just WHAT is happening with Palm's stock price!

[robbskittles]

Originally Posted by l1fe

Some of the droid ads may be over the top and immature, but at least they don't creep you out with an albino, ghost of a woman. I love my Pre and am not planning on switching any time soon, but the commercials are really kind of embarrassing.

lol'd

[whippingboy]

They may not be "mature" and PC users hate the Mac ads but you know what? Those ads are EFFECTIVE and have converted to sales. You can't say the same for the Pre ads. They need to tout the ease of use and multitasking- Android is a mess and has a lot more similarties to Windows than an intuitive ease of use phone for the masses. Pre has this- but they advertise it terribly.

[katsnuts]

Originally Posted by Version_3

Apparently, you're the target demographic for an Android phone, not the Palm Pre.

As a disclaimer, I like the Palm Pre commercials.

I am in the Pre demographic, but you missed the point of the post. It is not about marketing like the Android, it is about marketing their product better...like Android has already and it's not even out.

[madcow706]

I think the original Pre commercials were the ones about the now network featuring the Pre. Those were good. The current Pre commercials with the lady are from Palm it looks like. Not sure if they are from Sprint. Sprint has been better on advertising, with their now networks ads looking pretty good.

[katsnuts]

Originally Posted by cnote1287

who cares if its immature.....they are still selling products. immature advertising is still better than complete **** advertising

You remember the ad and are talking about it right now = successful advertising.

[NxTech3]

Sprints problem has always been advertising. From the Pre to the Hero, they just dont advertise like everyone else does. HTC advertises the Hero more than Sprint does. Since Palm has an exclusivity agreement, and since they are only focusing on WebOS, and only have two WebOS devices, Palm is going to have a tough time climbing on top unless they release three or four more devices.

And hey lay off the Palm lady, thats my future ex wife!!!!

[cnote1287]

Originally Posted by katsnuts

You remember the ad and are talking about it right now = successful advertising.

what good is the advertising if it doesnt get ppl to WANT the product. ppl can remember a little 30 sec commercial....its successful if it convinces them the buy it.

[wynand32]

For awhile, I tried to give Palm and its advertising agency the benefit of the doubt. After all, bizarre campaigns can work--what Palm needed was to reintroduce their brand, and the whole Synergy, ease of use, etc. theme seemed like a good play. The strangeness of the ads could have been a plus, or a huge minus. One never really knows with such things. In fact, even today, I still think that the biggest problem with the campaign isn't the ads themselves, but with the amount of advertising--there just hasn't been a terribly huge number of ads, which is probably just a direct result of Palm's finances.

It's funny, but I think the most effective "ads," just taken by themselves, were the original teaser videos from before the Pre was released. They showed the Pre's advantages in real-world use, which is where the Pre shines. Feature-laden ads probably wouldn't work--Palm can't (yet) boast about the App Catalog, or the built-in multimedia functionality, or such. But the Palm is such an incredibly useful device _in practice_, which can only be shown by following a person in performing complex tasks simultaneously. If Palm had just done more of those original videos, they might have gotten more traction at this point.

Of course, companies often evaluate their competitors' efforts when putting together their own campaigns. And so, Motorola might have just done what Palm didn't do, and it ends up being pretty powerful. It's also pretty risky, pitting yourself directly against the competition as they have against the iPhone. Palm likely deliberately avoided taking that tack.

[xorg]

Apparently hype doesn't always add up to sales...

Droid Sales on Dull Side | Personal Technology | Financial Articles & Investing News | TheStreet.com

While the marketing for Droid is awesome (one of the better product ads I've seen in a while), it is ultimately a geek phone that is not polished very well. Average consumers will quickly see this even on a demo phone. webOS has a good balance of power and function 'for the rest of us', which is clear on a demo phone at a retail store. When webOS hits ATT/Verizon stores, it will be easier to compare on the spot.

The real test will be to see if major developers support Android more than Pre, especially pop culture consumer products that already have iPhone apps. I won't judge until sometime next year. If Android far exceeds webOS momentum in polished usable apps in one years' time, I very well may make the switch.

If Apple made iPhone more 'open', less proprietary, had multitasking and was on Sprint, I'd only then consider iPhone. But Apple has become the very authoritarian fascists they chastised in their own 1984 commercial.

All that said, webOS still has a good shot. But I'm only giving Palm one more year before I decide if I stick with webOS.

[cmpecos]

I believe the point has been missed...There are effective advertisments and there are ineffective advertisments.

