I think you are missing the point. You are saying the Storm didn't have the same support as the Droid from Verizon. That is my point..are you sure you are reading my response properly?
They were hyping the Storm before its release as if it was an "iPhone killer." Unfortunately upon its release, its weaknesses were too much to actually continue to promote and before you know it they let the phone die, as BB knew it was already coming out with a Storm 2.
I think you aren't understanding my point. In all the BB Storm commercials prior to its release, it never really hyped it as being the iPhone Killer. Not once. It hyped it as being the first Blackberry with a touchscreen, a radical change from what most people associate the Blackberry with, a device with a small screen, dinky keyboard. Now you have it where it is bigger screen, you can 'click' on the touch screen because it actually clicks, versus some little trackball or wheel that the older blackberries used to do.
Most users of the blackberry also didn't really browse the web, and they showed it could, especially with a bigger screen. The thing is, it was also simulated for people to see what it could do, but in all seriousness, the ads never, once, made the Blackberry Storm seem like an iPhone killer, not even with regards to media.
The follow up Storm 2 also never claimed that. It stated it was continuing with the basic design with improvements, especially on the OS level. The problem still, is that it is STILL not an iPhone killer. The browser is still not as zippy as the iPhone or even the Droid. I web browse on my droid more than on the storm because it is simply FASTER going to the same places on the same network.
The Blackberry Storm is still a good business based Smartphone out of the box in comparison to the Droid or the iPhone for the most part.
Companies like HTC and Samsung have never had the courage to go head to head. And most of the companies are forced to promote on their own terms, not from the support of the carrier. As I have been saying about the Passion, HTC releases more phones than flavors of candy and ice-cream so they have no incentive in promoting one phone over another to the extent that Verizon just hyped the Droid. (HTC consistently releases great, B+ phones but the masses can't name their flagship model. Why? Poor marketing and they are forced to do it on their own. No carrier has taken HTC under their wing to promote like Verizon just did with "the" Droid.
Actually, HTC never really made that much of an impression in general. You do realize that they are also new to the market, where Nokia, Motorola are more well known mostly for their phones, Samsung, LG and Apple are capitalizing on their own branding outside of the phones as well. There are also several phones under various makers on all the Providers that are also not heavily advertised nor has Blackberry gone out of its way to go head to head with Apple to claim being an iPhone killer with even their newer Blackberry models because their focus is primarily in the Business niche with some consumer pokings. The iPhone has always reign supreme with regards to how they are perceived by both design fashion and simply how they marketed their products in general, which was 'simplicity' for the average person.
When you look at the HTC commercials, they are trying to appeal to people's desire of something anakin to themselves, hence their whole ad with 'The phone that gets you.' and T-Mobile's Google/HTC MyTouch commercial of the various celebrities having their own look' to their phone. But not ONCE did T-mobile who BACKED the HTC MyTouch or HTC in general claim to be an iPhone killer or BE an iPhone competitor.
Now for the first time Apple and AT&T have had no choice but to respond. You think they like responding to another carrier and phone? It gives that phone credence and credit and brings more attention to the war. They knew that for the first time Verizon had the opportunity to seize on the Droid's strengths without any true glaring weaknesses. They didn't want to be a punching bag so they responded.
Actually, AT&T was hoping to make Verizon STOP the coverage map ads with the lawsuit, because the map depiction they were showing put them in a bad light. And I never once said they didn't have to react to the commercials, they rarely had to back themselves up until the campaign from Verizon attacking their map and the Droid commercials attacking the iPhone made them not look like the iPhone or their network was worth being with. Anyone who wants to keep business would have to deflect or counter those attacks regardless.
You think it took a genius to come up with the idea to attack the iPhone in ads to grab attention? Give me a break. It's just the first time a phone actually had the potential to back it up (in the minds of the consumers).
Personally, I could care less about marketing strategies. If you fall prey to propaganda then you are like a sheep grazing in a pasture.
And No, I never said it took a genius to come up with the idea. However, it was SMART of them to set it up like a viral ad, much better than the way they displayed the HTC generic commercial of 'The phone that gets you' bit or the T-mobile's MyTouch showing celebrities passing a phone around and it showing a different screen.
The basis of those commercials are just too blah, it gives no real impression of what the phone does. The "iDon't" commercial, while it showed NOTHING about the phone, or the fact it was a phone, did one thing that those TWO commercials failed to do besides just attacking the iPhone. It prompted curiosity. Plain, simple, human curiosity. Just like ANY viral based commercial, it prompts people to go, "What is that... What is that all about?"
The MyTouch Commercial... Woop. You can customize the phone and it runs google. BFD. It didn't display it would be able to play music... At most, you could take pictures, make it look nice (like you can do with other phones with wallpaper capability) and Web Browsing with google support. And in all seriousness... THAT IS ALL YOU GET FROM THE COMMERCIAL.
The HTC Ad. Again... You see you can make the phone interface look nice, but you don't know what else it can do. AGAIN, THAT IS ALL YOU GET FROM THE COMMERCIAL.
Everyone knows about the Blackberry because of the ads, most of them reference some of the basics about it, and it has ingrained itself under the Business section and slowly going into the Consumer market, but in general you only understand the basics of the Blackberry and given the iPhone came out AFTER the Blackberry, the Blackberry is playing catchup to come close to the simplicity of what makes the iPhone such a consumer level smartphone for the 'normal' user versus a business user.
The Droid "iDon't" commercial actually makes for the case of being the consumer level iPhone competitor better than any other one, as I stated before, because of the viral marketing.
