Android Not Being Advertiesed Effectively

[Ayman250]

As you have probably seen there have been a lot of htc Aria and Evo commercials lately. Along with many other android phones. The problem i see with these commercials is that NONE of them mention anything about the android operating system. The average consumer loves apps. (I am by no means an expert) The average consumer also likes an intuitive and interactive phone. They love multitouch and all that nice stuff. But when they see the evo and aria they just see another phone. The droid was advertised wonderfully. Even though it did not explain that it was run using android the commercials still explained that the droid has thousand's of app. And people absolutely love having the ability to pick and choose between a huge selection of app. But they dont realize that all android phones have access to the same apps. And they dont know which phones use android. I really think that different carriers should atleast consider trying to explain android in the easiest way, and mention in commercials that android is running on said phone.
What do you guys think?

 

[Intervenient]

I agree. Before a few months ago, I was still confused as to what Android was, confusing it with the Motorola Droid. Most people, the average consumer, is confused when it comes to this. To them it's just another cell phone.

 

[ari-free]

motorola is 100% android but HTC doesn't have its entire heart into it. They released the HD2 with winmo and it took them a long time to come up with an android phone with similar or better specs (Evo). That's right. We could have had a 4.3" screen and 1 ghz snapdragon android phone on November 2009!

 

[jrdoll28]

I agree. I think the original droid commercials were great because it seemed to be advertising an iphone, but then goes onto say whatever "i-don't-do droid does."
The average consumer only thinks of the iphone and believe it's the best.

I believe there should be commercials advertising all of android's capabilities which mentions some of the phones that support it.

 

[bbrosen]

android is open source and technically no one owns it or is very motivated to puch android on it's own merits. Apple owns the hardware software and app store, they have a vested interest in all facets, a lot of people have a piece of the pie when it comes to android, but no one really has the whole enchilada..now im hungry...

 

[ari-free]

verizon/motorola is going all out with Android. This is just the beginning of their next Droid campaign:
YouTube - Droid X is here

HTC is the one that is a bit soft.

 

[SporkLover]

Most users aren't going to care if it's android or not. They care about what the phone can do, how well does it work, and how cool does it look.

IMO Manufacturers and Carriers are going to spend their money buying 30 sec spots to tout their hardware, and their hardware's capabilities and features, not sing the praises of a open source OS. That fact will be lost on many people.

 

[Duck Tales LOL]

The average consumer knows what an iPhone is. I doubt the average consumer knows what Android is.


Most Apple commercials actually show the iPhone and it being used. The first Droid commercials where just text on a screen saying "We can run multiple apps, iPhone can't, blah blah".

It's gotten better, but Motorola needs to bump up their advertising.

 

[quest7]

IMO, At&t does not hype Android phones, like they do iPhone. And t-mobile did not really hype the vibrant. Verizon seems to be the only one putting android out there.

 

[ari-free]

The average consumer knows what an iPhone is. I doubt the average consumer knows what Android is.


Most Apple commercials actually show the iPhone and it being used. The first Droid commercials where just text on a screen saying "We can run multiple apps, iPhone can't, blah blah".

It's gotten better, but Motorola needs to bump up their advertising.

like this?
YouTube - DROID SKY MAP COMMERCIAL

 

[Mr_N1ce]

I agree, Android should be made more visible to the average customer.
I don't know about the USA but in Germany its pathetic, how Android phones are being sold in stores compared to others: While the iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia are sorted separately with extra signs etc., Android phones are mixed in between wherever they can find some space.

Even worse: The sales persons often do not know enough to explain the benefits. When I asked for the HTC Legend or Desire they suggested some random (non-Android) Samsung to me since "it has a touch screen, too".

 

[Ayman250]

Most users aren't going to care if it's android or not. They care about what the phone can do, how well does it work, and how cool does it look.

IMO Manufacturers and Carriers are going to spend their money buying 30 sec spots to tout their hardware, and their hardware's capabilities and features, not sing the praises of a open source OS. That fact will be lost on many people.

Yeah but if people can understand that android=apps and other things they like oh so much about the iphone than they will care.

 

[ari-free]

I agree, Android should be made more visible to the average customer.
I don't know about the USA but in Germany its pathetic, how Android phones are being sold in stores compared to others: While the iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia are sorted separately with extra signs etc., Android phones are mixed in between wherever they can find some space.

Even worse: The sales persons often do not know enough to explain the benefits. When I asked for the HTC Legend or Desire they suggested some random (non-Android) Samsung to me since "it has a touch screen, too".

yeah HTC doesn't know how to show off their phones. Even the US Sprint evo commercials were pretty lame. But Samsung should be able to change things around in the global market.
YouTube - Samsung Galaxy S I9000 Android Smartphone TV commercial

 

[xmastree]

You know those "I'm a mac. and I'm a PC" ads?
We need some "I'm an iPhone. and I'm an Android" ones.

Just recently a friend was discussing what phone to get. It was on a mailing list and there were suggestions from both camps. He was wondering whether to get an iPhone or an HTC. Not an Android (which is what he actually meant) but an HTC.

Thing is, an iPhone is an iPhone. An Android phone comes in many different forms, and less technical people don't seem to realise that.

He got the iPhone.

Another friend showed me his new Samsung. Not sure of the model but it's an android. He did't know what that was, or what it meant. Didn't know about apps either...

