The
"there's a map for that" ad was a pretty aggressive way to broadside AT&T and the iPhone, but it looks like Verizon's just getting warmed up. We're hearing that the carrier will be kicking off a major new campaign this evening during the Yankees-Angels game that'll feature "a very different look and a whole new attitude," calling out the "iDevice" (their words, not ours) for all the things it can't do. That's a bold offensive for a carrier that historically has lacked breadth and depth in its smartphone lineup, but with the
big new Android releases coming down the pike, this might be perfect timing -- and a strong implication that we can seriously put those endless Verizon iPhone rumors to bed for a little while.
LOL, reminds me of the Sega Genesis ad campaign. "Verizon DOES what iDON'T."
Yeah. I have seen those ads, but didn't see them back in the day. It's funny that Sega was comparing the Genesis to the original 8-bit Nintendo NES, and later tried to claim superiority over the 16-bit Super NES.
"Genesis Does! You can't do this on Nintendo, Genesis Does! WHAT NINTENDON'T!"
IMO obviously, the things that others phones can do over the iphone are not close to equal to what the iphone can do over VZ and android phones. I'm open minded to see if the perception of the campaign equals the reality, but I think this is a steep hill for VZ to climb.
Lol, no gomobile. There isn't anything an iPhone can do that an android can't do, while also doing several other things. I agree with your verizon statement, though. I'm not really sure what Verizon is hoping to accomplish, but slander isn't looked well upon in any society.
@ Asia: Ever seen the "Get a Mac" campaign? Yeah, that whole slandering thing sure worked well for Apple. I think it's time they got a taste of their own medicine. I don't feel sorry for Apple at all, and I'm a Mac user.
@Esquire
A taste of their own medicine? Apple is selling tens of millions of ipod touches/iphones, they are FAR from hurting.
VZW is the one loosing out on millions of subscriber adds paying thousands of dollars a year for service being babies having to make fun of Apple.
Obviously they werent able to come to an agreement just like the original iphone and now VZW is throwing a temper tantrum. They arent getting an Apple product anytime soon after this campaign, they shot themselves in the foot.
Asia How about tying into Itunes video, national tv and game content. Andriod does not have an app for that, yet.
@ klmsu19: Clearly you completely missed my point. I was responding to Asia who stated that slandering the name of a competing company is not well received by consumers. This is clearly false, based on the massive increase in Macbook sales following the "Get a Mac" campaign. My post has nothing whatsoever to do with the sales of iPods/iPhones, or VZW's decision to turn the iPhone down. Please don't add things to my post that were never said or even implied.
"There isn't anything an iPhone can do that an android can't do"
Can an android phone do multi-touch?
@bernardino
can you listen to music on an iphone while doing other things?
android can
Esquire, you may be correct about Mac's increase in sales after the production of the Mac vs. PC commercials. However, to be fair, Apple wasn't spitting in the face of other OS's like Verizon is trying to do with the iPhone and At&t. Apple pointed out that Microsoft was aimed for a power user who uses a computer for more than just media and entertainment purposes, while the Mac was aimed to be more intuitive for just media and entertainment. A fair compare and contrast is okay, but I'm just not liking how Verizon is going about this. Still can't wait to get my hands on a Droid, though. :D
@bernadino, yeah... there are phones running Android that have multi-touch capabilities. Check out a video of HTC's Hero sometime. The keyboard is comparable to the iPhone's in response, and ease-of-use. The Hero's browser also supports multi-touch with things like pinch zooming, and the like. While the Droid currently has limited multi-touch functionality, I'm willing to bet there will be much more added in before the release.
keviin460.....
You can listen to music via the ipod while accessing other apps. I do it all the time.
I'm a Vz customer with the Dare (ugh) and I am jealous of my gf's iPhone 3G. If Vz doesn't have a good competitve phone by the time my NE2 is up, I'm switching to AT&T for the iPhone!!
http://www.droiddoes.com/
Bad play IMOP, people don't generally have a problem with their iPhone but AT&T and their coverage and prices are all pretty universally reviled, going after them is smart going after the handset is probable going to get a much more luke warm response.
Griffon -
Universally reviled by whom? Part of why I moved to ATT was the problems I had with Verizon coverage. I carried ATT/Cingular AND a Verizon phone around for over 2 years. I'll be happy to point out to you where Verizon is lying on their "theres a map for that" map of Michigan. My ATT coverage in the Ohio/Indiana/Michigan areas is better. I'll also be able to point out parts of Florida for you as well. Still can't figure out why I had no Verizon signal in parts of the Florida Keys or on the Ohio Turnpike, just for example.
As others have said, the market shift to ATT must be concerning to Verizon.....
Completely agree with you.
The "There's a map for that" ads are great and call out the biggest weak point of the iPhone, which is the AT&T network. Verizon does a fantastic job showing their 3G network is 5X AT&T's. Excellent job comparing coverage and appealing to consumers.
On the other hand, the "DroidDoes" ads won't resonate with mainstream consumers. Most don’t understand multiple applications or open development. That commercial doesn’t even show a phone! My wife had no idea what it was even for and didn’t get the reference to the iPhone.
I wonder if they will show the lack of AVRCP bluetooth profile compatibility for iPhones.
Try to use an iPhone with a Bluetooth Headphone/headset such as the award winning Motorola s305 and the keys for next track / previous track do not work for the iPhone. This works great on my free on contract Motorola EM330 feature phone.
It seems like Apple and Verizon weren't able to make a deal now VZW is fussing them too. It will be interesting to see what happens.
For a company that complains that they should have had the iPhone (and passed), and sits here and talks about themseves getting the iPhone when LTE launches, they sure do talk lots of trash about it.
