Worst of the Week: The true iPhone killer

Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
This week has given me a new-found respect for UPS drivers. With two feet of snow having already fallen outside and another foot just waiting to join the party, I was awakened from my usual afternoon stupor by a knock on my door. After bouncing off a few walls and tripping over a few pairs of shoes, I managed to make it my front door where in addition to a wall of snow that would make any Eskimo proud; I found a lovely brown box at my feet.
Still in a fog, I glanced up to see where this gift from heaven could have come from on such a dreary day. What I saw I can only describe as something from Christmas morning. But, instead of catching St. Nick scurrying up the chimney, I saw a jolly man dressed in all brown making his way down a one-time shoveled, but now snow-covered driveway to what appeared to be the biggest brown truck imagined. When this giver of fine gifts finally made it to the doorway of his humble stead, he turned, gave a quick wave, and was gone in a flash.
“Did I just dream that?” I wondered, still obviously too groggy to comprehend much of anything, let alone the miracle that just presented itself. Looking back down, I again found the box, answering my query.
Now, I have received a fair number of boxes during my years, but this one seemed to glow like no other. Sure, I might have been suffering from snow blindness or maybe my age is starting to catch up with me, but even after shaking off my sleep-induced haze the box still managed to keep its magical hue.
With a few quick cuts of my trusty Rambo knife, I tore into the box to find the source of its incandescent glow. Peeling away the ample packaging I discovered the newer than new Motorola Droid. The same device that had blogs in a foaming frenzy trying to dissect its functionality and purpose was now in my jelly-soft hands. Mmmm … jelly.
After letting the battery take its proper charge, I dug into the functionality of Motorola’s latest savior. Acknowledging that I am well short of the technical intricacies needed to provide a thorough “review” of the phone I will leave that gambit to the professionals. Instead all I will say is that I found the Droid to be a great device. It does everything promised and is fairly easy to use. It’s not quite the visual looker of some devices on the market and looks a bit stale compared with Apple’s iPhone – its hated rival if Verizon Wireless’ already annoying television ads are to be believed – but it’s not bad for a full-featured device.
And full featured it is. The Droid does seem to offer every function available in the iPhone, if not more, though some might be disappointed that Google’s Android store offerings on the device are currently very limited. (I mean where are the 47 farting applications?!?)
However, there is one thing that the device lacks that the iPhone has in spades: perception.
The iPhone has become this handset generation’s Razr. Everyone has one, wants one, knows someone who has one or knows someone who wants one. Whenever the word cellphone is mentioned, my guess is that nearly everyone’s mind pictures an iPhone. Every television show or movie now has their actors sporting the iPhone, unless that show is “sponsored” by another handset maker or carrier. The iPhone has become the Kleenex, the Xerox, the Honda Civic, the Schwinn of cellphones. The iPhone, whether deserved or not, has become the standard for which all phones are now compared, but in the mind of most consumers, there is no comparison.
And this is something the Droid and every other handset introduced since the iPhone bum-rushed the wireless show has to face. It does not matter how many commercials are produced touting the operational superiority of another device or mimicking Apple’s simplicity, the iPhone has been seared into the psyche of consumers as what a modern mobile phone is.
Like all cellphone fads, this too could come to pass, though Apple has a history of making sure people always look to their products like some sort of gift from consumer electronics heaven. I am guessing someday in the future we will look back to current movies and snicker a bit as actors pull out their iPhone to take the call that the movie’s whole premise is based around.
But, until that time comes, the Droid, like every other “iPhone killer” to come down the pike, will be forced to play a supporting role.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–All this talk of an iPhone killer got me thinking about what might be the true slayer of Apple’s glorious device and I think I found it. I mean, just check out that yellow jacketed fiberglass body, the ground and polished faces and that New England patterned head. It even has an awesome name: Jacketed Fiberglass Drilling Hammer. Makes every other iPhone killer’s name sound like the title to an opera. Sure, it might not access the Internet as fast as an iPhone or even be able to connect to a cellular network, but my guess is that if the Drilling Hammer and an iPhone were thrown into the Octagon together, only one would survive.
–Unbeknownst to me, something called “augmented reality” is gaining steam. Or so an e-mail from a company deliciously named Metaio would have me believe. The firm claims its new Junaio app, which surprise, surprise is made for Apple’s App Store, will allow end users to “create their own augmented reality experience on their mobile devices.” (I thought there was already something created for this: pharmaceuticals.)
“With Junaio, end users can visually interact with the world by placing 3D objects into the real world, leaving notes and information about places, and creating cool experiences to share with friends on social media sites like Facebook. Junaio ties existing social networks together with picture-based social interactions and lets users see location-based content through their iPhone display.” Sounds compelling and an awesome way to avoid catching the H1N1 flu from interacting with the real world.
The e-mail also included a link to view a video demonstration of the service as well as the chance to try it out on my own iPhone. I was too scared that launching this app would somehow create some sort of rift in the space/time continuum to actually give it a spin, but I will hazard a guess that it’s the next-best thing to being alive.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@ardenmediaco.com.