Maybe the Droid Launch Wasn't So Bad After All 13 comments
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Friday I detailed my quest to find the throngs of Droid fans who had woken up at the crack of dawn to grab a place in line before Verizon (VZ) unleashed the phone to the masses. Yet despite reports of lines elsewhere, I failed — the Verizon store in Palo Alto was a ghost town, as was the Best Buy (BBY) down the street. Some commenters took my story and similar reports as an indication that the Droid’s launch had bombed, doomed to play out the same fate of the numerous supposed ‘iPhone killers’ before it. It looks like they may be wrong — that store sold over 70 Droids Friday, according to one of its employees.
Saturday I returned to the Verizon store where Friday’s quest began, looking to get my hands on one of the nifty docking stations that turns your Droid into a desktop clock/multimedia station. And while I expected a handful of other customers to be in the store, I was taken aback by just how crowded it was — each of the registers was busy ringing up a customer while others waited their turn, three people were standing in line just to touch the demo Droid unit, and I had to put my name on the list to talk to someone. When I asked one of the employees if they were selling a lot of Droids, his somewhat breathless response was “Yeah, a lot. Over 70 yesterday, we got a shipment of another 100 in today.” Oh, and they were out of both the dock I had come for and spare batteries. Maybe the lack of an early morning line wasn’t so damning after all.
Obviously this store represents a single data point, but so did my story Friday. Here’s some more evidence that Droid might be doing pretty well, after all: last night Pandora CTO Tom Conrad tweeted,
Just saw Pandora’s Android install numbers for the day. Wow! There may not be lines, but Droids are very much among us – and running Pandora.
We followed up for more details, and while Conrad declined to give any exact stats for now, he did say that Pandora’s download rate tripled, going on to say “We were doing well on Android before though, so the increase is pretty amazing.”
If you’re an Android dev, let us know in the comments if you’ve seen a boost too. And if you’ve passed your local Verizon store, let us know how busy it was.
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This article has 13 comments:
ijk
1- A few months ago, seeking alpha posted an article on how VZW is dumping Mot and not planning any Mot phones for the holiday season - companies like VZW don't change their minds one day. VZW never planned on doing this
2- this brilliant author posted a few days ago that droid is not selling based on 1 day of information and now changes his tune after 1 day of information
These authors are pretty much useless - they post positions on both sides of an issue. One of them will be right and they will come a few months later and say they were brilliant. They are useless fools and as dangerous for America as bankers on Wall Street
On Nov 08 12:01 PM Sharkboy1424 wrote:
> SEC should investigate sites/authors like those on seeking alpha.
> They post misinformation all the time -
>
> 1- A few months ago, seeking alpha posted an article on how VZW is
> dumping Mot and not planning any Mot phones for the holiday season
> - companies like VZW don't change their minds one day. VZW never
> planned on doing this
>
> 2- this brilliant author posted a few days ago that droid is not
> selling based on 1 day of information and now changes his tune after
> 1 day of information
>
> These authors are pretty much useless - they post positions on both
> sides of an issue. One of them will be right and they will come a
> few months later and say they were brilliant. They are useless fools
> and as dangerous for America as bankers on Wall Street
However, I hope that the Droid sells well. Competition helps keep Apple pumping out improvements, though not the way many people think. If Apple based its current or next-year improvements on the Droid, they'd be in the same position as those desperately trying to catch up with the iPhone. Apple has to ANTICIPATE what its competitors WILL do, not REACT to what they HAVE done. (The Wayne Gretzky cliche comes to mind.) Apple has to assume that some companies will come out with very good phones, in some case beating the iPhone in some ways, though not the ways so many simplistic "analysts" harp on, like physical keyboards and user-replaceable batteries. (Side note: when the iPhone first came out, the non-replaceable battery was a "big deal" in the press. I asked people I knew who had an advanced phone two questions: 1) Can you replace your phone's battery? and 2) Do you have a spare battery? If so, do you carry it around with you? The surprise was that more than half didn't even know if they could replace the battery. Many assumed that they could, but didn't know how to do it. Only 3 of the 50+ I asked had an extra battery and only one carried it with her. She showed me by changing the battery, but the extra battery wasn't charged.)
Apparently, Apple was right that a user-replaceable battery wouldn't be a big issue for most people. (If it's important to YOU, then get a phone with one. 30+ million buyers apparently didn't care.) A company can lose its direction AND spend a lot of money chasing the needs/desires of that last segment of potential buyers, with negligible returns. (That's also why Apple hasn't--and probably won't--get into the "netbook" business--they don't need it.)
Instead, Apple has concentrated on the user experience, not the phone specs. Little things like the sensor that turns off the screen when you put the phone to your ear, the intelligent auto-correction that adapts to the user, the consistent interface (a big problem with Palm OS software for my TX), even the form factor (thin, rounded for comfort) are examples. Thus, to me, it will be any enhancements to the user experience in the Droid that will have an effect on Apple's plans, not the hardware.
