New I-Phone Commercials...they strike back

[redwood]

FWIW I have 3 friends who have left iPhone/ATT for VZW - either the Eris or the Droid, one of whom paid the penalty to get out of his ATT contract early...

As users at various levels of technical proficiency their primary reason for leaving is poor reception, dropped calls and extremely bad customer service.

It's a combination of the hardware and the provider that drove them away.

 

[AnnDroid]

I think Apple misses the boat

Who are these latest Apple ads aimed at? Talk and go on the Internet simultaneously? Who wants that?

I have college aged daughters. They almost never talk to anyone on the phone anymore. It's all about texting. So, the ads aren't for the 30 and under crowd.

Most of the people my age couldn't walk and talk on the phone at the same time, much less talk and do the Internet at the same time. So, the ads aren't for my generation.

Who are these ads for?

 

[hazydave]

Who are these latest Apple ads aimed at? Talk and go on the Internet simultaneously? Who wants that?

Tools. Usually some dude in the marketing department, with a Bluetooth earpiece permanently attached, who's yacking and surfing at the same time, because no human deserves their full attention.

I have college aged daughters. They almost never talk to anyone on the phone anymore. It's all about texting. So, the ads aren't for the 30 and under crowd.

Yup. When I got the DROID, we got my wife a generic keyboarding phone, too. My son's in college and basically told her he's not likely to answer or respond by voice, so she better learn to text. My 15-year-old daughter rarely talks to anyone, but is always texting... I was actually in trouble waiting for the DROID... she was pushing for a QWERTY phone long ago.

Who are these ads for?

It's their only general advantage. And it's an ad... the goal is not to make you go to them because you need this, but to make you think you need this, even when you don't.

 

[keiichi25]

Who are these latest Apple ads aimed at? Talk and go on the Internet simultaneously? Who wants that?

I have college aged daughters. They almost never talk to anyone on the phone anymore. It's all about texting. So, the ads aren't for the 30 and under crowd.

Most of the people my age couldn't walk and talk on the phone at the same time, much less talk and do the Internet at the same time. So, the ads aren't for my generation.

Who are these ads for?

As HazyDave pretty much pointed out, it is people who think that is important. However, it isn't necessarily tools.

A good example is what my coworker gave to me when we were talking about this. He was on his patio, away from the computer, when his sister called and needed directions. So he literally was giving her directions while looking at it on his iPhone.

How often does he do that, well, probably more than I would in most cases. What it is aimed at are probably people who have better 'find and show' ability over others.

What AT&T and Verizon are now doing are the "Who's better over who?"

The Motorola Droid started the first shot with Verizon with the "iDon't" commercial here:

[video=youtube;23BhwZ0oqNI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23BhwZ0oqNI[/video]

To add to it, Verizon also started this campaign:

[video=youtube;VZPjJI0K7Bk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZPjJI0K7Bk[/video]

Which targeted AT&T for their 3G Coverage.

One thing to note, when you look at the video for the Map Coverage, this is not the exact map coverage that AT&T shows on their website, but you will see a disclaimer that the map is a representation of coverage based on square footage.

AT&T tried to push a Cease and Desist on the Verizon 3G Coverage ads, however, lost due to the fact that it is not false advertising based on actual result information.

So AT&T's first shot at Verizon was to do this ad:

[video=youtube;4YP839_EF_0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YP839_EF_0[/video]

AT&T Focused on the following points:

1) Fastest 3G Network
2) Talk and Surf at the Same Time
3) Most Popular Smart Phones
4) 100,000 Apps Available

So basically, they want people to go with AT&T because:

1) Verizon does not have the 'fastest' 3G network (Not mentioning the possibility of what some people who have posted here as their reason for leaving, poor coverage)
2) Being able to Talk and browse the internet at the same time (Which currently, Verizon can't support both Voice and Data at the same time)
3) Have the most Popular Smart Phones (Ignoring the one fact that iPhone, given it being the most popular, is exclusive to AT&T due to an agreement between the two)
4) Having access to more apps... (Which, again, is mostly for the iPhone)

Of the 4 reasonably arguable points they brought up, only 1 or 2 had a reasonable merit on a level playing field, namely 1 and 2. Points 3 and 4 are weak because with exclusivity of the iPhone for AT&T, which is a popular smart phone, the Blackberry is also a popular smart phone that is also used by Verizon, Sprint and T-mobile as well.

On the AT&T site, they have the Blackberry, iPhone, and from the looks of it, Windows Mobile based OS. The 100k apps are from the iPhone Apps Store level, which is where the majority of the popularity is, in fact, on the iPhone, the Blackberry 2nd, and the Windows Mobile or 'other' OS. By far, the claim is based mostly on the iPhone for what it provides to the user, which is the most.