 

[philly0128]

I love this thread, i've been telling my wife this for months. sprint/HTC should have been to 1st to have a commerical showing QIK, video or photo, they should have been the 1st showing talk to text. they should have been showing how great movies look and of course show apps that the average show can use to make their lives easier, but instead they have that stupid commerical showing how things evolved.

Now if they come out with those commericals it's going to look like they're copying Iphone commericals.

 

[ari-free]

yeah instead of showing videochat over 3G, they pointed out that it has a kickstand. Wow, I'm so floored.
Samsung Epic will walk all over the evo once it arrives. But even Samsung isn't like Verizon...

I heard a story about some girl who picked a Droid because "there's no limit to to what Droid does" thanks to ads like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVLJghTeKVU&feature=player_embedded

 

[ari-free]

You know those "I'm a mac. and I'm a PC" ads?
We need some "I'm an iPhone. and I'm an Android" ones.

.

no, not good at all. If you notice, none of those ads actually showed a mac in action. If the imac appeared in the ad, it only displayed the word mac on the screen. Those ads were effective only because vista sucked so much. Apple hasn't affected windows 7 at all.
On the other hand, Apple actually shows the ipod and iphone in action.

 

[ZDroid1]

Most people don't distinguish between the phone and the software it's running. It wasn't until recently that Apple gave their OS a distinct name (iOS).

I completely blame Google for this. They need to be running their own ads, touting the Android's ability to run on different phones, different sizes, different styles, and different carriers. You know, like, the whole damn point of the Android!

As it is now, nobody knows what OS is running on their phone, any more than the software that's running their microwave or television, and they don't care to find out.

It's really sad that Google doesn't emphasize that the real "my-phone" here is the Android, since it's the one that allows you to pick the phone and the carrier and the features you want, as opposed to the "Steve Jobs phone", made just the way they think is best for you.

 

[ari-free]

Well, one issue is that there is no 'face' for Android. The UI is functional but it doesn't scream out: "this is the look that we want everyone to remember us by." So everyone tries to cover it up with a custom UI.
I think (or hope...) Google is working on something dramatic for Gingerbread that everyone will want to use. An analogy could be made to Apple's Macos. Macos 9 was nice but blah. It didn't really look that much different than Windows though the careful observer could spot all kinds of useful touches. Apple needed the dramatic look of OSX before they could really sell Macs like crazy.

 

[krouget]

I really think that different carriers should atleast consider trying to explain android in the easiest way, and mention in commercials that android is running on said phone.
What do you guys think?

While on one side I can understand where you're coming from, the thing is, the various companies/carriers also compete against each other. Advertising the OS, specifically, doesn't really benefit any specific phone/carrier...as someone stated, its open source, and pretty much does Google's job for them.

Heavy advertising (the way Verizon did with the Droid), by itself, has strong potential to sell a phone, but they also tied the specific hardware to the ads (so much so, that people think 'Android' is the 'Droid'). Advertising the OS itself, though, becomes a double-edged sword if you burn the idea into the consumers mind, that they can buy a rival piece of hardware and get a similar product. Its part of the reason companies skin the UI and add features on top of the Android OS-- to differentiate their product offering.

Also, the iPhone largely owed its success to the popularity of the iPod, which came before it, effectively establishing an 'Apple' culture. That brand identity is something Apple uses as leverage against rival devices, while Android doesn't have that type of power. I think for these two reasons, Android is going to remain the more obscure OS in the market (iOS also goes above the heads of casual consumers, but it has the advantage of being tied to one device, so any confusion doesn't really hurt it).

 

[ZDroid1]

Microsoft Windows succeeded in becoming the dominant OS without being tied to any hardware, coincidentally, defeating Apple's OS, which was tied to one type of hardware.

That war is repeating itself today in the cell phone market. But then Microsoft didn't win the OS war through successful brand recognition or loyalty. I have yet to see a Windows flag sticker on a car (I see a lot of Apple stickers).

So it's possible that Android will win the cell phone market war, not through product loyalty and identification, but paradoxically through obscurity and apathy. In other words, people won't know that the Android system offers all the features of the iPhone and more, plus more flexibility and more options. They will simply associate that with the phones themselves (such as EVO, DROID, Galaxy, etc).

So Apple won't be defeated by one company, but rather by multiple companies who offer multiple options and powerful features that are compatible with one another, all backed by the unknown Android OS.

 

[ari-free]

Hardware is the first thing people see. If they see a phone with a keyboard, they know it's not an iPhone. It immediately stands out.

 

[Poldie]

The average consumer knows what an iPhone is. I doubt the average consumer knows what Android is.

iPhone is hardware. Android is software. You can't compare them. People buy Android phones because they like the phone, not the OS. I doubt more than a few thousand of the millions of people buying Android phones over the last 6 months or so are buying it because they've heard about Android and want a phone running Linux! And I doubt that more than a few thousand iPhone owners bought it because they really wanted iOs, either!

 

[chaz_uk]

One of my favourite "commercials" (google search Easter egg really) was searching for "meet Android" on google.co.uk and hitting "I'm feeling lucky", leading you to Vodafone Android

I'm slowly seeing Android mentioned on more UK ads but I doubt many of the general populace know what it is. Most of the people at work refer to my Nexus One as "The Google phone" as if there are no more phones based on it. How little they know!

EDIT: Some UK networks and stores are pushing Android as a product:
http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/smartphones/android?intcmp=hp-cat1-a-1028
http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/android/