Pre vs. iPhone - part 2

The saga of the Apple iPhone vs. the Palm Pre continues. (To read my first blog post on the matter, click here.) One week after Apple issued the iTunes 8.2.1 update, which blocked non-Apple smartphones (i.e. the Pre) from syncing with iTunes, Palm issued an update of its own. Among other features, the Palm webOS 1.1 re-enables iTunes synchronization. Of course.

I like Apple. It's a good company; it makes good products. Apple rose to fame for good reason - it consistently offered excellent functionality and beautiful, simple design, all for the purpose of providing the best possible user experience.

In personal computing, Apple's graphics remain unparalleled. In digital music, Apple's iPod is to MP3 players as Kleenex is to facial tissues. But in mobile communications, as Anders Bylund of The Motley Fool points out, Apple's iPhone is not the only viable smartphone anymore. The iPhone may or may not remain the best option, but it is certainly no longer the only one.

Mr. Bylund's article of yesterday reminds readers of Apple's famous "1984" Super Bowl commercial, which introduced the Macintosh computer to the world. In the ad, Apple was presented as the young, independent hero who would free the world from the reign of an Orwellian "Big Brother" IBM.

But 25 years later, as Mr. Bylund notes, Apple's recent actions seem more characteristic of "Big Brother" than of the young hero. Bylund has some intriguing speculation into why Apple might be acting this way, but I'll let you read his thoughts on your own.

My only comment is that Apple just needs to stop being so unfriendly. Stop doing things like preventing non-Apple smartphones from syncing with iTunes, and shutting down iPhone apps that use Google Voice. These actions may be within Apple's rights, but they are unbecoming to a company that once prided itself on fighting Big Brother.

So other smartphones are now competitive with the iPhone. So what? Apple knew it would happen. The proper response is not to try to stop the progress of competitors' models - progress which, by the way, attests to the excellence of Apple's products by piggybacking on iTunes and the iPhone. Rather, Apple should stop worrying about competitors and return its focus to pursuing excellence and innovation in function, design, and user experience.

That focus is what made Apple great, and that focus will enable Apple to keep pushing greatness forward. To borrow words from Satchel Paige, don't look back to see what might be gaining on you. Keep pushing forward.

Free Movie Tickets? Where?!?

Sprint sure is doing some interesting things to promote the new Palm Pre. First there were the series of commercials for Sprint's Now Network ("the first wireless 4G network"); I first saw these spots in May at my local movie theater.

The Now Network commercials were paired with home page takeovers on sites like Yahoo, YouTube, and AOL.

Next came the "Flow" commercials for the Palm Pre itself; these commercials have been deemed "creepy" by my new favorite mobile marketing blogger, Steve Smith.

Then there is the Palm Pre website which reflects the setting of the "Flow" commercial, and which invites visitors to, among other things, "Experience the Pre ad campaign" (italics mine).

Additionally, when a person turns on the Palm Pre for the first time, they see another beautifully done video in the same earthy, "flowy" feel as the television ads.

And now Sprint has launched the "r8 it" campaign, which gives participating movie-goers in a chance to win a year's supply of free movie tickets when they rate the movies they see. Viewers can rate the movies and view poll results on the National CineMedia website NCM.com, or, better yet, via the mobile "r8 it" app.

Sprint is also partnering with ScreenVision to install interactive kiosks in 500 movie theaters across the nation. Sprint subscribers can use the kiosks to download mobile coupons for the concession stand.

So, is this intense marketing effort working?

Well, for one thing, Media Intelligencer reports that the award-winning integrated campaign was successful in sparking early interest in the Pre. According to comScore, search terms related to the Pre doubled to 216,000 during the week of the YouTube takeover campaign. That number dropped after the release of the iPhone 3G S, but rebounded in the two weeks after the Pre was released.

Another clue is the Apple iTunes 8.2.1 update, which prevents non-Apple smartphones from synchronizing with iTunes. The Palm Pre's much-anticipated ability to sync with iTunes lasted for little more than one month before Apple blocked it. Is Apple nervous about the new iPhone competitor? Or just annoyed?

It will be interesting to see how the Palm Pre fares in the smartphone market. If it succeeds as a viable iPhone rival, perhaps Sprint's extensive campaign(s) will have had something to do with it.