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It's a simple question, really. What is your phone for? Making calls, or checking email/browsing the web/using apps/playing games/updating Facebook/posting to Twitter...? Of course, your smartphone should do it all, right?
But what if you had to choose?
I am ready to retire my iPhone. I love it to death. I check my email. I have apps that sync with my desktop. I have games that lull me to sleep. (Because that's what games are good for, right?) I check the weather. Read headlines. Set an alarm to wake up. Find out where the heck I am on a map.
But let's face it: The iPhone is pretty crappy as a phone.
I don't blame Apple, except to the extent that they made their initial deal with AT&T. I don't get much of any signal at my house. My calls are dropped so frequently – that is, if I can actually connect at call at all – that I have given up trying.
So I'm looking at that greener grass over the fence, over in Verizon land. I once lived in Verizon land. It wasn't so bad. I could make calls just about anywhere, even up in the mountains where nobody else could get a signal.
But in 2007, their phones sucked. I had a Palm 700p, which was my worst technology purchase ever (too). But I could make calls. I could receive calls. I could hear people in my phone conversations. They could hear me. Small miracles.
But now they have the Droid, and I am tempted, bleeding edge or no.
I admit it. I’m a middle-aged geek. I love my gadgets and toys. I was the first on my block to get a Blackberry Storm (big mistake). I got my Amazon Kindle the day after it was released (much wiser decision). And now I have my Droid. Actually, I’ve had my Droid for a month now, having purchased it on its release date. And a month later, I still love it. What’s a Droid? Thanks for asking.
The Droid is Motorola’s entry into the “Android” phone market. Sold exclusively through Verizon, it’s a (not too) distant cousin of the iPhone. Android phones are Google-connected communication devices. They do email, texting, Twitter, and Internet browsing; music, videos, and the usual calendar/contact PDA stuff.
I’ve been a Blackberry devotee for five years, and it was a difficult choice for me to jump ship. But after testing out the Droid in my Verizon store — comparing it to the Storm 2 and several other touch screen smartphones, I decided unequivocally to cast my lot with the Droid.
Oh, and she can make phone calls too. "Call quality is good," she says, and "the speaker phone is excellent"!
But Kara Swisher points out some possibly misogynistic aspects to the Droid ads.
“Should a phone be pretty?” it begins, using an odd series of images that is packed full of random misogyny. “Should it be a tiara-wearing, digitally clueless beauty pageant queen?”
Then comes all the manly imagery–a racehorse, a powerfully pointed Scud missile, bananas and buzzsaws to represent the Droid. A surging missile, as well as several creamy explosions too. Get it?
And let’s not forget the bunch of fey, effeminately-dressed mannequins, with one getting bashed with an ink-filled ball thrown by some tough masked thug with the line, “Is it a precious porcelain figurine of a phone?”
Then back to anti-women name-calling, saying an iPhone is a “princess,” unlike the Droid, “a phone that trades hair-do for can-do.”
Ugh.
Kristin Marshall offers some advertising analysis.
I’ll be blunt: Verizon is really overselling the Droid. I’m glad I don’t watch television, because the ads get on my nerves as it is. Storming the phone through brick walls and calling it a robot just looks like they’re trying too hard. You don’t want to overdo it with inflammatory ads that may alienate buyers.
It’s also not a good thing when advertising per unit is $100. And that’s if they reach the coveted 1 million units sold. With $100 million put into advertising this year alone, factoring in current sales figures, advertising cost per unit is sitting at around $145. That’s just short of the full price of the phone!
I understand that it’s an investment to gain momentum through advertising, but it needs to stick to succeed. Only time will tell, the Android platform has a lot going for it…
Hmmmmm.
Well, I don't like offensive ads — who does? — but I'm needing a phone-and-smartphone, not a phone-and-smartphone-with-admirable-advertising. There's just not much good out there when it comes to product.
