I just saw a T-Mobile commercial for the myTouch 3G smartphone. It features Whoopi Goldberg, Phil Jackson, and Jessie James passing around the phone. The tagline at the end of the commercial is “The first phone that becomes 100% you”.

My wife didn’t see this commercial but I’m sure she would have said, “everyone in that marketing department needs to be fired”, as she often does after watching a bad commercial. I would wholeheartedly agree with her in this instance.

Now to be fair, from a technical standpoint and what I know about the phone and the Google Android platform, the myTouch 3G is a nice phone with some nice features. But let’s face it, nice phones don’t win. Not since the iPhone come on the market at least. Marketers must face the stark reality that nearly everyone will compare their product to the iPhone and you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

I think most average users will see a commercial like this and yawn. Great, more celebrities. They’re passing around a phone. Cheesy music in the background. The phone can show pictures and video – been there, done that. What the heck does “becoming 100% you” mean? Why should I spend a second of my time considering this phone instead of the iPhone?

If phones like this stand any chance of being moderately successful, the marketing efforts surrounding the phones need to focus on showing users how the phones are better or at least on par with the iPhone. They need to show how the phones solve everyday problems quickly and elegantly. Basically, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, they just need to copy the formula of the iPhone commercials for the near future. Of course, this doesn’t often play well with marketing departments, so look for my wife to continue to call for more mass-firings.

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According to various rumors on the Internet, Apple is planning to release their iPhone on the Sprint network as early as next summer. While nothing has been confirmed, the news has surprised a lot of industry experts, who had been expecting a possible announcement for the Verizon network, if anything at all.

Now before I continue this story, I must wonder how many of you are reading this with various levels of excitement and anticipation. Did the headline grab your attention? Did you think to yourself, “this is really big news” or “I’m on Sprint and now I can have an iPhone!” Are you still in a state of disbelief?

Well, I hate to break it to you, but the headline and first paragraph are completely made up. Let’s just call this a little experiment testing how strong of a hold the iPhone has on the market. Please read on and see if you can help me with my experiment!

I had this idea as I was contemplating an article that shows sales of the Palm Pre have slowed since its launch in June. If the findings by Wall Street analysts are correct, it would seem that the Palm Pre simply filled some pent-up demand for an advanced smartphone in the Sprint market. Likely, the Palm Pre sold well among more technical users but not much beyond that. Why isn’t the Palm Pre selling well? Is their marketing not hitting the mainstream market as I’ve theorized in two previous articles (Pre-view, Pre-judging Palm’s Ads)? Or is the mainstream simply not interested in the Pre? If they aren’t interested in the Pre, is it because they really want an iPhone instead?

While this “experiment” is far from scientific, I would like you to comment on this article, sharing your initial reaction when you first thought that the iPhone would be available on Sprint’s network (and then what you thought when I revealed it as a hoax!). I’m curious what an average person on the street thinks of the iPhone and its competitors.

Another thought that crossed my mind was that if Apple really wanted to kill the Pre, all they would need to do was float a rumor that the iPhone would be available on Sprint (or Verizon or any carrier that doesn’t yet have the iPhone but has or will have the Pre). My theory is that many people would hold off on purchasing a Pre if given the possibility that an iPhone was around the corner. I wonder if people are doing it anyway, not knowing that the odds of an iPhone on Sprint are very slim for the foreseeable future.

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Being a business owner, I take an interest in observing how companies market themselves. Being in the technology business, I take a even keener view how technology companies market themselves. This is why I’ve written a few articles about Palm and Sprint’s marketing of the Palm Pre smartphone.

I’ve watched the latest series of Pre ads over the last couple of weeks. The thing that struck me was the abstract nature of the ads. They feature a young woman sharing various deep thoughts about her Pre. Honestly, I didn’t think they were very good because I thought they lacked substance. I don’t think the “existential” nature of the ads are very effective in giving people a reason to go out and buy a Pre.

I purposefully didn’t say anything about the ads to my wife, as I wanted to get an unsolicited reaction out of her. She is a business consultant, so I take her opinion on matters of marketing seriously. Sure enough, just a couple of days ago, she noticed the ad and commented that it was the worst ad she had ever seen in her life. Now, granted, she uses the phrase “… ever seen in her life” quite a bit, but the fact that she said it means she feels quite strongly about it.

