Verizon iPhone 4 – Seriously? When Brand Overpowers Product

By Marc Piparo, Partner & VP of Technology @ Intellavia (http://www.intellavia.com/), 01/20/2011. Permission to share if source is fully credited.



How do you produce top sales for a product that is not top-of-the-line, most advanced, or a best buy? If projections are correct, the upcoming Verizon iPhone 4 will do just that – the result of exceptional branding, marketing, and of course, advertising. You may be reading this and asking, "wait a second, isn’t the iPhone the best", and that’s precisely the result you’d expect from an incredibly successful brand, such as Apple. As they are consistently first to market with amazing new devices, it’s important to keep in mind that they don’t exactly create any new technology, but creatively integrate existing technologies and brand it like no other.



But staying on top is the real challenge. Surprisingly, Apple devices do not exactly sport the most advanced technologies, but rather the most stable and proven. For example, the upcoming iPhone 4 release from Verizon. The device will not work on the latest advanced 4G (4th Generation) Verizon LTE network, but rather the existing (about 10x slower) 3G network. Why? The reason given by Apple is that they do not feel that the 4G technology is mature enough yet and the necessary chipset would hamper their design. Fair enough. Apple has always led with design over technology, and are proud of it. But the impressive part is outselling technology based devices that are clearly more advanced technically than your less advanced device. That, is branding and marketing. And along with design it’s Apples other core strength – So you should expect the iPhone 5 (that’s 4G compatible) to hit store shelves in another 6 or so months – brilliant marketing.



In the next few months, a slew of 4G devices will be arriving, many touting the Android operating system, an open-platform that to say the least is the antithesis of the iPhone iOS platform. The features list of these devices should read like a nail in the coffin for the iPhone, but for some reason, it doesn’t. Well, not some reason, we all know what that reason is…the brand. Let’s take just one of the new 4G devices, the Droid Thunderbolt, by the manufacturer HTC. It out-classes the iPhone in almost every possible way. So here’s the short list…it’s on a network that is 10x faster, bigger screen, true video chat (without the need to be on your home or public WiFi network), supports Flash (and despite how much as Steve Jobs would like to see Flash go away, it will be around on websites for sometime), turn-by-turn navigation, Swype keyboard, FM radio, expandable memory (microSD card), removable battery, USB based, and did we mention it’s based on an open platform operating system, which provides for a much easier deployment of apps? And speaking of apps, which tends to be the sticking point for many, it’s true that the Apple appStore has over 300,000 apps while the Android Marketplace only has, umm, over 100,000 apps. And besides the point, I am not aware of a single worth-while app that has not also be ported to Android, so I consider the app argument moot.



But I digress, the purpose of this article is not to demonstrate that the newer Android phones exhibit more advanced technology than the iPhone, but to describe the immense role of marketing and branding in the technology sector. We are seeing a new era in technology branding, and just as others have jumped aboard the Apple bandwagon in design and device manufacturing, many have seen the light, and are becoming increasingly Apple-esque in their branding and marketing. The Verizon Droid campaign is a great example, along with HTC, an OEM manufacturer that most people haven’t even heard of before (even though they have been making mobile phones before the iPhone was even dreamed-up), are advertising and marketing like never before for an OEM.



The facts are that the public consumer is becoming increasingly more educated than ever before (you can thank the internet for that, especially when it’s in the palm of your hand). And therefore the importance of branding and marketing in the technology sector is growing every day. No longer is enough to create amazing new technology and devices and think it can stand on its own. Without proper branding, outreach, marketing, and advertising, it will just go the way of the Apple Newton (you see, even mighty Apple can fail).



http://www.intellavia.com/