We knew Verizon Wireless would soon be throwing caution to the wind in an effort to sway uncommitted smartphone buyers towards Big Red, and it looks like the November-bound Motorola Droid will be VZW's anti-iPhone. The spot, which launched tonight and can be view in its entirety after the break, is a 30 second clip that begins by mocking Apple's cutesy music and iconic font typically seen in iPhone plugs. It reels off a number of things that the iPhone can't do, and then abruptly goes into full-on tease mode by flashing glimpses of a robot-controlled future and a tagline that simply states: "Droid Does." No shots of the actual Motorola Droid (or Sholes, as it was known in the past) are shown, but a dedicated teaser portal has already been erected; through that, we're told that the phone will boast Android 2.0 and a 5 megapixel camera. At this point, we'd say the gloves are definitely off -- AT&T, have anything to say for yourself, or is the iPhone doing just fine on its own?
Update: See that alien counter that's just sitting on the lower end of the teaser page? As reader Craig N. and a number of others have pointed out, a quick perusal through the page's XML file reveals the end of that timer to be October 30th -- not that we expect to be waiting that long for more Droid news, but it's something to keep in mind.
I'd like to see some retaliatory commercials. AT&T can't take stabs at a superior network, and the closest thing Verizon has to a flagship device is probably a winmo/BB and AT&T carries both of those, so you can't talk shit about things you carry...hmmm. I see a long night for the apple/AT&T ad departments.
And to think Engadget spent all that time hyping up how the CLIQ was Motorola's "last chance". That was a really stupid thing of Engadget to say. This is MUCH more of a "last chance" phone than the CLIQ ever was.
This is something I don't know about... perhaps one of the commenters could fill me in.
next summer when apple brings out the iPhone 4, say they decide to pack a higher resolution screen (which they will have to, looking at the WinMo/Android competition)... how will that work with the 85k apps... how flexible are they? will it fragment the app store much?
So the iPhone is not coming to Verizon I guess. That's too bad, but still loving Verizon! Apple is so so So So So SO SO SO SO STUPID to not partner with Verizon, or vice versa, Verizon is stupid to not have the iPhone. Nice commercial though. Really like it ha ha.
I can already imagine the retaliatory commercial: GPS carrier locked to a shitty $10/mo service? VZW does. RAM and processor gimped? VZW does. Carry smartphones dumbed down to chimplike levels? VZW does.
a) wtf is a GPS carrier? b) how is the ram and processor gimped? c) dumbed down is apples corporate mantra... android is as extensible and open as the end user wants it to be...
@kev Apps are supposed to automatically scale to the available screen size. Notice that when you're making a call, if you quit the Phone app and go to any other app, the app will resize to allow for a larger status bar. If the app doesn't automatically scale, then it's the developer's fault.
"next summer when apple brings out the iPhone 4, say they decide to pack a higher resolution screen (which they will have to, looking at the WinMo/Android competition)... how will that work with the 85k apps... how flexible are they? will it fragment the app store much?"
a high resolution in the iPhone will have zero effect on apps. Why? Steve Jobs has been talking about a little something called Resolution Independence for a few years already. iPhones and iPhone OS have had resolution independence built-in for about a year already. In fact, resolution independence is also built-into Snow Leopard.. pretty much across the board on OS X. So yeah, iPhone apps are very flexible.
@sk8ordie If you knew whereof thou speakest, you'd know that His Steveness approached Verizon first, and got turned down flat. Research: your best friend.
please motorola, get innovation rolling, there's nothing like a war to accelerate technology
apple, like the rest of them can do with a kick now and then
...ponders.... Spose Apple kicked Moto's razr ass, who better to actually get the gloves on. Could play like a laurel and hardy film each kicking the other in turn and doing a silly jump
Evan - Apple and AT&T aren't going to say anything about this or the "there's a MAP for that" commercials because the iPhone and its popularity do the talking. This is a specifically targeted ad that only talks about features most people don't think that much about - I love the tail-end of the ad, it feels like an alien invasion and I'm a sucker for anything Lucasfilm, but this ad actually sounds like an iPhone ad and I think most casual viewers seeing this will miss what's being said, just as the 'there's a map for that' ads actually make you think of the iPhone ads more than what the punny message actually is.
This is only a teaser for the geeks of us out here. The actual ads will be far more typical and less aggro towards the competition.
By GPS locked, I believe he's referring to the situation on many VzW devices, where the GPS is locked so it only works with VZNavigator, a crappy $10/mo service.