I must wonder, who is Palm trying to attract with these ads? Is the market segment that is influenced by “touchy-feely” ads the same market segment that will run out and buy Pre phones? Is this market segment large enough? Apparently, there are many people that feel these ads are actually creepy and/or annoying.

Again, let’s compare the Apple iPhone “there’s an app for that” series of ads. They are simple, straightforward, and effective. Apple’s ads can be summed up in this way: “look at how many things the iPhone can do and how easy and cool it is to do those things.” Then of course, there’s the tagline: “There’s an app for just about anything … only on the iPhone.”

On a side note, it seems the latest iPhone ads are much louder than other commercials. Is this a purposely subliminal design by Apple? I’ve certainly noticed the commercials because the initial loudness does interrupt my general lack of attentiveness when TV commercials are running. Then once I’ve noticed them, my inner-geek keeps me watching. If this was done on purpose, kudos to Apple for implementing such a brain-dead simple way to get people to notice their commercials.

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Hot off the virtual presses, RIM has announced that they will be releasing a Mac version of their Blackberry Desktop Manager software for the Mac in September. You can read the full announcement on the Official BlackBerry Blog.

For as long as the BlackBerry has been in the market*, the lack of Mac support has been a glaring omission. Mac users have had to resort to various 3rd party utilities to sync their BlackBerries with no support from RIM.

Two things to consider: Is RIM introducing Mac support in an effort to head off the growth of the iPhone in the ever increasing base of Mac users? And will this introduction make more businesses consider the Mac?

As more users are switching to the Mac, the lack of support for the BlackBerry could be leading to those users switching to the iPhone as well. It would be interesting to find out if RIM has any data bearing this out. By introducing Mac support, they may figure that users can keep their BlackBerries when they switch to the Mac.

In contrast, those businesses who are heavily vested in the BlackBerry platform may have been holding off on considering the Macintosh due to the lack of Mac support from RIM. Now that RIM will officially support the Mac, those businesses may now take another look at the Mac. Interestingly, I’ve read studies that show Mac users are more likely to buy an iPhone. So wouldn’t it be ironic if by supporting the Mac, RIM is opening the door for more iPhone sales?

On a related note, I wonder to what extent the complete lack of BlackBerry support (along with lukewarm support from Palm) over the years played into Apple’s decision to create the iPhone. Perhaps the moral of the story is that those tech vendors who don’t support the Mac run the risk of Apple deciding to make their own competing product.

*I have a long history with the BlackBerry. I visited the (then small) RIM production facility in Canada back in 2001 as part of an evaluation for Anheuser-Busch (where I worked at the time). This was during the time of the original BlackBerry device, which was shaped like a large pager and was an e-mail only device. However, it was very advanced for the time and in part due to the evaluation our team performed, A-B started deploying the BlackBerry across the company. When I left the company a year later, one of the hardest things I had to do was give up my BlackBerry.

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I just saw a commercial for Sprint where they highlight the Palm Pre. Two things I remember from this commercial is that they mention the “revolutionary Web OS” and running multiple live applications at the same time (which sounds neat, but do average users know or care enough to make this a big selling point?) and that Palm Pre users save a significant amount over AT&T iPhone users.

I must wonder if this is what Palm wants their Pre to be known for – being cheaper than the iPhone. Certainly the “money-saving” theme is very popular in today’s economy, but are smartphone buyers the right target market for a money saving ad? My initial thought is that if someone cares more about the cost of a plan than the actual phone, they probably aren’t shopping for a Pre or an iPhone. But if they were, would they care more that they are saving about $50/month or that there is a $99 iPhone as compared to the $199 Pre? Positioning themselves as the low-cost player could backfire in this case, and it certainly does not help them out in the long run.

On a side note, as I type this Jimmy Fallon is now doing a skit where he parodies iPhone apps. I can’t imagine this happening with any other phone (or any other tech device for that matter). I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it – no other device stands a chance of unseating the iPhone until they can compete with the Apple App Store. And if the iTunes music store serves as any sort of precedent, it may be a good long while before they can.

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There’s a commercial on TV for the Palm Pre that’s been playing since the weekend it was released. It caught my attention because it was techie-looking and it showed the FaceBook logo, but I had no idea what I was looking at or what it was advertising until the end of the commercial (well, I thought it was a FaceBook commercial). Then they mention that the Web OS “lives in realtime” and it “constantly updates multiple live applications”. I have a pretty good idea of what all that means because I’m in the technology business and I’ve read articles about the device. But when I first listed to the commercial, even I was asking myself, “say what?” I can just imagine the giant whooshing noise of this going over everyone else’s head.