How is the commercial of the Mac-kid stating points of the Microsoft guy immature, it's not, it is an effective commercial that points out the many faults of Microsoft.

How is an ad of 5 F-117 stealth fighters dropping black balls immature? Is it really? It gets your attention doesn't it? It got mine. I would say it's an effective commercial.

I agree that the Pre commercials are ineffective by not showing the "cool" factor of what our Pres can do. Demonstrating how the Pre is better than an i Phone and more.

Calling something mature and immature is not justified here.

[SensorMan]

The german O2 spot was actually pretty great.
If I hadn't that thing preordered - they might have actually sold me on that

[Groovehog]

Originally Posted by katsnuts

Why in the world does that phone make me want it so bad?

One of the main reasons is because the android OS is superior in almost every way and the phones are much higher quality. I had a pre for 3 months and was literally counting the days until the HTC Hero release. I have the Hero now and couldn't be happier. Vastly superior phone, much MUCH more customizable, and the Android market is exploding.

Quit drinking the Palm flavored Cool-aid people, the Pre is a joke.

[GMoney749]

Despite the fact that I own a Pre and had been showing her features on it from the day I got it, my wife never expressed any real interest in the phone until she started seeing those "creepy" ads.

Plus, if you notice, everybody in just about every Sprint ad is using a Pre.

[hparsons]

Originally Posted by bruba

Oh yeah, the iDon't ads are so mature. Just like the cool guy in the mac ads making fun the fat dorky Windows user. So mature.

And the real irony is - the fat dorky guy is really a Mac user, playing a Windows user in the commercial...

[katsnuts]

Originally Posted by xorg

Apparently hype doesn't always add up to sales...

Droid Sales on Dull Side | Personal Technology | Financial Articles & Investing News | TheStreet.com

While the marketing for Droid is awesome (one of the better product ads I've seen in a while), it is ultimately a geek phone that is not polished very well. Average consumers will quickly see this even on a demo phone. webOS has a good balance of power and function 'for the rest of us', which is clear on a demo phone at a retail store. When webOS hits ATT/Verizon stores, it will be easier to compare on the spot.

The real test will be to see if major developers support Android more than Pre, especially pop culture consumer products that already have iPhone apps. I won't judge until sometime next year. If Android far exceeds webOS momentum in polished usable apps in one years' time, I very well may make the switch.

If Apple made iPhone more 'open', less proprietary, had multitasking and was on Sprint, I'd only then consider iPhone. But Apple has become the very authoritarian fascists they chastised in their own 1984 commercial.

All that said, webOS still has a good shot. But I'm only giving Palm one more year before I decide if I stick with webOS.

I have no problem with WebOS, in fact, I think it could be a superior smart-phone OS. Unfortunately, if Sprint/Palm dont get their **** together from a MARKETING standpoint and DRIVE SALES, it wont live to see the day of its full potential.

[KJ78]

don't read too much into the price of a stock unless you are looking for bankruptcy issues.

[hparsons]

Originally Posted by Groovehog

One of the main reasons is because the android OS is superior in almost every way and the phones are much higher quality. I had a pre for 3 months and was literally counting the days until the HTC Hero release. I have the Hero now and couldn't be happier. Vastly superior phone, much MUCH more customizable, and the Android market is exploding.

Quit drinking the Palm flavored Cool-aid people, the Pre is a joke.

Good thing we have Droid users that can tear themselves away from their "exploding" market (long fuse there, huh), and their fantastic machine long enough to come on the Pre forums and share their vast ... wisdom ... with us.

Next.

[hparsons]

Originally Posted by GMoney749

Despite the fact that I own a Pre and had been showing her features on it from the day I got it, my wife never expressed any real interest in the phone until she started seeing those "creepy" ads.

Plus, if you notice, everybody in just about every Sprint ad is using a Pre.

I brought this up at the time, but didn't repeat it since it's really anectdotal, but since you brought it up, I'll repeat it.

Until they all started growing up, I literally lived in a household surrounded by females (four daughters, a wife, and two female cats). Even now, it's my wife, one of the daughters, and her daughter. I asked my wife and all four of my girls what they thought of "creepy lady", and unanimously they said it made them want to look at the Pre. One of the girls is a died in the wool iPhone user, and she said so.

I don't think the folks on here were the "target market" for the creepy lady ads.

[Shadavis08]

did you notice they never really showed what the phone looked like in the droid adds right? i wonder why lol because its ugly plain outright ugly