If I was Apple, Id prevent them from getting it ever. Why? Just cause Id not want a company that consistantly bashes my product to push it in their line up.
@Roger
100% agree and Jobs is a stubborn man. Apple thrives on their image, and with VZW bashing them I wouldnt count on a VZW APlle product anytime soon.
This gives the impression Verizon has lost some good size market share to AT&T to be this specific.
It doesn't always have to be about that. Clearly, AT&T got millions of suscribers but it's done nothing for their stock compared to Verizon, Verizon has been doing just fine. But with marketing, you can also try to change awareness and reputation. The word is out there that iPhone is the best and Verizon has no cool phones...Verizon is still doing great, but that is a bad image to have. So they're going to try to fix it.
True jon.athan but I'm a Verizon customer now and seriously considering moving to AT&T when my contract is up. Am I unhappy with Verizon? No. But watching the iPhone get better all the time is pretty persuasive.
Very well said jon.athan.
I find this whole ad campaign to be funny. They had the chance to get the phone, but wanted to cripple it with their lousy UI and wanting to have their VZW music store on there. When Apple wouldn't budge, At&t was the big winner. And you can give At&t a lot of crap, but the amount of data consumption they have to deal with is unreal. I wish there was a way to compare what each company does on the data side of things, because At&t is probably running circles around VZW when it comes to data usage. VZW has a lot of nerve to bitch about something they could have had if they weren't such dicks.
Well said
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Jeremy @ Oct 17th 2009 6:29PM I find this whole ad campaign to be funny.
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VZW kicked the i-am-an-overhyped-feature-Phone to the curb once, it'll kick it to the curb once again when Jobs begs VZW to take the i-am-an-overhyped-feature-Phone when the exclusive contract w/ the crap AT&T network ends. Big Red ain't drinking the kool-aid, fanboy. Apple is happy to just simply provide products to the few fashionistas. Just like Microsoft Windows ultimately relegated Macs to the some computer fashionistas, phones running Maemo or Android or maybe some other will dominate, and continue to relegate Apple to the some phone fashionistas. Apple vs Google & VZW- see ya Steve, hope the door hits ya on the way out.
I still have not been able to comprehend why so many people are talking about how much more awesome and advanced the iPhone keeps getting. Sure, it has capacitive multitouch which is a great feature but needing to use one hand to hold the phone while using the other to make gestures to zoom in seems pointless to me when in one hand on a BlackBerry you can do all the navigation and zooming you want with just your thumb. And this AWESOME addition of MMS and tethering support - who are we kidding - the Moto Q has been able to do those since 1912 (maybe a bit of an exaggeration-but you get the point). I do agree that the graphics capabilities are hard to match, but that comes with some caveats. If all manufacturers had decided 4 years ago to focus on mobile 3D rendering and say "Ah, Screw video capture, people would much rather be able to play racing simulators so real they start sweating in their seat on the bus while commuting to work." we'd see those same capabilities from everybody. All platforms these days are developing easy to use mobile application download centers, and are making it easy for software devs to get their ideas out there. People from all camps are working to level the playing field and now we're seeing great devices coming from all directions. Think about this statement from Big Red not as a slam on the iPhone itself but on the network that the iPhone doesn't have behind it. After all, the unnamed iDevice doesn't have a network with the 3G coverage footprint that VZW has, nor does it have a network with the spectrum capacity to handle all of the 3G data calls at 3G speeds that VZW has.
i can't wait another 12 days for the debout of this phone
please more data about this phone
@ bernardino: Why yes, actually, the Droid does have multitouch. Have a nice day :)
@bernardino, Yes you can listen to music on the iPhone while doing other things. I do it all the time. As for the all the multi open window stuff, I have found you burn up a lot of power doing that. So when I surf the net or play games etc, I always plug it up, works for me!
Just saw the commercial...Whatever iDont doesnt, DROIDDOES....I love it
www. droidoes. com thats the site they send you to
I recently renewed for 2 more yrs, w/ VZW and got a free-for-renewing WinMo Omnia i910- tethering, 5 megapixel camera, multi-tabs capable Opera, and full Flash videos-capable Skyfire browsers. In 2 yrs, I'll see how Android works out in VZW and maybe then.
Are you the effing commercial? Douche.
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Jeremy @ Oct 18th 2009 4:54PM Are you the effing commercial? Douche.
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no fanboy, I'm just a former RAZR v3m user. now, go back to drinking your kool-aid
The fact that advertising is driving this debate is very telling. You want what you want, I want what I want, and the manufacturers and carriers are trying to get us to switch sides. Not because one gadget or network is inherently better than the other, but because it will increase market share and profits. It's just business, and to completely believe the pontifications of the cult of the iPhone or it's detractors is folly.
Find a phone you like and use it; appreciate the "iDoes" and work around or live without the "iDoesn't." Either way don't try to make yourself feel better about your choice of phone by bashing mine.
So here's the little shpill that I'm tryin to get answered. I'm an advid Android OS fan. But I'm completely unsure of wether to wait til better hardware over the next year or just utilitze my upgrade with sprint to get the Hero (which I've been drooling over since the very first mention of them.) I could easily go to verizon since I work for them but I'm just really reluctant to make any sudden moves and get locked into a contract. Someone guide me! Thanks for all your hootin' and hollerin'
Don't call Sprint CS too many time about their crappy service or they will drop you like a hot potato,new contract or not!!
I just don't think is a well thought out strategy from a marketing standpoint that will yield market share and impress people. This feels like a response by VZW that is sick and tired of losing customers to the iphone. Its the rich itunes content, it always wins out in the hearts and minds of consumers, not MOTO bells and whistles.