#BestPhonesForever
It's great to see the iPhone vs. Pixel battle rage on in commercial form
This time of year is always a hot period in the great smart phone wars. Both Apple and Google are releasing their latest offerings in the iPhone and Pixel lines. While the iPhone 15 was announced to mostly positive reviews, Google will follow suit with their Pixel unveiling next week.
Whether you are team Android or team iPhone, you have to appreciate a good competitive ad campaign. The latest commercials to promote the Pixel are just too good to ignore in my humble opinion.
#BestPhonesForever
If you haven't seen them, take a look at the latest entry below where the friends tell scary stories of the old days of smart phones:
In a genius move, the ads cast the Pixel and iPhone as best friends #BestPhonesForever. But of course, they may disagree and argue at times just like any other best friends would. Speaking in their robotic AI assistant voices, the two friends hang out and talk about their latest features. The Pixel phone ends up sounding like the wiser, hipper, more confident friend who is there to help out its anxious partner. The great folks over at Droid Life have pieced together a few of the videos and given their take as well.
Giving personalities to the backsides of the phones rather than the front is particularly clever. The little sketches harken back to the original ad campaign for the Motorola Droid phone.
Droid Does
Yes, I was an original Motorola Droid owner. I woke up before sunrise and camped out at the Verizon store on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco to be one of the first in town to acquire the new piece of tech. There were actually photos of me proudly holding the new device that somehow found their way onto some news stories about the device launch. It was a wild time in the world of tech. I believe I received a whole bunch of free accessories for being one of the first people in line on launch day. It really felt like a special event and I can't remember another tech launch that has felt as special.
But what got me so excited about that original Motorola Droid phone? Sure, I was ready to ditch my aging Palm Treo for the new Android operating system, but the Droid phone also just seemed like the perfect opposite to the iPhone.
The original Droid Does campaign made the iPhone look like a toy while the Droid was a sophisticated computer that could handle anything that you asked of it. Yes, it's just a commercial but it also laid the groundwork for a real competitive landscape in the mobile phone world. Choosing your device wasn't just a matter of picking a phone or an operating system. No, you were identifying with a group, you were picking a side, you were making a choice in your personality. iPhone was white, Droid was black. iPhone was friendly, Droid was edgy. It all seems silly now but it was the type of promotion needed for Motorola since they'd faded from the spotlight after the Razr phone.
Sales Figures
While I appreciate the trip down memory lane by way of phone commercials, the truth is that current iPhones and Pixels are probably more similar than any Apple and Google phones of the past. The differences are mostly cosmetic and are tied to personality and loyalty more than superior specs or features. People likely stick with their chosen operating system out of habit and laziness rather than because they actually think their device is better than what else is out there.
It's no secret that iPhone sales still dominate Pixel sales here in the United States. But it seems like some of those numbers are starting to get closer in other parts of the world. Evidently, the Japanese are becoming big fans of Pixel phones as Apple starts to see its market share shrink in that region. Who knows if the Pixel 8 will continue that momentum or just be another incremental improvement that doesn't get people too excited.
As of right now, I am planning on upgrading my Pixel 7 to the Pixel 8. The smaller form factor is still my preference even if the 8 Pro Model does have a few more bells and whistles. Am I just a Pixel Fanboy who will upgrade no matter how the new phone looks? I'd like to say no. But Google has done a good job of offering a high enough trade-in value for their recent Pixel phones to keep people on the refresh cycle each year. Maybe it has nothing to do with the trade-in value, new specs, or retail price.
Maybe I'm just a sucker for a really clever ad campaign for a new phone.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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