He certainly could have worded it better, but I'd happen to agree with his sentiments..
if you care about the things they call don'ts sure. but some folks dont care. they don't care about whether the battery is interchangeable if it lasts as long as they need. they don't care about 5MP pics or low light ones cause they would use a real camera for that. they don't care about running 5 apps at a time and so on.
Win on the actual message of the commercial, but I thought the commercial itself sucked. What the hell is a droid? Honestly, they could have at least showed the phone or some of it's features. All the points they listed have pro and cons: physical keyboard - awesome, but adds to bulk 5mp camera - honestly, I think we all know that the MP value of cellphone cameras is useless. you can have an 8mb cameraphone that performes much worse than a 2mp cameraphone... background apps - is this thing even gonna have a processor powerful enough to use the phone itself well, let alone run background apps? I only say this because it seems to be an issue in a lot of touchscreen phones... apple doesn't allow it cause it'd slow their phones down, kinda sucks but at least they have a somewhat valid reason widgets... seriously... most widget type features are one tap away on an iphone Not saying the iphone is the god of all phones... it is not. there are a ton of issues with the iphone that suck. There just don't seem to be many legit competitors out there... (pre rocks)
The iPhone deserves more credit than this, but it would help if Apple woke the hell up and fixed their freaking iPhone. Having one for >6 months, they need to: give it Expose for running multiple apps, get a flash for their camera, fix the crappy speaker to be like the Bold, make it more stable, and the two biggest ones: 1) Get a f-ing physical keyboard already, and 2) GET THE HELL OFF AT&T. The network sucks. End of story.
However, what really should happen now is Palm can speak up over there on Sprint and say: -iHave a camera flash, multiple apps, music software, an awesome touch screen, and a kick ass operating system, and interchangeable batteries! And my wireless service doesn't suck every penny out of you (Verizon), have crappy coverage (AT&T), or suck in general (T-Mobile USA, the network internationally is better)! Look at me!
They'll sell millions. Just lose Tamara Hope, alright Palm? kthxbai
@ThreeDee912 And shooting pictures with a 2MP camera (iPhone 3G) doesn't produce noise? Well it does, but what droid wants to tell you is it'll have a flash!
Sprint has good service? lolwut? There's a reason it's so cheap. I used to have Sprint and didn't even have coverage in my own house, and I live in fucking Orlando, 15 minutes from Disney, tourist capital of the world.
You are right, most people wouldn't care about interchangeable batteries if it lasted as long as they needed. However the iphone does not last as long as people need. If you fully charge and use it a little bit, ZAP your battery is dead. The interchangeable batteries also play more roles than just battery life. Let's say your battery gets old, nothing wrong with your phone just needs a new battery. How are you going to replace it? You have to send it into Apple, and they send you back a DIFFERENT refurbished phone. You don't even get your own phone back. So basically in an age where we're worried about e-waste and emissions from manufacturing, Apple is trying to get people to buy new devices instead of just getting a new battery. Not only does Apple does this for iphone, but ipods and now macbooks as well. My computer needs a new battery and Apple won't even give me MY computer back, I get a refurbished one? This is where Apple fails majorly and why people need to start revolting against built in batteries.
@ Jordan " My computer needs a new battery and Apple won't even give me MY computer back, I get a refurbished one? This is where Apple fails majorly and why people need to start revolting against built in batteries." Seriously have you owned a Apple Computer. You really think they replace your whole computer for a battery, really!!!
Look it up man, it's what they do. They don't hand you a new computer, but they give you a refurbished one. Take your hard drive out and stick it in one they fixed.
“The HD2 is a magnificent monster. It is a hulking, intimidating, massive slab of a gadget. If you think the device looks big in photos, it's nothing compared to how it seems up close.”
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posted Oct 17th 2009 10:04PM
Nice... This Is Getting TInteresting
I'd like to see some retaliatory commercials. AT&T can't take stabs at a superior network, and the closest thing Verizon has to a flagship device is probably a winmo/BB and AT&T carries both of those, so you can't talk shit about things you carry...hmmm. I see a long night for the apple/AT&T ad departments.
i've been wanting to say this for a long time now to apple. clears throat... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
And to think Engadget spent all that time hyping up how the CLIQ was Motorola's "last chance". That was a really stupid thing of Engadget to say. This is MUCH more of a "last chance" phone than the CLIQ ever was.
Time to clean the dust of my "Hello Moto" ringtone... I am going to tweak it with some Droid voice and robo-sounds.
You will be mine It tell yeee Mine !!!! Moto Droid !
