New Droid X ad laughs at Apple's bumpers
It seems like only yesterday that Apple decided it must show Motorola's new Droid X phone as having more signal problems than the average British railway line.
Would Motorola stand by and let Apple suggest the Droid X had just the same antenna issues as any other cell phone?
Well, a previous Droid X ad had already offered these words: "And most importantly, it comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like and use it just about anywhere to make crystal clear calls."
So who could be surprised that, according to Droid Life, a new Droid X ad has launched, one that tries to mock the iPhone for its sartorial inelegance.
(Credit:
Motorola)
The headline reads: "NO JACKET REQUIRED". Yes, this is a reference to the bumpers that Apple is now giving away free to iPhone 4 purchasers.
And the copy entices with all the subtlety of an American Apparel photoshoot: "At Motorola, we believe a customer shouldn't have to dress up their phone for it to work properly. That's why the DROID X comes with a dual antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like to make crystal clear calls without a bulky phone jacket. For us it's just one of those things that comes as a given when you've been making mobile phones for over 30 years."
For all the biting banter of this ad, I still find it hard to find too many people who are truly having a serious problem with their cell phone antennas, be they users of iPhones or of any other magical device.
Perhaps this is largely because people don't bother making phone calls any more. Or perhaps in this long and interesting summer, people just need something to talk about. Over e-mail, on Facebook and in the blessed real-time coffee shop that is Twitter.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
but getting a giant to molest a Droid X to show dropping bars was lowly thing to do and they deserve all the heat they get as a result , I wouldn't be surprised if Nokia/RIM did something similar in the Future.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20009368-71.html?tag=mncol;txt
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179245/Apple_s_fix_for_iPhone_4_antenna_glitch_Free_cases_for_users
Either way, we will see if the moto droid x sells 3,000,000 phones in 22 days. Because even with their brash advertisement, I bet they wont. And Apple would be the last company that I would wanna get into an advertisement war with.
It's not like you are the one making the money ... Apple is, not you. As a customer, your foremost concern is whether that phone you bought (and paid for with your hard-earned money) WORKS. I don't care if Motorola makes far less money than Apple. Question is, does the phone WORK? If it doesn't, I don't care how much money you make. Apple makes so much money off fools who are willing to defend the product even if it's apparent that the phone doesn't WORK the way it is intended to. Sorry, if you are offended by the word 'fools'. But seriously, you are NOT the one earning all that money, Apple is, and they making it off customers who bought their crappy phone with their hard-earned money and realised it doesn't WORK. As a customer who pays good money, when you buy a phone, it should WORK AS A PHONE. Who cares if the camera, video and MP3 functions works. If it doesn't WORK AS A PHONE, why on earth would I even buy an iPHONE? Right?
Who CARES if Apple iPhone or Moto Droid sells how many phones in how many days? I don't CARE! If I paid hard-earned money for something, it should WORK, and jolly-well WORK for the intent that it is bought.
With such horrific product performance issues and terrible customer service that Apple is displaying, I wonder how can customers still buy Apple's products? Apple holds sway over its customers much the same way a cult leader does. To me, Apple iPhone is just a FAD, an overhyped product that over-promises and under-delivers.
Seriously, who cares how many phones you sells, how much money you make, how much eye-candy ...? In the end, does the bloody thing that I paid for with HARD-EARNED MONEY WORK?
Seriously, who cares how many phones you sells, how much money you make, how much eye-candy ...? In the end, does the bloody thing that I paid for with HARD-EARNED MONEY WORK?
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100% correct! who care as long as my phone work correctly....without a bumper
Now, when someone pokes fun at an Apple product that, and let's be serious here folks, has been shown to not work as well as it should, all I see in response is the rehashing of sales figures, and people saying that the product's faults don't matter a whit because they sell so many of them.
"RING, RING!"
"Hello, Kettle here."
"Hi, Kettle, it's the pot. Just wanted to let you know that you are, in fact, black."
"Hello, Kettle here. Hello? Stupid death grip."
