Apr 28, 2010
Really?! A smart phone with apps? No way!
Google and Verizon have a billboard along I94 in North Minneapolis that says “Droid does apps.”
Every time I see it, I think that it’s like if Blockbuster advertised that their DVDs play movies or if Honda did a promo about how their vehicles are equipped with wheels.
What do they want, a cookie?
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Of course for the many people out there who think only the Iphone does apps, this might be news.
Yes way. They want people to know that it’s not just a smart phone, but that it can run 3rd party apps (which is implied by the billboard). This hasn’t always been a given and has been Apple’s main selling point in their ads the last 6 months.
To work with your example, it’s like Blockbuster saying they have an independent film section or Honda saying their cars are compatible with thousands of after-market accessories. It’s a point they’ve got to make to be competitive.
If you want to give them a cookie though, I’m sure they’d take it.
Clarifying, thanks.
I’m gonna keep laughing, tho. Sometimes it’s funnier to not know what’s going on.
Oh, nearly always. Ignorance isn’t just bliss, it can be hilarious too (which makes me wonder about the stuff I find funny :-)
Someone told me that the Droid is a Lukas Arts owned product. The which might explain the cheesy advertising.
@Frank, Close, but not exactly. The Droid is made by Motorola, so I’d be surprised if Google is behind it. (Google did make the G1 with T-Mobile and they’re behind the Android operating system, but most Android phones aren’t actually made my Google, just as your Windows computer isn’t actually made my Microsoft.)
The connection you’re probably referring to is Lucasfilm, which owns the rights to the word “Droid.” Verizon had to license the use of the word from Lucasfilm in order to use it for their phone.
nothing real to add to the conversation, just LOLOLOLOLOL haaaahaha nice
I feel that way about nearly everything Apple puts out, especially when they talk about what new technical features they added. They do have some very nice product design they bring to the table, but the core ideas are generally from elsewhere.
Stephen, are you saying the Apple iPhone’s app store, or the idea of it, was taken from the Motorola Droid? The Droid was released on October 17, 2009. The iPhone’s app store launched on July 11, 2008. So I’m not sure how that would work.
No, they don’t want a cookie. They want a medal.
I chuckle every time I see that ad, too. The thing I find funny about that ad is the idea that all features are just a checkbox. Droid does apps. Check. Done. Next item.
In reality, features are an initial jump from “no” to “yes.” But just as importantly, inside of the “yes” space, they’re gradients. Maybe it has an app store, but it’s really crummy, hard to navigate, expensive, slow, whatever. Or maybe it’s really fast, easy to navigate, inexpensive, fun to use, and delightful. You get the idea. There are hundreds of little points inside “yes” that most buyers never think about until after they buy a product.
The thing I love about Apple is that they think of those things and rest their reputation on being at the good end of that gradient for the things they do, and not on that gradient at all for the things they don’t do. It’s like Steve Jobs’ advice to Nike’s CEO Mark Parker.