I know right! It totally triggered my NERDgasm
This is something I don't know about... perhaps one of the commenters could fill me in.
next summer when apple brings out the iPhone 4, say they decide to pack a higher resolution screen (which they will have to, looking at the WinMo/Android competition)... how will that work with the 85k apps... how flexible are they? will it fragment the app store much?
If the
Genesis DOES!
Genesis Does what NintenDon't
iPwned.
i thought a transformer was about to pop out
So the iPhone is not coming to Verizon I guess. That's too bad, but still loving Verizon! Apple is so so So So So SO SO SO SO STUPID to not partner with Verizon, or vice versa, Verizon is stupid to not have the iPhone. Nice commercial though. Really like it ha ha.
I can already imagine the retaliatory commercial: GPS carrier locked to a shitty $10/mo service? VZW does. RAM and processor gimped? VZW does. Carry smartphones dumbed down to chimplike levels? VZW does.
@ uwaga dude... what?
a) wtf is a GPS carrier?
b) how is the ram and processor gimped?
c) dumbed down is apples corporate mantra... android is as extensible and open as the end user wants it to be...
@kev
Apps are supposed to automatically scale to the available screen size. Notice that when you're making a call, if you quit the Phone app and go to any other app, the app will resize to allow for a larger status bar. If the app doesn't automatically scale, then it's the developer's fault.
anybody else figure out what the countdown means? i sketched it out and came up with twelve days almost even (midnight between oct 30 and nov 1)
@ Kev
"next summer when apple brings out the iPhone 4, say they decide to pack a higher resolution screen (which they will have to, looking at the WinMo/Android competition)... how will that work with the 85k apps... how flexible are they? will it fragment the app store much?"
a high resolution in the iPhone will have zero effect on apps. Why? Steve Jobs has been talking about a little something called Resolution Independence for a few years already. iPhones and iPhone OS have had resolution independence built-in for about a year already. In fact, resolution independence is also built-into Snow Leopard.. pretty much across the board on OS X. So yeah, iPhone apps are very flexible.
@sk8ordie If you knew whereof thou speakest, you'd know that His Steveness approached Verizon first, and got turned down flat. Research: your best friend.
@andrew
yeah I got the same thing,,it is counting down to 12 AM on Oct 30th.
@andrewwildman This is what I got: http://web.theunlink.com/images/Key.png and the numbers go: DD HH MM SS
So it just rolled over to eleven days and 23 hrs left. Which doesn't make sense, because that's October, but the ad said November.
+5 @ DaHarder
please motorola, get innovation rolling, there's nothing like a war to accelerate technology
apple, like the rest of them can do with a kick now and then
...ponders.... Spose Apple kicked Moto's razr ass, who better to actually get the gloves on. Could play like a laurel and hardy film each kicking the other in turn and doing a silly jump
Evan - Apple and AT&T aren't going to say anything about this or the "there's a MAP for that" commercials because the iPhone and its popularity do the talking. This is a specifically targeted ad that only talks about features most people don't think that much about - I love the tail-end of the ad, it feels like an alien invasion and I'm a sucker for anything Lucasfilm, but this ad actually sounds like an iPhone ad and I think most casual viewers seeing this will miss what's being said, just as the 'there's a map for that' ads actually make you think of the iPhone ads more than what the punny message actually is.
This is only a teaser for the geeks of us out here. The actual ads will be far more typical and less aggro towards the competition.
My love for motorola went up from -2 to +200
@kev
By GPS locked, I believe he's referring to the situation on many VzW devices, where the GPS is locked so it only works with VZNavigator, a crappy $10/mo service.
He certainly could have worded it better, but I'd happen to agree with his sentiments..
Lol:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=motorola%2C+iphone&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=1
Confirmed date!!!
on YouTube this is the new Verizon Add:
Sponsored Links
iDon't Customize
Droid Does.
Coming 11/6/09.
VerizonWireless.com/Droid
November 6th, 2009 !!!
The iPhone is the best cell phone on the world because Sue Sylvester HAS ONE
lol that was a joke x) people can get very sensitive about the iPhone love :x
okay, apple-lovers.. here’s something to cheer you up!
Anti-droiddoes commercial: http://pinoytutorial.com/techtorial/verizon-launches-anti-iphone-marketing-campaign-droiddoes/
Entitled “iDon’t care”
idon’t need to imitate..
idon’t need scare tactics..
idon’t need a droid..
With the same music as the 1st droiddoes commercial, but with added twist – That I think
will be loved by iphone-fans
the next question now will be, “what are the reaction of droid fans and future droid fans alike?”