As for this ad, it is AWESOME! I agree Apple did bring it upon themselves and deserves to have some flaws pointed out. I'd love to see more like it, even a iPhone vs. ______ ad similar to the Mac vs PC thing.
So the question is this - which of the two phone will still be actively supported four years hence?
Judging by Apple's track record, one can still get new apps for even the first-gen phones from 2007, and OS upgrades up to two years after a specific generation is built.
Judging by the haphazard app stores and haphazard update compatibility on even 1-year-old Androids, the answer remains to be seen (though to be fair that's not entirely a problem Google has caused, but a manufacturer's problem).
hmm... is this the next wave of mobile phones? Where the need to actually speak rather than sms, tweet, im or just use the web for everything actually takes over completely? interesting thought. lol
no offense, but... this is just the way he writes and this is a blog, besides if you really want data you can look at several news where little boys and girls are texting their fingers off and feel uncomfortable when they cant
For what exactly??
--
for not drinking cool-aid??
You don't need a reason to sue someone in this country any more. The United States is a lawsuit economy.
Oh, and (4) it would draw even more attention to the incredible "bling is more important than function" design philosophy of your company, resulting in a drop in "conversion" sales.
Seems like a really, really stupid idea. Maybe you should try coffee and lay off the kool-aid for a while.
and @Carico apple has started this war.
People are blindly supporting Apple. Not opening their eyes to see and using their brains to think. They did not think, 'If I spent my HARD-EARNED MONEY on a NON-WORKING PHONE, how is it going to BENEFIT ME? Apple may sell millions of iPhones and make a lot of money. But so what? Does it BENEFIT me? If not, and Apple still successfully sells millions of iPhones and make millions of dollars, it is doing so at the expense of fools (no offence but it's the truth). It is indeed easy to make a fool part with his hard-earned money. Just throw in tonnes of eye-candy, throw in some clever marketing and you have managed to get many people to willingly give you their hard-earned money for a crap phone that doesn't work like a phone. So what if you have all the apps, nice camera, eye-candy, good screen, and whatever functions? If it doesn't work like a phone, then what for I buy the phone?'
Apple fans follow blindly, like brainwashed cult members. Did they think of the money they are throwing away for a phone that is reputed not to work properly and a company with horrible customer service, yet they still want to support Apple? People should wake up. I don't know what the world is coming to, seriously.
You don't even have the nerve to put your name to your comments - I will let people reading this thread decide who they want to believe.
You don't even have the nerve to put your name to your comments - I will let people reading this thread decide who they want to believe.
"Well they wouldn't have if the other companies didn't push them to the limit."
"Push them to the limit?" You mean by competing?? How dare they? (sarcasm) That's called business. If Apple can't handle that they need to become a non-profit.
I defy you to find even ONE other phone (smartphone or not) that has exposed antennae on the outside of the non-conductive phone case. THAT is the iPhone 4's *major* design flaw.
Ask any Ham radio operator what happens to received signal strength when a human hand comes in solid contact with a metal antenna. Then ask him if he would expect to be able to receive radio calls with his hand on the antenna.
Bottom line: the iPhone 4 suffers from incredibly bad design, from a radio engineer's point of view. Sure, it looks pretty. So did the Titanic, and we all know what happened to that.
So, you really need to listen to music while being on the phone, huh? I could have gotten an iPhone that supposedly "works," but instead, I got an iPod and a regular phone. The two work just fine. And what does "work" actually mean? Does it mean that you can use something or do something in some sort of way that benefits you or someone else, or does it mean that the thing looks pretty and you can pinch-zoom like a champ? Face it, you paid good money for a phone that still doesn't have dedicated memory for multi-tasking (IMHO, save-stating doesn't count). You paid good money for a phone that in two years time will be obsolete. You paid good money for a phone that will most likely break the moment the warranty runs out (Microsoft is guilty of doing this as well with the Xbox 360). You paid good money for a phone that you will have to completely replace once the freaking battery finally dies.
