Sep

26

Next iPhone Contestants: BlackBerry Storm and T-Mobile G1

Filed Under Gadgets, Mobile | 5 Comments

It’s been approximately a year and 3 months since the iPhone was released here in the U.S. During that time, there has been lot’s of hype for competitor phones like the LG Voyager and the Samsung Instinct, but that’s all it was, hype. How many people have you seen carrying one of those phones today? Pretty soon, we will have two new contestants on the market…

The BlackBerry Storm is looking great and I like the sounds of the T-Mobile G1 running Android but both have major weaknesses. It’s too bad we can’t combine the strengths from both and make what I think would be the first real iPhone competitor to put out Apple’s fire. The iPhone is far from perfect, but I don’t think anyone else has yet been able to offer a package close enough to really compete.

Things I like about the BlackBerry Storm: great design, large screen, Verizon network, and 3MP camera.

Major flaws: no multi-touch, no application store (Update: Looks like there is plans for a BlackBerry marketplace which is great), won’t be easy to store/play music and videos.

It’s not that there is anything wrong with the BlackBerry OS (I would take it over Windows Mobile any day), but they still have not announced any plans to offer an open marketplace for third party apps. It will be more difficult since BlackBerry offers their devices on several carriers, but they need to do whatever they can to figure out a similar app solution quickly. It took them a while, but Google will soon have their own app market with some amazing apps like ShopSavvy, which will allow people to scan bar codes and compare product pricing information from their phones.

BlackBerry has always been very successful at targeting business users. The problem is the iPhone now handles the business functions BlackBerry users need while also providing the storage and features to playback hours of music and video, something BlackBerry needs to start doing. They may not have cared about this when they first started, but they need to suck it up and realize their market share will continue to get smaller if they don’t.

Otherwise, Blackberry clearly stepped up their game for the Storm. Everything from the teaser website to the flyer I got the other day in the mail is well done and actually has me looking forward to being able to play around with it. The fact that it will be available on a more reliable network is a major plus.

Things I like about the T-mobile G1: open source marketplace, free apps, and the ability to run multiple apps at once.

Major flaws: no desktop syncing app, no multi-touch, no internal storage for media playback, and no headphone jack.

This device looks like it was designed by geeks for geeks. The hardware design and user interface (from the pictures I’ve seen) is where it’s definitely lacking a polished look. An Ex-Google Product Manager even came out and said the design didn’t change in the 2.5 years it took to release the phone.

With a $180 price tag, many people are quick to automatically assume that cheaper will equal more sales, but I disagree. I don’t think I need to go into detail here, just think about why any high end brand does well. Most people just want a nice looking phone with cool functions and they will pay more if need be.

I attended an iPhone vs. Android iBreakfast event the other day and the general response was positive on how the mobile industry in general is advancing. Allowing developers to be creative has really begun changing the way people are using their mobile phone for things like travel, social networking, and commerce. You can watch the full T-Mobile G1 press event here, which will also give you a very good idea of what Android is about. Also, many more great examples of apps can be found here. It will be interesting to see how Android evolves on other handsets around the world and if more manufacturers will jump on board to support Google. If that happens, will Symbian and Palm just disappear?

Other Thoughts

It’s important to remember that when Apple announced the iPhone, they started a wave of innovation that has had a huge impact not just on the mobile industry, but also the marketing and advertising industries. Although there is not enough solid data yet, the responses we are starting to see and hear about from the brands and developers who have gotten on the iPhone early have been better than expected. One developer even made $250,000 in just two months from selling a simple game. Who could have ever predicted that?

I still recall being on the phone with the Verizon rep about a year ago while he was trying to convince me to stay with Verizon and consider the LG Voyager that wasn’t even available yet! I was still locked into a 2 year contract with Verizon at the time, but because I already had my mind set on the iPhone, I did what I needed to do to get out of that contract. If either the Storm of the G1 were as compelling, I would do the same.

I’d love to see just how many people left other carriers to get the iPhone. Now more than ever, I see the full benefit of why Apple keeps their product release details under strict secrecy and I think it really paid off for them more than ever with the iPhone. They gained a huge advantage in the smartphone market here in the U.S. How long do you think it will take before their fire is put out, if ever?

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Sep

15

NY Web 2.0 Meetup Live Stream

Filed Under Branding, Videos, nextNY | Leave a Comment

I will try my best to cover the presentations starting around 7:15-7:30pm. Click here for event details on Meetup.com. Click on the chat bubble to send me a note!

Update: Unfortunately, I was not able to get it all to Qik because of the WiFi connection. Will hopefully have it figured out for the next Meetup.

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Sep

11

Thoughts on the 2nd Microsoft Ad

Filed Under Branding, Marketing, Videos | Leave a Comment

We can definitely start to see the overall theme behind this $300 million campaign is probably going to be about Bill and Jerry doing normal everyday things with some comedy thrown in. And of course your supposed to associate that with Microsoft and think wonderful things like loving, caring, human, etc. This is not the approach everyone expected, which was to fight back against all the abuse from Apple. The fact that they did not fight back in itself is proving to help this become very successful because everyone is talking about these ads online. By the looks of it on Twitter, it’s love or hate. Just like the leaked internal memo on TechCrunch describes:

The first phase of this campaign is designed to engage consumers and spark a new conversation about Windows – a conversation that will evolve as the campaign progresses, but will always be marked by humor and humanity.

I am sure CP+B knows what they are doing and somewhat expected this type of response. The more obvious product associations will come further down the line in this series so it’s still way too soon to measure if this campaign is actually effective in giving Microsoft a lift. Overall, I enjoyed this second one very much and didn’t mind sitting through the whole 4 and a half minutes of the uncut online version. I’m actually even looking forward to the next one now which I really wasn’t after the first ad. Did you catch the connection they made when Bill Gates is still trying to break in his new shoes? Very clever.

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