Contrast this to Apple’s “There’s an App for that” series of commercials. You clearly know that each commercial is about the iPhone right away. Each app profile quickly defines a problem then shows clearly how the app solves that problem. And each commercial shows about 3 apps, reinforcing each time just how useful the iPhone can be in a way than an average person can easily comprehend.

If Palm wants to sell the Pre to a market larger than techies, they had better start making some better commercials.

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June 6th, 2009 was the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the allied invasion of German-controlled France during World War II. It was also the day that the highly anticipated Palm Pre smartphone was released on Sprint’s network. Many people are noting the potential symbolism of this date for both Palm and Sprint.

The analogy is that the iPhone has so quickly and thoroughly dominated the smartphone market, it has been like the German Blitzkrieg of Europe. Palm, the originator and former leader of the PDA/smartphone market, has been pushed to the brink of irrelevance by its competition. Sprint, a once powerful player in the wireless industry, has fallen upon tough times lately, hemorrhaging customers over the last few years. The fact that the iPhone is only available on AT&T’s network has certainly contributed to Sprint’s troubles. The Pre will either be these companies’ last desperate gasp, or the bold attack that will lead them back into contention. June 6th may have been a D-Day for both Palm and Sprint, but unlike the Allied attack, the outcome of this battle is far from certain.

There are many detailed reviews and articles analyzing the significance of the Pre, as a quick Internet search will show. And the hype surrounding the device is causing a lot of polarization. Many are pitting the Pre against the iPhone in an all-or-nothing struggle, as if there can be only one smartphone in the market. Of course, this is silly, as there is yet plenty of room for competitors. However, perception can be reality and if the Pre does not make a big splash, the media attention the iPhone juggernaut generates could very well drown out the Pre.

My take is that the Pre is quite advanced and feature-wise can compete with the iPhone. However, as has been proven over and over again in the technology industry, it takes a lot more than good technology to make a product successful (a lesson that Apple learned the hard way and is sure to never forget). The unfortunate fact is that Palm has a lot riding on this device (and Sprint to a lesser degree). In a different time and place, one where Palm was a stronger company and where there was no such thing as an iPhone, the Pre could possibly be extremely successful, or at least appear to be much more successful with no iPhone to compare it to. However, this is 2009 and the iPhone has a 2 year head-start in this “new world” of smartphone market, one which Apple basically created. With the speed that technology has been advancing lately, 2 years is a long time for a product to have gained momentum, and few products in the history of tech have had the type of success that the iPhone has had. Add to that the strength of the Apple App Store and it will take an extraordinary level of success for the Pre to dislodge any significant share of the market from the iPhone.

An interesting subplot to all this is the timing of the release date of the Pre. Palm has decided to release the Pre two days before the keynote speech at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, where is it widely anticipated that Apple will be introducing a new iPhone device, as well as the 3.0 version of the iPhone software. At first glance, it seems unwise to release a new product only 2 days before your competition dominates the media. But some have theorized that this was actually a smart move on Palm’s part, as it allows the Pre to ride the coattails of the iPhone publicity. In effect, Palm will be co-opting Apple’s media exposure, as there will be much made of the comparison between the two devices. A different release date may have not garnered the same amount of media attention. In a kind of preemptive attack, Palm’s gamble may give the Pre the best chance of success.

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Apple quiety released iTunes 8.2, which adds support for an iPhone or iPod Touch with the iPhone 3.0 Software Update. The timing of this release, given that Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) is next week, makes it seem likely that Apple will release the 3.0 update during the WWDC, likely during the Monday morning keynote (10 AM Pacific Time).

Speaking of the WWDC, according to a highly reliable source of mine, Steve Jobs will make a “surprise” appearance at the WWDC, a little ahead of schedule for his return from medical leave of absence.

… Ok, I don’t really have any inside information …  but the source is Steve Chazin, author of the Marketing Apple blog, and former Director of Marketing for Strategic Programs at Apple. In a seemingly unrelated blog post, he quietly writes a single line P.S. stating that Jobs will make a surprise appearance at WWDC. No more, no less. Very interesting.

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