RSSVerizon touts Android's superiority over iPhone
By Tim Conneally | Published October 19, 2009, 2:23 PM
Every major iteration of Android is named after a pastry (Cupcake, Donut, etc.), and whenever the latest version is being worked on, a giant foam rendition of that pastry is planted on the lawn of Google's headquarters. Last week, a giant eclair, signifying the impending drop of Android 2.0, was unveiled.
This is normally a pretty big event in and of itself, but it happened on the same day that Google had its quarterly earnings call, and CEO Eric Schmidt made the bold statement that "Android adoption is about to explode," without providing too much more detail.
But not a lot of detail was needed to see what was going on. A little more than a week prior, Google and Verizon made a joint announcement that Verizon would be getting its first Android phone, and Schmidt's enthusiasm for the mobile operator was abundantly clear at the time ("Verizon's data network is the best in the US by far.") Additionally, Motorola's Android device destined for Verizon had not made its debut yet, so it looked like only a matter of time before something big happened.
Over the weekend, the push began with a captivating television advertisement.
Moving beyond the tame MyTouch3G advertising campaign which has an untoward number of former Saturday Night Live cast members (none of whom seem to appreciate the device), the new ads take an aggressive stance against Apple's iPhone.
The first ad shows no product yet. It simply lists a number of things which the iPhone cannot do ("iDon't allow open development, iDon't run simultaneous apps," etc.) and closes with "Droid Does...November."
"Droid," though a trademark of George Lucas, is expected to be the official name of the phone which has until now been called Motorola Sholes, an Android 2.0-equipped QWERTY slider running the powerful TI OMAP3430 processor.
While the ad harkens back to the 16-bit era of video gaming when Sega ran a campaign with a nearly identical tag line ("Genesis Does what Nintendon't,") it is one of the most direct advertising attacks a Fortune 500 company has made on Apple, which has itself been directly attacking Microsoft Windows in its advertisements for many years.
Any photographs and specs related to the Droid are still totally unofficial. Today, Boy Genius Report, which has been leaking information about the Motorola Sholes for months, posted an early hands-on report which lauds the device as "the thinnest QWERTY slider we've ever seen....the fastest Android device we've ever used....the best screen we've ever seen on an Android Handset...the most impressive phone we've used since the iPhone."
That's a lot of superlatives. Pair them with Schmidt's glowing praise for Verizon and things get downright mushy.
Everyone talks about the iPhone and maybe have one already. I almost took the bait and bought one last month. I was tempted by the MyTouch but I hate TMobile and now Verizon is coming with a nice looking Android so I will keep track on what feature it will have. If the link above with the picture is any indication the 5 megapixel camera alone will be a big + for me. If it does video and allow for mini SD memory upgrade then I will be in for one for sure.
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|Another day another iPhone "killer". **yawn** If there was no iPhone, i would get an Android phone, but since i can get a far superior phone in the iPhone 3GS, that is what i am going to upgrade to.
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|The 3GS is far superior at burning a hole in your pocket.
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|LOL good one, I agree there too :)
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|at least 5 android users voted on my previous comment :P
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|Having played with Android 1.5 (cupcake?), the most noticable problem coming from an iPhone is the lack of a GPU. The UI just isn't smooth enough to give the same experience as an iPhone, and for that, many people will be wondering why they should use Android-enabled phones. It's a small thing, but experience is everything. Apple showed us how cutting out a bunch of features didn't bother us as much as a s***ty UI - and hence the impressive success of the iPhone.
I think once we see some Android units with GPUs they'll become much more popular with the average-Joe market. Right now they've captured techie imagination (with open-source ideals), but everyone else is wondering what all the fuss is about.
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|Man, I like Verizon and mostly like Google, but have never been fond of Motorola. Will take a very close look...
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|I have 2 questions about this phone and this service provider. 1. Is it really open, meaning, can I write my own software and load it myself? and 2. Will there be a $40 a month data tax to own the phone?
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|Android version 1 showed promise over iPhone OS version 1 but they're currently at version 1.5 and 3.1.2, respectively.
Time makes a difference in gaining real world experience in order to enhance the operating system. Android is having an impact but it isn't much yet. A few fanatics have gone out to buy such a phone but not many and I've yet to see anyone using one. Until the general public starts to buy them, they won't have a noticeable impact. They're saving their money for gasoline.
I hope that the proliferation of Android-based phones gives Apple a reason to work with T-Mobile in the U.S.A. also. Even the current combined networks of AT&T and T-Mobile don't have the 3G capacity/coverage of Verizon's network...1 year ago.
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|this reminds me of the time my best friend came over to show me his new G1 and by chance I had just came home with the iphone3g... the next day he returned his G1 for an iphone... I will never forgot that LOL
Multitasking with Jailbroken iPhones is flawless, I cant wait for the day the iphone has real competition, for now everyone tries to claim there phone is "better" when really its not.
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|Android has come a long way since G1 and it continues to evolve and improve. My wife has an iPhone 3Gs and I have a myTouch 3G. The thing that strikes me as that Apple has really banked on the apps to push the OS. I have all sorts of cool widgets on my desktop so I don't have to open apps to see my Todo and calendar and phone numbers and weather and everything else.
Apple certainly has made an excellent product but I believe Android will quickly pass Apple unless they stop relying on third party developers as their advantage and start to stick a little more innovation in the OS.
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|Veriazon will do better with Android and IPhone.. There was a great poll on this recently on this -- http://www.polladium.com...d=110&location_id=1
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