Verizon’s Silly Commercial Against iPhone – Promoting Untouchability!
Verizon's Android Phone - DROID
Yesterday Verizon launched a commercial against iPhone. The commercial promotes a new Verizon phone called DROID that will be powered by Android and manufactured by Motorola. It highlights all the features an iPhone doesn’t have and then ends up saying “Everything iDon’t …. DROID does”. Now what is seriously silly about this ad is “iDon’t have a real keyboard” i.e. iPhone doesn’t have a keyboard. It is so annoying that 50% of the space is occupied by buttons who were invented way back when we had mechanical typing devices like the type writer. For type writer it worked well because the buttons were mechanically connected to the type bars. A whole lot of devices lined up Apple Tablet, MS Courier, CrunchPad, Eee Reader… are all touch only and that is the way it should be, because we are slowly but steadily moving towards a touch-only world. Having a commercial and promoting an almost dying technology that is the most uncreative aspect in gadgets today is nothing if not tragic. Human beings don’t like change so it is obvious that many won’t agree with me here. They still love that keypad and don’t want to switch over to touch. Touch will become main stream just like the mouse or the GUI.
Follow-Up
Silicon Alley Insider : Sorry, Verizon, No Physical Keyboard On The iPhone Isn’t That Big Of A Deal by Jay Yarow
The iPhone Blog: Verizon Attack Ads — Claim iPhone iDoesn’t do What Android 2.0 Droid Does by Rene Ritchie
Neutral :
engadget : Verizon’s anti-iPhone gets its first commercial: ‘Droid Does’ (update) by Darren Murph
TechCrunch: Verizon Launches Direct Attack Against The iPhone With Ads For The Motorola Droid by Jason Kincaid
Thumbs Up (to Verizon) :
TechCrunch: Verizon Droid Is The Real Deal by Michael Arrington
(Twitter: @ ksantani )
says:
Agreed.. Every new concept which tries to break the stereotype looks a bit scary in the beginning.. But when you start using it you become used to it…. Transition to a new level always takes some time.
Like it or not, there are a lot of folks who are more comfortable with a physical keyboard where they can feel the keypress (that feeling being part of a regular “touch” experience). And for those folks who are new to smartphones and aren’t sure whether or not they’ll like using a touchscreen-only keyboard, having the option of using either a physical keyboard or a touchscreen keyboard is an appealing one.
So promoting the fact that your Android phone gives you the option of using a physical keyboard is hardly “silly.”
Just knocking a phone because it has more instead of less is kinda like saying, hey that car still has four wheels I rather go with the motorcycle it only has 2 and 4 is old hat. There really isn’t a comparison. As long as the keyboard doesn’t hurt existing battery life, durability or pure functionality it would be welcome on any phone.
I would also disagree with your assessment of touch screens and moving away from keyboards. Actually keyboards are evolving and are a much needed tool. I could not be a programmer without it. I get the most functionality out of a lot of buttons and very quickly. If I had to do everything with a gesture, it would take me a very long time to do what I had to do. In the future there are going to be many different input methods and we are going to use all of them, not one.
It’s very common for people to think of everything as a replacement when in reality it’s a compliment. Netbooks aren’t going to replace laptops and laptops didn’t replace desktops. Must of us have atleast a computer and a laptop. Just like someday we will use both our multi-touch screen our facial-recognition, voice-recognition, keyboard and eye-tracking, etc inputs all at the same time.
Anyway, the iphone doesn’t need a defense it’s just fine on it’s own so stop knocking every device that tries to compete with it, they all have their advantages and disadvantages. Oh and who cares if the iphone is a better device when it’s got a 30% call drop percentage in New York, thanks to AT&T. First you have to make a phone work before you can call it a smartphone. If I was apple I would sue AT&T for giving my products a bad name.
(Twitter: @ mayank25may )
says:
The whole point of the article was – Verizon is knocking iPhone because it dosent have a keyboard. You said it urself iPhone is fine the way it is… then why you have those commercials running around and saying iPhone doesn’t have a keyboard? I think they could have come up with some real reasons of not using iPhone… like the one you pointed out (30% call drop in NY)
Time will tell but what I would say -
May be 10 yrs from now we will have dual screen computers… one part will act as a regular computer screen and the other part will work both as a touch screen keyboard (yeah… you will also be able to program with that) & a screen (as the need be).. The reason I think this way is I find this a much more efficient and innovative approach than the using a dumb key board..
Again what the future has in store could be entirely different.
This whole argument about the keyboard is a bunch of bull $hit. For me personally, the less moving parts a phone has, better it is for me. I’ve had clam shell ones before and soon realized that these moving parts start to break down real fast and are made to keep you switching to new phones. Since then I’ve bought a Moto L6 (http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=710) phone that worked great for over 2 years. iPhone’s few moving parts will definitely be a huge plus for me over any slide in/out or clam shell designs any day.
Having said that, I dont have an iPhone, only because I dont want to go with AT&T, which has tried to screw me before with their corporate policies. I dont like the exclusive deal with AT&T either.
I wouldnt go with an Andriod/VZ plan either, if its voice/data/sms/mms plan isnt substantially below what AT&T is offering with the iPhone. For an inferior user experience, I’d certainly expect to pay less.
Hopefully the wifi wars will lower the price and the carriers decide not to charge for every little item you need for the smart phone. Voice/Data/SMS/MMS, etc should be one plan, not a bunch of separate ones.
The commercial doesn’t say iPhone doesn’t have a keyboard, it says it doesn’t have a “real” keyboard. I’ve had an iPhone and a Nokia E61i for a while and I can definitely type faster on my Nokia, which has a real querty keyboard. Furthermore, Droid’s keyboard looks even better with bigger keys thanks to its horizontal layout.
(Twitter: @ mayank25may )
says:
well that is what was meant here… no real keyboard.
We type faster on a real keyboard coz we are use to it… being use to a century old technology doent make it superior… and i am sure if a 5 yr old starts using a touch screen then by the time reach ur age he will be equally fast with that..
Paradigms and habits needs to be broken to give way to innovation.
I cannot agree with that. By typing on a virtual keyboard, the user is not using one of her senses: touch. We can easily distinguish the keys on a real keyboard with our touch even when our eyes are closed. So I don’t think that a regular user would be equally faster on a virtual and “smaller” keyboard. I’m not an expert on that but I think our brain copes better with a real keyboard because we’re using our senses better.
(Twitter: @ mayank25may )
says:
Impressive observation! I have agree with you on this. Let us see how this whole thing turns out to be. As for me am i still gonna go for touch… i have a problem… i just find the keyboard to be too very dumb and it just doesnt deserve a place around such superior processors and micro chips… I May be the human mind just learns how to use touch more efficiently and effectively as time goes on.. just like the way it learned how to co-ordinate with a mouse and the pointer on screen to utmost efficiency.
That closes the argument for me and if at all the agency has thought on the same lines then cudoz. Good point there.