I am Tyler Rieves, an iPhone hater. I dared to put my name to my comment. Now what? Are you going to stalk me online? Harass me? I dare you. I put my name on here. Does that mean people can finally, FINALLY believe me? No. It's just a name, so until I make something out of it, it means nothing.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10662184
Yes, Motoroila have so much experience in making smart phones, if it was down to them we would all be walking around with ROKR phones listening to 100 mp3 songs - remember that classic failure that prompted Apple to decide they had to make their own iPod/Phone! (I suppose we have something to be grateful to Motorola for).
imaging you're on the road and want to watch movies on a big screen......... just connect to HDMI port. Why carry big laptop?
want to use Hot-Spot for other devices? easy!
want to use iFace thing? there you go. you've Skype or Fring. It works on every smart phones!! using 3G, 4G, wifi... whatever!!
no restrictions, no approval, no junk itunes! Just click and drag! want to put xxx pics on the home screen? simple!! Beautiful isn't it?
I don't really care if you've iphone, DroidX, or whatsover. I like my phone and NOT falling in love with it. When I paid the something with my bloody money, I expect it to work right, holding it wherever I want to hold
Remember! you make your phone works for you to its max, not other way around.
I didn't realize that one needed a 'manly' phone - is it to compensate for other shortcomings?
You must have a very long cord running from your home.
@KingOfTheJungle-So I am being judged because I like a lot of music? Thanks for flipping the issue. Dude, I do a lot of driving and like having a big selection (you know, that choice thing everyone keeps harping on about). Nice condescending "iToy" statement btw. So what "toy" do you use? Being petty and judgmental just means you don't have a better argument. Thanks for confirming that. Real men don't pass judgment unless they are a judge.
And about all this android vs ios........think about it......we all know that android went mainstream relatively later than the ios. Hence it is good enough that it can even compete against apple's refined ios. But android is backed up by google and that alone is promise that it is gonna be a serious competitor in the mobile os arena. Only time will tell which will eventually take majority market share. Nevertheless, as consumers, it ultimately comes down to us to make the choices. If you like android buy an android phone. If you like apple's iPhone and ios.....buy an iPhone and please stop degrading either company's efforts and product.
If the issue were anywhere near as big as all of the Apple haters are trying to make it out to be and th eiPhone was as sucky a device as you all try to make it out to be, then people would return it when they had issues with the signal dropping. They don't return it because it is a great phone. I have no issues holding the phone in any hand any way. Service is fine and the phone is awesome.
I still hold to the 'if your phone cuts signal when you hold it, then take it back. Why would you keep a phone you can't hold?' idea
I'd be careful on how you play the sales number game, some jerk like me might come along and say something like ok lets take the sales numbers from All Apples cell phones ever sold and lets take all the sales numbers from Motos cell phones ever sold. Now you can see where sales numbers can be played with to only prove one side of the point. So Apple better watch where they sling the mud, Moto has been in this game for a very very very long time and they can play hardball or just sit back and wait, looks like the game is on.
On a side note, do you read the details of the story, or just skim through it and look at all the pretty pictures?
Talking to you?
Across the water
Across the deep blue ocean,
On AT&T's lines...
Oh, my...
Baby, my signal's dying...
Boy, I hear you
Despite Jobs' schemes
Here a whisper
On AT&T
Your shrinking bars
Break my heart
Verizon makes it easier
When reception gets hard
Lucky my Droid X
Is my best friend
Lucky I switched back
To Verizon
Lucky I can call
From home...
Again.
This will prevent your brain cells from heating up, as well as your temper...
I wouldn't buy this unless Moto offered a free case with it. Sorry...can't recommend.. It's an imperfect phone obviously. Shame really. I wanted to be like a terminator walking around going Droooid...but i have to be able to make calls.
And of course Apple has nothing to gain by publishing videos with results forced to show what Apple wants you to see.
You'll forgive me if I prefer to see side-by-side comparisons of iPhone and Droid (and other phones, bot smart and not-so-smart) performed by actual independent testing labs, like Consumer Reports, which took the unprecedented step of withdrawing their recommendation for the iPhone 4 after testing it. And CR has never withdrawn a recommendation from a Motorola, Nokia, LG, nor any other phone.