I have a feeling that Apple was not all that serious about partnering with Verizon because of CDMA. They would have had to make two iPhones--CDMA for the US and GSM for nearly every other country. That increases R&D, manufacturing and support costs. Add to that the inherent limitations of CDMA (e.g.,no simultaneous voice & data, so you can't access the Internet while on a phone call) and Apple wouldn't be likely to go that route--not then and not now. When Verizon implements a LTE network over a significant area, then Apple may come out with an LTE iPhone.
It will be interesting to see how many Droids are sold to people who were not already Verizon subscribers. (A high percentage of iPhone sales are to "switchers.")
Enough about the technology though... lets talk about why the Motorola/Google/Verizon phone is better. Navigation to start... with the iPhone, you have to pay for the service and many people do. It's free with the Droid as you know. The Droid has a bigger screen with better resolution... the Droid is customizable with widgets... I could go on, but you get the point.
The iPhone has the music player, but if you give it a few months, once Google comes out with their open source music player, the competition will really open up. Why then would anyone stay latched to the iPhone where all of your music gets converted to their format and you have to pull your teeth out to get it to play on anything else… maybe Apple can get ahead of the curve and change that now before Google stomps all over them with the free one.
apple.com/batterie...
The iPhone will hold up to 80% charge through at least 400 charge cycles. If you get AppleCare with the iPhone, Apple will replace the battery free during the 3-year period of AppleCare if the battery capacity goes below 50%. If the iPhone is out of warranty, the battery can be replaced for $79 + $6.95 shipping.
2. It doesn't matter what the Droid can do. Verizon's CDMA network can't handle simultaneous voice and data. One probably can do simultaneous data and voice if one is also connected via WiFi. Some CDMA phones will stop Internet data traffic when a call comes in. Some may be able to put a call on "hold" (in effect), use the web, then go back to the call. That's not the same as simultaneous voice and data. You can't talk on the phone WHILE you are using the browser.
3. Your comment about TDMA being "analog technology" is way off the mark. It's purely digital. See:
searchmobilecomputing....
4. Re: Navigation: It's free NOW. Any solid guarantee that it will remain so? Verizon likes to charge extra for everything. Also, I'm not sure that I'd want to use my phone for in-car navigation.
How much do you want to bet that Google will make an iPhone app that does everything that the Droid does? It would be in Google's interest, as they want the ad revenue.
On top of that, Apple bought a mapping company. They may well add their own built-in navigation application shortly.
5. The iPhone doesn't "convert" music to another format. I don't know where you got that idea. iTunes (and the iPods and iPhones) can play AAC, MP3, and other formats, as is. Today, all of the iTunes Store music is in AAC (a superior format to MP3, but one that can be played on nearly any "MP3" player, including the Zune, for example), but it is not "protected." You can easily add MP3s from, say, Amazon, to the iTunes library and it does NOT change their format. I've done that many times.
It's easy to use music from your iTunes library on a non-Apple device--you just can't do it with the iTunes application. There are other applications that will load music from your iTunes library (an .xml file, that's all) to a phone or other MP3 player.
For further "proof," remember that, at one time, the Palm Pre could be synced with iTunes, until Apple updated iTunes to prevent that.
Also, iTunes IS free.
On Nov 09 06:20 AM Droidum wrote:
> GSlusher... I understand your comment, but you may have gotten a
> few things wrong. The battery issue for instance, is not necessarily
> for a change in the battery today, but for when the inevitable happens
> and the battery can no longer hold a decent charge. With the iPhone,
> you basically have to buy a new phone. Not a major issue for most,
> but something to think about... Now for the technology issue.. the
> Droid does data and voice simultaneously. CDMA is a superior technology
> to GSM, but GSM was first, much like the iPhone is first and took
> off around the world because of it. CDMA is digital, therefore you
> have a crisper quality call, where GSM uses TDMA technology, basically
> analog technology and can be choppy and produce static on the line.
> In addition, EVDO is how the data link is run. Two separate technologies
> integrated into one system.
>
> Enough about the technology though... lets talk about why the Motorola/Google/Verizon
> phone is better. Navigation to start... with the iPhone, you have
> to pay for the service and many people do. It's free with the Droid
> as you know. The Droid has a bigger screen with better resolution...
> the Droid is customizable with widgets... I could go on, but you
> get the point.
>
> The iPhone has the music player, but if you give it a few months,
> once Google comes out with their open source music player, the competition
> will really open up. Why then would anyone stay latched to the iPhone
> where all of your music gets converted to their format and you have
> to pull your teeth out to get it to play on anything else… maybe
> Apple can get ahead of the curve and change that now before Google
> stomps all over them with the free one.
On Nov 08 05:35 PM Chkrazer wrote:
> got my Droid. love my Droid. awesome device.