Following that, the two more recent iPhone Commercials and the 2nd Luke Wilson AT&T commercial focuses mostly on the 'Talk and Surf at the same time' argument for people to go with the iPhone. While the Droid commercials are focusing on Droid doing a bit more, or focusing on the Navigation which Motorola's Droid model is fueling the current fevor, in my opinion.

Verizon is still sniping at AT&T with the 3G and AT&T is now working on the backlash of those with the current campaign as well as the Verizon's Droid's Viral Marketing for the Motorola Droid launch which is still fueling a lot of the interest in Droid based phones.

T-Mobile and Sprint will be jumping the band wagon with possibly the re-pushing of their Google Phone Ad and the HTC "A phone that gets you" type ads once people realize from the way Verizon Stores displaying both the Motorola Droid right next to the HTC Eris, the possible other Droid based phones that both Sprint and T-Mobile have.

 

[Martin030908]

I think VZW has AT&T scared.

Talk and surf? Big deal. Grasping at straws here.

They had to know the iphone couldn't hold all the market for consumer phones forever. And with newer devices coming out the iPhone isn't 'holding' customers for AT&T. It used to be "Well their service is just 'ok' but the iPhone is untouchable!" Now there are other smart phone options similar to the iPhone (DROIDs) and I think AT&T is worried their network weakness are gonna be breaking points.

 

[keiichi25]

I think VZW has AT&T scared.

Talk and surf? Big deal. Grasping at straws here.

They had to know the iphone couldn't hold all the market for consumer phones forever. And with newer devices coming out the iPhone isn't 'holding' customers for AT&T. It used to be "Well their service is just 'ok' but the iPhone is untouchable!" Now there are other smart phone options similar to the iPhone (DROIDs) and I think AT&T is worried their network weakness are gonna be breaking points.

Actually, I think both AT&T and Apple are scared now.

I believe that Apple didn't have to worry about Google because it, like Blackberry and Windows Mobile, did not seem 'popular' like the iPhone. iPhone got its big boost mostly due to the iPod and later on, the iTouch as they presented a nice music player that held lots of songs and marketed it better than the original pioneers of mp3 music like Diamond Multi-media.

Microsoft Zune only came after seeing how well the larger iPod players were selling, and the only reason the Zune flopped is just poorly handled attempt to make people use Windows Media Player where as others like Creative Zen and the like tried to play a little nicer as far as music is concerned. In the end, Apple won the war simply by making it 'easy'.

iPhone capitalized on their success with the iPod, and, believe it or not, there are iPhone users who really want to get out from AT&T, waiting for the rumored 2010 contract to stop exclusivity with AT&T and be available for other markets.

The fact that Apple is putting out ads to support AT&T suggests they are worried that even if they get out of the contract, the interest in the Android based phones where you can make your phone look how YOU want it to be versus the standard interface and the simple fact that in the 2.5 weeks of the Motorola Droid being out, 5% of the web traffic is from Motorola Droids in 2.5 weeks, and that is 24% of the Droids in a 2.5 week period... It looks as if the Droid is threatening their cellphone market share and now it is time to start making people not look at the droid because of what the Verizon hype is, but to down play it by what Verizon cannot support, which is the Talk and Surf at the same time.

Notice also, they do not point at T-mobile OR Sprint, who also have Android based phones. Their sole focus is on the Verizon Viral Marketing poking, but in all honesty, in the near future, the newer HTC phones feature Droid 2.0 phones will also make Sprint and T-mobile be just as competitive as Verizon against AT&T that Apple's strong point will be at risk.

If I were Apple, I would be looking at making a new iPhone OS to start looking at competing against the Droid and also get the hell out of Exclusivity with AT&T.

 

[Erich_F]

OK, what gives....I saw those iPhone commercials, and when the announcer asked at the end, "Can your phone do that?" I said, I dunno.

So, I went to a landline and called my Droid up. After establishing a voice call, I hit the Home button in the Droid and launched the Browser. Up came Google, all the while I still had the call on live in the background. I thought, "cool!" and then hit Home again to open my Email. Up come my latest emails, while the browser and voice call run in the background.

So, to answer the iPhone commercia, YES, my phone and network CAN do that.

Now, here's the kicker...I can't remember if I had WiFi on at the time. I need to go try again...

 

[Backnblack]

Now, here's the kicker...I can't remember if I had WiFi on at the time. I need to go try again...

Betting that you did

 

[Erich_F]

Now, here's the kicker...I can't remember if I had WiFi on at the time. I need to go try again...

Betting that you did

Probably a safe bet...I usually have it on when I'm at the house.