BlackBerry advert sticks it to Apple All’s fair in love and marketing, it seems. So BlackBerry maker RIM has released a promotional video that literally takes a shot at rival phone manufacturer Apple. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com The short video – which we assume was commissioned by RIM, given the quality - shows a red Braeburn- …
As has been pointed out elsewhere, the phrase "The World's First Touch Screen Blackberry" doesn't mean a fat lot when:
a) The Blackberry is a smartphone which isn't the world's first touch screen smartphone, and
b) You are the sole manufacturer of Blackberrys, so who else is going to beat you to the punch of building a touch screen Blackberry.
No doubt the Apple-haters will jeer and snigger and make incoherent logic-deficient comments about how this "sticks it" to Apple, but maybe when they sober up and the excitement of watching American Gladiators has faded, they might see the utter lack of substance in this advert.
Whatever you think of the iPhone, it was and is the only phone that was good enough to be marketed by SHOWING HOW IT WORKS. Jesus, you don't even SEE the fucking thing in this ad, much less the desperate sap trying to make the screen 'click' just to type a letter.
Move along, folks... nothing to see here.
I love this. And it's really funny to see the mactards getting wound up. I refer Ian Davies to many other adverts that don't feature the product - take the Cadbury's gorilla advert, which massively increased sales, for example.
Don't get me wrong here, though. I don't like the iPhone (why bother explaining that?) but I also think the Storm is a bag of crap which should have had a lot more production/refining time. Shame, because it could have been a competitor, given how good the Bold is.
Perhaps they should spend less on ads and more on firmware updates to fix the Storms shit system.
As somebody has already said the iPhone has been around ages, they still got it wrong witht he Storm. I used to love (not) the fact that when I answered a call with the Storm I had a 50/50 chance of putting the original call on hold or dialling another party.
I've finally given up waiting for a rival to beat the iPhone 3g so I got one, with all the lock ins blah blah, interface wise I love it. The Storm isn't even close.
I thought we were talking about phones here?
I use a Mac and I use a PC, I have an iPhone and I have extensively tested the Storm, the Bold and the 8900 curve.
Why is it somebody always sees a tenuous Mac link and gets in the first "Mactard" blow. the iPhone is a good phone, the Storm is crap. No matter what Computer or OS you use.
Jeeezz
@Stike Vomit (how apt?)
well, at least my plums are where they're meant to be, instead of between my ears. I'll see your petty personal comment and raise you. Dick.
@Matt Smart
"Mactard"?? What are you, on dope? Who the fuck mentioned the Mac?
Oh, and your analogy to the Cadbury gorilla advert is completely inane. The Cadbury ad in question deals purely in the intangible feel-good benefit of eating their product. No mention is made of their competitors, obliquely or otherwise.
If the ad showed a gorilla shitting on a bar of Galaxy and came with the tagline "The world's first defecating king primate sponsored by Cadbury" then your silly point might have some merit.
It's clearly amateur hour, so who's next?
I love this add.
and I really really love the angry responses to the childish comments.
(The childish comments I'm so so with).
The iPhone despite it's shortcomings (few, and those mostly intangible as far as I can see) is the leader in this market, therefore it is the obvious target, and you do have to admire the bravery, since the Storm is not as good, or at least has not been as well received.
(disclaimer: I haven't played with either)
Nice video edited using Final Cut Pro?
Apple won't retaliate; they don't need to - just look at number of units shipped worldwide.
Pity RIM's "consumer" products are dire. I sincerely hope they don't go the way of Nortel as this would be a blow to Canada and, besides, Mr President of the USA is reliant on their phone.
It's a well thought out ad, if slightly south of subtle. It gets the point across of what RIM were trying to do when they made the Storm. Sadly, they've made a seriously sub-standard device. It may be technically better (lack of wifi not withstanding), but the UI is an ergonomic nightmare compared to the iPhone. I sometimes miss the functionalty of my previous Nokia N-Series devices, but the sheer ease of using the slick iPhone GUI more than makes up for it. Other companies are a very long way from being able to compete at present, and I struggle to believe they release these touch screen devices, years after the first iPhone, that seem decades behind it. The Storm is barely better to use than my 6 year old iPaq - worse, if you try typing anything long on it and have to put up with that horrible moving screen.
Actually Apple ads often don't display their product either (unless that skinny pencilled-on-moustache guy counts as product)
@Ian Davies - too quiet on the groups for you these days? News stories aren't the best place to last-word your way to Nazi name calling because people move on to the latest story and won't be around to bask in your genius/laugh at your tryhardness/etc...
those with the crappiest software try to shout with the loudest gloss?
i don't rate the iPhone personally, but that's cos it's too dumb a smartphone.
however, after several years in the mobile industry I left, in part as the phones were simply going out the door before they were ready.
the blackberry ceo's admission that the storm went out the door with bugs and that we should all "get used to it" tells me that my brushes with other blackberry devices, and their shoddy UI formatting, told me what I suspected all along. a) that I was right to turn down a job at RIM, and b) that their devices are cobbled together patched old firmware with new functionality crowbarred and overlaid until the thing is falling apart.
avoid blackberry at all costs. I just resurrected my boss's p990 as he lost the ability to make calls and text without his blackberry crashing! (jesus wept). it may have taken the p990 a year to stabilise but at least it did.
if the companies don't watch out, they'll kill the smartphone stone dead as early adopters stop adopting and wait for end-of-lifecycle to pick up a phone with stable firmware. end point, no more smartphones as they won't sell enough.
solution: sack the accountants and managers who mandate over-optimistic timescales and low budgets.
that said, I do like a nice ad-fight between companies who are trying to grab the stylish high-ground. hysterical!
"If you've used a Blackerry Storm, you'll know they are frequently "frozen".
A frozen Blackberry might just penetrate the Apple - however, it's a Pyrrhic victory."
They're halting Blackberry sales in Japan because they OVERHEAT.
So how would you like your blackberry today? Frozen or flambeed?
Maybe the low key Apple response advertisement will show a huge sledgehammer named “Patent Infringement“ smashing that cute little blackberry to the thickness of a molecule. Then the “Mac Guy” will look at the camera and say “We protect our intellectual property. Period.” 310 iPhone Patents will have their day in court.
that neither of these products are really innovative or original. Palm has had a touch screen for years. Sure, only geeks will use them, but that doesn't change the fact. And I really don't think what you touch it with is really a big issue. finger works just as well as a stylus. Also, since I am not 12 I don't use SMS enough where typing with my thumbs is a big selling point.
The video however, is very cool, lets see it on mythbusters ;)
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