You gotta hand it to Motorola. They’re an outfit that has bounced back from dire circumstances over and over again. They have had long stretches of success, and periods of just horrible products, but since they scored big with the original Motorola Droid last November, the company has been setting its sights on complete mobile device domination. They’ve been able to do so with aggressive marketing campaigns like the one seen here that elevate their products to epic proportions. This teaser for Motorola’s upcoming Everest Tablet literally has it sitting on a pedestal. Of course we all remember the first Droid Teaser, which caused the biggest anti-iPhone uproar to date. Or how about this follow-up, which basically said “The iPhone is for girls, you ain’t a girl, are you?” Well, they’re doing it again, while blatantly targeting the iPad and even the innocent, recently released Samsung Galaxy Tab.
FLASHBACK ALERT/DISCLAIMER:
Before I go any further, I have to admit, I have a soft spot for Motorola. My very first cell phone in 2000 was a Motorola StarTAC with the flimsy antenna and the sleek (for the time) from factor. It was the first phone that was truly pocket-able. It clearly set itself from the Zack Morris bricks of the 90’s and became the new status symbol. Sure, it only handled phone calls (on Analog service) but it was pretty. I still vividly remember unboxing it and manually inputting contacts while I snuggled up with the User Manual on my couch. Ahh, memories. I’m sorry to say that its life came to a tragic end at the fate of a car tire. It was subsequently replaced by almost a dozen LG phones. Although they were all more advanced, they never had that same magic as the StarTAC.
The Phone Analogy
Motorola had another big hit in the mid 2000’s with the RAZR and all its incarnations. But this phone was a big fish in a small pond, and the water was quickly evaporating. Slim and sleek would soon give way to robust and capable. Blackberries became the object of lust for many as soon as they shrunk down to reasonable sizes. Users wanted to do more with their phones than talk and text. They wanted to easily share pictures and files, play music and movies, etc. They needed essential email communication for business. Enter the iPhone: June 2007. The device that set the standard for what future mobile phones should be. From the form to the function, dozens of companies scrambled to imitate, but never duplicate. There’s no question that the iPhone was a monster, but not without some serious initial flaws. If you all remember, many key features were missing from the original, like 3G, MMS and Copy/Paste. Not to mention that it had and still has horrible service. Later iPhones added functionality but still lacked a flash for the camera. The Achilles heels of all the iPhones were targeted by Motorola and Verizon last fall to convince millions of people that the iPhone was just the dumb, good looking jock we were all lusting over, simply because there was no good looking nerd in the class.
If it sounds like I don’t like the iPhone, its because I don’t. I admit, I had a little envy at first, because there simply wasn’t anything nearly as compelling on Verizon for me. And I wasn’t about to leave my beloved Verizon with great service, just to have a pretty phone. So I waited. And waited. I bought the LG Voyager and the LG Dare which were both the flagship touchscreen feature phones in the Verizon ecosystem at the time. But the experience was disappointing. Sure, they looked like iPhones, but they had no guts, no glory. And I wasn’t the only one. Millions of Verizon users longed for something just as spectacular to arrive on their shores. Hell, many of us even jumped ship, enchanted by the sirens from Cupertino. Apple’s brilliant advertising over the years wore many Reds down and eventually made them Blue. I’m glad I stayed and waiting for the fanfare that came with the Droid. I’ll tell you why I was so stubborn:
1. Once you buy Apple products, they only work well with other apple products and software. I don’t like the idea of someone holding my wallet hostage. I didn’t want the iPhone to be my gateway device into Macs and iEverything Else.
2. Steve Jobs is a hypocritical, arrogant prick. Don’t get me wrong, I respect him for making an undeniably great product line, and I accept that a certain level of arrogance and assholiness is necessary for grandure and success. But he lays down the propaganda too thick for my taste, and I don’t want to give him my money, plain and simple. Steve Jobs is to Technology as Kanye West is to Music, as LeBron James is to Basketball. They’re all revolutionaries in their fields, but I wouldn’t introduce them to my grandmother.
Back to the Tablets
The same kind of scenario is being played out now with the tablets. Apple gets a great device to the market first. Dozens of poor imitation attempts are made. And now it’s faults are being used as fuel for Motorola’s fire. If there’s one thing that the teaser above tells us, is that this new device is going to be good. If they’ve spent X amount of dollars on the advertising, it would be safe to assume that they’ve spent XY on research and development, much like the original Droid. Where X equal a lot and Y is a factor of many. Other Hardware companies calculate their budgets with the following equation: XY/Z, where Z equals the amount of mediocre products they put out, so you do the math.
Samsung has made a nice first attempt at the tablet with the Galaxy Tab, but the Android 2.1 its running is clearly the same as any Handset, which doesn’t make perfect sense all the time for a device of that size. Supposedly, the next iteration of Android, codenamed Honeycomb, will be the first to cater specifically to the needs and nuances of tablet devices. I’m already salivating.
What it Means for You
If you’re an early adopter, you probably already have the iPad. But you may have held off buying a tablet because you don’t like Apple and/or you’re waiting for something good in the Android camp. If this is the case, you’re going to be pleasantly surprised by a very capable Motorola device that will clearly rival the iPad if not eclipse it in many respects.
If you’re a reader, it will likely be everything the Kindle is, minus the eye-friendly E-ink screen. You’ll likely be able to easily download tons of books quickly and easily.
If you’re a visual artist, it’s another way to show off your portfolio easily to friends and clients. Graphics are going to be the bread and butter on this thing. Motorola has already made it clear that this device will have some cojones.
The same goes for movie buffs or anyone who likes to watch their TV content on the go. Expect video streaming support from a wide variety of sources both free and paid.
Expect a front facing camera for smooth video chatting on wifi and perhaps LTE 4G.
Expect if to one-up the current iPad in terms of screen resolution, and expect it to be thinner and lighter
Expect it to make Apple nervous and promote competition, which is always great for the consumer.
One last video of this thing in action: