Here’s a rundown of activities taking place in the Android universe.
New ads: A story in Adweek talks about the new ad campaign T-Mobile is rolling out for the myTouch 3G. It features The View’s Whoopi Goldberg, Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson and Jesse James of the Discovery Channel’s Motorcycle Mania series.
Source: Fast Company
The ads carry the tagline, “The first phone that becomes 100 percent you,” and show off features similar to the iPhone and other smart phones. T-Mobile is pitching myTouch as a superior device and claims that it “offers more opportunities for personalization than any other phone.”
Fast Company’s Chris Dannen’s take on the campaign is a worthwhile read (“The Google Phone’s Ad Campaign Bites, Here’s How to Give it Teeth”):
“The ads have plenty to boast about–the myTouch 3G is a great device, and Android is an excellent system–but they stop short of saying what they should. If they’re going to beat Apple at the smartphone game, they have to engage in the dirty business of telling customers how Apple screws over once-happy iPhone buyers. T-Mobile thinks that it’ll succeed by telling customers they can make the myTouch “100% You.” But all we really want is to be left alone, to install what we want and use our phones as we like”
…With the hardware maker (HTC) nowhere in this ad copy, the myTouch 3G feels a little like an off-brand iPhone imitator. It wouldn’t hurt to emphasize that this thing has plenty of speed and memory to go around, and it’s expandable to 32GB. People don’t just like apps; they love the iPhone because of the iPhone, the device itself.
Motorola To Host Android Event Sept. 10 In San Francisco
This week, Motorola emailed invitations to reporters to hear more about its Android strategy at an event scheduled for September 10 in San Francisco. Apparently, Motorola Mobile Devices CEO, Sanjay Jha will be making an announcement regarding its Android portfolio during his keynote at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference in San Francisco. After it, Motorola will host a cocktail reception to enable time with Motorola executives and product experts.
According to MocoNews.com, Motorola has said it will launch two handsets based on the Android operating system in time for the busy fourth-quarter shopping blitz, and over the past few months, it has been busy recruiting developers to create applications for their devices.
CNET’s Taylor Wimberly said (“What we might see at Moto’s Android event“) he expected to see an appearance from two rumored Motorola phones, the Morrison and Sholes.
The Morrison should launch on T-Mobile later this year. It will feature the same CPU as the first two Android phones (G1 and MyTouch), but will offer several enhancements that should make it a desirable phone.
Sholes is the codename for the upcoming Android phone for Verizon Wireless. The handset should aim for the high-end user and usher in the second generation of Android devices. Moto has chosen the Texas Instruments OMAP3430 platform to power the Sholes, which would make it the fastest Android phone to date. The OMAP3430 features a 600MHz CPU and is the same platform that supports the Palm Pre.
Freemium Works: Most Paid Mobile App Buyers Used Free Version First
According to AdMob’s July 2009 Mobile Metrics Report, the most-cited reason users purchased applications was because they liked the free version of the app — demonstrating that free-to-paid conversions fare well in the app market.
Also, 19% of Android users regularly download one or more paid apps a month — compared to 50% of iPhone users and 40% of iPod touch users.
What’s New? What’s Hot?
At the MobiHand Android App Store, new apps include:
- Funny Eggs ($1.99), a very fun, simple and addictive arcade game.
- e-Mobile GTask ($9.95), a powerful task manager
- PaderSyncFM – Android ($29.99), an all-in-one FTP, SFTP, WebDAV and SMB client.
- Patrik’s Cocktails ($3.99), a guide to the 50 best classic cocktails.
Details on Newest Apps can be found here. You can also see the Best Selling Android apps by going here.
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