTD).
Fitting that a device designed to ape something successful also has an unoriginal name branding it.
You, like several, are spreading complete BS.
As I type, I'm looking at my Blackberry Tour, WHICH SUPPORTS GSM AND HAS A SIM CARD.
Get your facts straight.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)
The date on that story was April 27 2009. Long before the release of the 3GS or the 3G price drop so that info is useless.
bfc said:
The date on that story was April 27 2009. Long before the release of the 3GS or the 3G price drop so that info is useless.
If you had watched the ad you wouldn't have made the point except to slap Apple with it. Simply put, the iPhone is locked in with more restrictions about what you can or cannot do that this new Verizon offer.
Hell, how long did it take for the iPhone to get cut and paste?
Edit : Reading some of the other replies and all I can say is, the fanboism is strong on this thread.
Well, here is a diverging opinion....
IMHO, the keyboard, along with ATT service here in San Diego, are the two biggest weaknesses of the iphone. I bought my iphone in July of 2008. The keyboard software is getting better but it just doesn't compare to, say, the Crackberry's physical keyboard. The amount of re-typing because of the a miss-hit on the iphone keyboard is, for me, much higher that the old Crackberry. And speed-wise, I type much faster on a Crack than on the iphone. As for ATT's service in San Diego and surrounding communities, well, to paraphrase the Verizon advert., ATT doesn't have a map for that. And ask people in San Francisco, New York and even the geographic area near Apple HQ on De Anza and Stevenscreek in the Silicon Valley...ATT has a sheety map for that.
IMHO, the keyboard, along with ATT service here in San Diego, are the two biggest weaknesses of the iphone. I bought my iphone in July of 2008. The keyboard software is getting better but it just doesn't compare to, say, the Crackberry's physical keyboard. The amount of re-typing because of the a miss-hit on the iphone keyboard is, for me, much higher that the old Crackberry. And speed-wise, I type much faster on a Crack than on the iphone. As for ATT's service in San Diego and surrounding communities, well, to paraphrase the Verizon advert., ATT doesn't have a map for that. And ask people in San Francisco, New York and even the geographic area near Apple HQ on De Anza and Stevenscreek in the Silicon Valley...ATT has a sheety map for that.
windows mobile =FAIL
and buddy thats what EVERYONE said about the pre and we how that turned out didnt we
Do you know what the HD2 is though? It won't outsell the iPhone, but yes it is leaps ahead of it in technology and performance. If its got TouchFlow (Sense UI is an android thing) then yes it will be the best device on the market.
You can't market a Jailbroken iPhone...please don't throw it into this comparison. Everything they are marketing the iPhone can't do LEGALLY, illegally you can do whatever you want on all platforms.
Still this isn't about BEATING the iPhone. They are just playing to the strengths they have in order to make money, and you can't expect anything less out of any company, even Apple.
Its like people aren't even reading about this stuff...
A keyboard is a preference, qwerty clearly is not yours. You cited a perfect example for why running multiple apps at once is great, there are many. Its a better camera. Big V disables crap on their dumbphones, not their smartphones and considering they've agreed to Google Voice and open development of the platform and complete support of Android you can bet all the customization that comes along with Android will be there. Widget - so I don't have to launch the weather app (its a pain). Open development = google's stuff, Latitude, Google Voice, and whatever else anyone thinks of.
They really aren't claiming a whole lot, but what they are stating are things this phone will do better than the iPhone. They leave out big things like an App store on purpose, because its not one its strengths by comparison.
A further point:
The target of the "Dorid" ad isn't people who own an iPhone -- it's Verizon's own (extensive) customer base. I'd be willing to wager that, when the numbers come out, the Droid will fill the same role as the Palm Pre did for Sprnit: slow attrition to the iPhone and encourage existing customers to re-up with their carrier when the time comes. If you look at who was buying the Palm Pre, it was overwhelmingly (I think somewhere close to 85-90%) existing Sprint customers. I expect numbers with the Droid to be similar.
The ad basically boils down to "the grass isn't greener, stick with Verizon and check this baby out." From that standpoint, as long as the phone functions well, it'll probably be an effective ad.
The target of the "Dorid" ad isn't people who own an iPhone -- it's Verizon's own (extensive) customer base. I'd be willing to wager that, when the numbers come out, the Droid will fill the same role as the Palm Pre did for Sprnit: slow attrition to the iPhone and encourage existing customers to re-up with their carrier when the time comes. If you look at who was buying the Palm Pre, it was overwhelmingly (I think somewhere close to 85-90%) existing Sprint customers. I expect numbers with the Droid to be similar.
The ad basically boils down to "the grass isn't greener, stick with Verizon and check this baby out." From that standpoint, as long as the phone functions well, it'll probably be an effective ad.
windows mobile =FAIL
and buddy thats what EVERYONE said about the pre and we how that turned out didnt we
Some with disagree with what you are suggesting: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/upgrade/4332407.html