By The Verizon Wireless marketing department is playing this very, VERY well. Ever since the Motorola Sholes was rumored it has by FAR been the most discussed/desired Android Phone to date. There were little itty bitty leaks here and there but nothing official. Heck, Verizon and Google even announced a partnership, held up the phone to the public, but didn’t announce an actual device. And last night the company aired this commercial during the Major League Baseball playoffs:
There aren’t any questions about the target of this advertisement as Verizon puts the Apple iPhone directly in the crosshairs, bashing everything the iDoesn’t, even using their own styled music/looks:
- iDon’t have a real keyboard
- iDon’t run simultaneous apps
- iDon’t take 5 megapixel pictures
- iDon’t customize
- iDon’t run widgets
- iDon’t allow open development
- iDon’t take pictures in the dark
- iDon’t have interchangeable batteries
At the end the screen lights up with “Everything iDon’t”… and the screen scruffs up and DROID DOES mysteriously finds its way to the screen. We’re left with 2 bits of semi-concrete information:
- November
- DroidDoes.com
When you visit the website it is another teaser where you can sign up to receive more information:
The symbols at the bottom of the page are a “coded” countdown timer which people across the web have supposedly decoded, claiming it is counting down to October 30th at midnight EST. The Email signup spits back this confirmation to your inbox:
Interesting to note that “DROID is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. and its related companies. Used under license.” Just so you know… George Lucas owns the rights to the word “Droid” – wow that’s kinda crazy.
What has also been crazy – up to now – is carriers/manufacturers taking on the iPhone head on with advertising, claiming to be an iPhone killer of sorts. Except this time it isn’t crazy at all because when it is released – if the device has no major faults and comes loaded with the rumored specs – the Motorola Droid will hands down be the best mobile phone on the market.
Amazing hardware. The best mobile network in the United States. Everything that is Android. This thing really can’t come soon enough. Verizon knows how bad we want it and they’re doing an amazing job keeping us hooked, feeding us little niblets at a time. At least now we know November is officially the month. Droid time, baby!
[Via The Interwebz, thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
The countdown timer is linked to your computers clock. Change you computer to 10/29/2009 11:59 pm and you can watch the time count down to done.
It’s a neat ad, including the Year Zero-esque noise and images at the ends. Though I’d guess that Verizon won’t allow tethering, since that would be a huge advantage to mention.
Really really hoping for an unlocked GSM version for around €500; I’d buy it instantly. I’ve been stalling about buying an HTC Hero because of its unimpressive CPU and poor video quality, so I hope the waiting pays off.
@tke789
Great find, unfortunately the end of the month is far away :(
@Till
I highly doubt that such phone will be sold in such price
Yer killin’ me smalls!
Still no pics.
I don’t understand the format for the clock, although the timer being linked to the system clock is pretty cool. I’ve been waiting for this phone for what seems like forever. Bring on the Droid!
Wow, they licensed the word Droid from Lucas…I’m really surprised by that move. The trio is really banking on this phone as that couldn’t have been cheap.
Clock is really easy to decode when you know what it is.
The last two characters are counting seconds
so the 10’s digit will only ever be 0-5, while the 1’s digit is 0-9. Watch the count down just long enough to catch the placement of each character and when roll overs occur, ie the 10’s digit changes when the 1s digit “0” becomes “9” in the countdown.
I left VZW because of the way they locked down the Samsung Omnia. If they do like they’re claiming here and leave the OS open and googly, I’ll be back, baby. Waaaaaaaaaay back.
I figured out what symbol matches what number and it does indeed count down to oct 30th
Wicked.
Well, the iPhone 3GS 16GB goes for €700 unlocked. Knock off about €100 for the Apple markup and €50 for the flash memory and I’d say €550-600 is an optimistic but reasonable guess.
Or perhaps a better point of comparison, the Samsung i8910 OMNIA HD goes for €520. It has a similar CPU, 3.7″ 360 x 640 display, an 8MP autofocus camera, and 8GB flash.
Let’s hope we’ll get some European info pretty soon. Can’t wait! Hope it’s a Vodafone thing!