Do the math, fanboy.
While it is a real issue, I think it is overblown. But Apple's initial poor responses (blaming the user) left a bad taste in people's mouths, especially since Apple's image is based on excellent customer service.
To me, it sounds like a textbook example of how NOT to do customer service. While Apple eventually did the right thing (free bumpers), its initial handling wasn't up to par.
Personally, if I were going to purchase a smartphone, I'd purchase a Droid, but I think the iPhone is a good phone. Competition is a good thing.
Pay for your devices, whatever they may be... Use them... and ZIP IT
Most of the backlash you see against apple products and their fans comes from a disdain of this attitude, not necessarily from any love of another product or even a dislike of the apple product itself.
So in this regard if there was any major flaws with a device like the Droid there would be very few people blindly defending it. And even a rabid Android fan would have little reason to blindly defend a single model when so many of them are out there.
So, while I fully agree the antenna issue has been overblown that still doesn't change the fact that when I tried I was able to completely kill the signal on a friends iphone with a single finger. Something I have not been able to replicate on any other phone.
Truly though, it's apple's arrogance and poor handling of the situation from the start that have rubbed people so raw.
I have had a WIndows Mobile phone for the past two years and those suck. As soon as my contract expires, I will be buying a droid.
- by droslovinia July 29, 2010 5:54 AM PDT
- So are we supposed to forget that Motorola and Apple have not exactly been best buds for some time now, and that goes back to Apple's original business - Computers? Having ridden Google's apparently successful attempts to brew up some fanboy Koolaid of their own around the 'Droid operating system, Motorola finally has an issue they can sink their teeth into (don't ask them about the "bricking" problem with the new phone) so why shouldn't they flail away?
- Like this Reply to this comment 2 people like this comment
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- by hammeroftruth July 29, 2010 8:39 AM PDT
- Wow an actual intelligent reply! Thanks for educating these "Johnny come lately's" who know nothing about the history involving Motorola and Apple. You're right about Google, although I think that maybe the whole playing field will be leveled with RIMM, Apple and Google as major players. The only thing that will help Apple against Android is if you start seeing iOS in appliances and other places besides phones and tablets.
- Like this 1 person likes this comment
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- by tjrieves July 30, 2010 11:25 PM PDT
- But I like pissing...
- Like this 1 person likes this comment
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Showing 1 of 4 pages (160 Comments)I really don't know what smart phone I'd buy, especially since no one out there seems capable of distinguishing between phones and operating systems. How does the X compare to the Evo? Who knows? All we're going to hear about is the operating system. Since I can hack an iPhone to run the same OS, does that suddenly make it just as good? And what's gonna happen when Microsoft starts cooking up a batch of "trust us, this new Win7 phone is worth buying?"
Can we not, at some point, say "a phone is a phone. They have different operating systems. Here's what this phone can do that separates it from other phones, some of which have the same OS?" Or are we just going to have these continuous pissing contests?
BTW a phone isn't a phone anymore. Even just a plain cellphone makes crappy calls compared to the older ones from the late 90's. That's a build quality issue though since non smartphones don't sell for $400 anymore.
Good post.
This is getting ridiculous. I've tried coming up with a good reply several times, and each time I run your reply to mine through my head, and each time I think that I'm making a stupid comment. Yes, there's nothing left to distinguish OS from phone anymore, regarding people's opinions and idiotic comments about them. I could say I like the iPhone more than an Android-powered phone, and to many that would make sense. I could also say that I like the Droid X better than iOS. Again, many would see that as a valid statement.
Let me give it a try. Here's what sets the Evo apart from all other phones:
A. It uses WiMax, currently the only (as far as I'm aware) 4G service available.
B. It has a large 4.3 inch touch screen
C. It has a nifty kickstand so you can watch movies and videos on it.
D. It is on the only phone network that separates the world into neat little yellow bubbles for easier calling and text messaging.