Droid does...
not have wifi. Thanks verizon!
Umm... yes it does.
I guess you didn't do your homework, please try again
You are the weakest link, GOODBYE!
Onox37 came in a time machine from 2005, when wi-fi was still illegal on Verizon's network.
Win for Verizon and Motorola I guess....
if you care about the things they call don'ts sure. but some folks dont care. they don't care about whether the battery is interchangeable if it lasts as long as they need. they don't care about 5MP pics or low light ones cause they would use a real camera for that. they don't care about running 5 apps at a time and so on.
Riiiiight, they don't care about their calls dro............................
Smells like an unhappy iFail customer.
I do admit, all phone cameras are crappy. Packing 5MP into a tiny sensor just increases the noise, especially in the dark. A lot.
LAGal, you seems a lil peeved. ;)
Win on the actual message of the commercial, but I thought the commercial itself sucked. What the hell is a droid? Honestly, they could have at least showed the phone or some of it's features.
All the points they listed have pro and cons:
physical keyboard - awesome, but adds to bulk
5mp camera - honestly, I think we all know that the MP value of cellphone cameras is useless. you can have an 8mb cameraphone that performes much worse than a 2mp cameraphone...
background apps - is this thing even gonna have a processor powerful enough to use the phone itself well, let alone run background apps? I only say this because it seems to be an issue in a lot of touchscreen phones... apple doesn't allow it cause it'd slow their phones down, kinda sucks but at least they have a somewhat valid reason
widgets... seriously... most widget type features are one tap away on an iphone
Not saying the iphone is the god of all phones... it is not. there are a ton of issues with the iphone that suck. There just don't seem to be many legit competitors out there... (pre rocks)
The iPhone deserves more credit than this, but it would help if Apple woke the hell up and fixed their freaking iPhone. Having one for >6 months, they need to: give it Expose for running multiple apps, get a flash for their camera, fix the crappy speaker to be like the Bold, make it more stable, and the two biggest ones: 1) Get a f-ing physical keyboard already, and 2) GET THE HELL OFF AT&T. The network sucks. End of story.
However, what really should happen now is Palm can speak up over there on Sprint and say:
-iHave a camera flash, multiple apps, music software, an awesome touch screen, and a kick ass operating system, and interchangeable batteries! And my wireless service doesn't suck every penny out of you (Verizon), have crappy coverage (AT&T), or suck in general (T-Mobile USA, the network internationally is better)! Look at me!
They'll sell millions. Just lose Tamara Hope, alright Palm? kthxbai
@ mjayhunt
Dude, whose ass is that?
@ThreeDee912
And shooting pictures with a 2MP camera (iPhone 3G) doesn't produce noise? Well it does, but what droid wants to tell you is it'll have a flash!
Sprint has good service? lolwut? There's a reason it's so cheap. I used to have Sprint and didn't even have coverage in my own house, and I live in fucking Orlando, 15 minutes from Disney, tourist capital of the world.
@Legal:
You are right, most people wouldn't care about interchangeable batteries if it lasted as long as they needed. However the iphone does not last as long as people need. If you fully charge and use it a little bit, ZAP your battery is dead. The interchangeable batteries also play more roles than just battery life. Let's say your battery gets old, nothing wrong with your phone just needs a new battery. How are you going to replace it? You have to send it into Apple, and they send you back a DIFFERENT refurbished phone. You don't even get your own phone back. So basically in an age where we're worried about e-waste and emissions from manufacturing, Apple is trying to get people to buy new devices instead of just getting a new battery. Not only does Apple does this for iphone, but ipods and now macbooks as well. My computer needs a new battery and Apple won't even give me MY computer back, I get a refurbished one? This is where Apple fails majorly and why people need to start revolting against built in batteries.
@ Jordan " My computer needs a new battery and Apple won't even give me MY computer back, I get a refurbished one? This is where Apple fails majorly and why people need to start revolting against built in batteries." Seriously have you owned a Apple Computer. You really think they replace your whole computer for a battery, really!!!
@Everyday Normal Guy:
Look it up man, it's what they do. They don't hand you a new computer, but they give you a refurbished one. Take your hard drive out and stick it in one they fixed.
Interesting...
You need a keyboard that lets you type more than one word.
iDon't....... think Verizon is ever going to carry the iPhone.
iDon't....... think aiming at one competitor device is a good strategy for a network (for Motorola, yes).
I do think Droid is the best name yet for an Android phone. HTC must be kicking itself.