Hey Jackson, I don’t know what’s the problem w/this site but every other site I’m able to view the image and for the past 2 days I’ve been having issues w/viewing the images on this site. Trying to be loyal to this site but damn man…first you post this news REAL late and then the images on your site is broken. Help me out here.
It’s about time they targetted the iPhone directly. Apple’s ad campaigns are full of slander, why not give them a taste of their own medicine.
The closest thing before this was Verizon’s “There’s a map for that” commercial, but that was focused on AT&T not the iPhone.
This will be yet another lame phone in a long line from Verizon. Have they ever had a decent phone, no. They only have the best network and continue to leverage that to put out junk. What is this, 3 years past the iphone coming out. Ridiculous.
The countdown is the countdown used by the Predator in the original Predator movie. The predator used it on his wrist to set off the explosive device after the Arnold defeats him.
This is EXACTLY how they should be marketing this phone. Amazing stuff.
Pix are out there. Droid is the Moto Sholes/Tao. It looks like an ancient Texas Instruments calculator. Ugly.
It’s nice looking. If you’re looking for a cute phone then try the Pre. If that’s your cup of coffee.
@ till
htc hero has yet the old qualcomm msm 7200a clocked @ 528mhz. This is a arm11 class processor producing 1mips per mhz. The droid offers a much better cortex-a8 class texas instrument omap 3430 @ 600mhz giving 2mips per mhz. Do the maths the droid should have a nice performance boost. Not counting the new graphics and image processors in the soc.
.
@ jeroen
yes for europe o/
no for vodafone/sfr… please no
though it would be better than orange.
I’d prefer virgin mobile or bouygues telecom over here.
So what do you think that verizon will price the phone at?
But it’s not an iPhone killer. It’s not even an iPhone equal. If the BGR pics are any indication, Android 2.0 *still* has the same inconsistent, piecemeal, generic UI that Android 1.6 has. And still no multitouch? The OS just isn’t polished enough to put it on a par with the iPhone. :(
I’ve been an apple fan boy for a while and am the first to admit that there are many more phones that are superior to the iPhone but what the iPhone lacks it makes up for in one thing that no one else has been able to compete with:
The App Store.
so #fail.
@caffe silvia
What are you talking about ? from the screenshots, you can tell that the UI is quite polished and looks great but it seems the iphone nostalgia is taking over people’s mind.
After getting my hands again on the iphone, i think the home screen looks horrid on the iphone and is not up to Android’s
The count down timer actually zero’s out at 12:00am and 59seconds on October 28th! Leaving me to believe the release date will be the 28th… and maybe even a midnight release??? Not sure about the midnight part, but it is counting down to October 28th at midnight!!
Here is a crack for the Droid countdown clock:
http://keywestchronicle.blogspot.com/2009/10/droids-cryptic-countdown-clock-code.html
The countdown timer is now indicating midnight the evening of the 27 (12:00 am the 28th).
So, we should see this revealed on Wednesday the 28th early in the morning.
I think Wednesday October 28th, 2009 is the release date.
Yeah, as of October 20th, as the last two posters have stated, the countdown clock has been changed to stop at October 28th, 12:00 AM in the morning.
That last pic totally shows your email address, RobJackson81… :S
well this video is really cute but to cheer up some iphone fans. it seems a fanatic :D made a counter-part video now ridiculing Droid entitled “iDont Care Commercial” – – I dont imitate – I dont create vague information. LOL! The battle is on, see the detailed anti-droid video: http://pinoytutorial.com/techtorial/verizon-launches-anti-iphone-marketing-campaign-droiddoes/
What has also been crazy – up to now – is carriers/manufacturers taking on the iPhone head on with advertising, claiming to be an iPhone killer of sorts. Except this time it isn’t crazy at all because when it is released – if the device has no major faults and comes loaded with the rumored specs – the Motorola Droid will hands down be the best mobile phone on the market.
Hilarious! The constant sound of blown trumpets
but did anyone else notice the iPhone adds in the side column?
What a silly article!