“Motorola’s Droid, the big touch-screen phone that made its closely watched sales debut at Verizon stores earlier this month, arrived to a mixed reception. It was quickly apparent that the $200 device, powered by Google Android technology, wasn’t going to immediately — or possibly ever — knock the iPhone off its pedestal,” Moritz reports.
MacDailyNews Take: That much was obvious regardless of what Motorola produced.
Moritz continues, “Droid is many things, but it isn’t a blockbuster… But the Pre phone at Sprint started with less than a bang and has been nothing but a whimper since. The Droid’s arrival has effectively crowded Palm out of market. And whatever the Droid didn’t accomplish, Pre’s price cuts and the cheaper Pixi phone will.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup, in this headline, you get two, count ’em, two “beleaguereds” for the price of one; just like BlackBerries at Verizon.
T-Mobile is very silent in the midst of all this smartphone rollout. Are they going to come up with some surprise or is the G1 their climax?
More of the Beleague of ordinary gentlemen…
or is it B League?
I enjoy your commentary, but enough with the ‘beleaguered’ already. ; )
These words also work: troubled, pressured, failing
I think the droid looks like a nice phone. It’s no iPhone killer, but it does seem nice.
And Bill, don’t bother asking MDN to stop with the beleaguing, it’s like a trademark…
I think Scott Moritz secretly reads MDN and steals the articles, or at least some of the descriptions. I love that word btw, beleaguered.
Bill, looks like you have not been around MDN for a while.
Beleaguered befits all of them…
beleaguered
Sounds like a good user name for a Zune Tang wanna be.
Any takers?
Hey MDN,
Ignore the nay-sayers and keep those beleaguered coming!
the PRE on verizon would outsell the DROID. The PRE is a lot more consumer friendly and pocket friendly. It is much easier to learn. It’s no iPhone, but it is def. closer than the droid.
Beleaguered is a great word, communicating instantly the “rooster proud, now trampled” transformation.
I’m almost looking forward to the next skyrocket – the sudden swoosh upward, followed by the tumbling fizzle.
“Yup, in this headline, you get two, count ’em, two “beleaguereds” for the price of one….”
Try to work in a “befuddled” sometime–it’s a great word too (and under-used).
Beleaguered makes me all warm and fuzzy in my shorts.
“Beleaguered” has a special meaning for those of us who have followed Apple for longer than we care to admit. Before the return of Steve Jobs, EVERY article in the tech press referred to Apple as “beleaguered”. It got really tired to see.
Now that the shoe is on several other feet, it NEVER gets old to have “beleaguered” used to refer to other companies who were circling like vultures ready to gloat at the demise of Apple. (Keep up the good work MDN!)
Kind of like S.I.D.A.G.T.M.B.T.T.S. popping up whenever Dull™ announces another factory closing. Priceless.
The Droid 256mb for apps issue sums up the ‘one OS – many hardware makers’ problems.
This ridiculous scenario just demonstrates that too many cooks spoil the broth…
Moritz is a total dumbass. Accidentally got it right this time.
Gawd I love today’s headlines!!!
Abusolutely loving it!!!
Also an old-timer who enjoys seeing the beleaguered titles, keep’em coming.
As good as the Droid is, I think it’s the pinnacle of the Android platform. The fracturing of the platform is just beginning, and the developers are soon to realize the impending problems.
The different screen configurations and hardware capabilities are going to be a nightmare. New applications will have two choices, support the lowest common denominator or spent 3-4x the effort designing and developing the application to handle the issues.
I remember when I was doing a lot of web development, a key decision was what was the minimum resolution required for the web site, which of course migrated from 640×480 to 800×600 to 1024×768. So many times great designs and options would have to be trashed to accommodate the losers on their ancient computers.
MDN, can’t get enough of that word beleaguered!!! Yeah baby!!!
Anyone criticizing the word beleaguered doesn’t know what they are talking about. Thank you, WindozeKiller, for explaining what they need to know.
@ron,
eewww….
But how does this affect beleaguered Nokia?
That’s the problem with these young whipper snappers! They ain’t taught no history. MDN ought to asterisk its use of “Beleaguered” and place a boilerplate footnote explanation of why it is music to our ears. Those new to Apple need to know the lore.
Just a reminder, Scott Moritz and theStreet.com are owned by Jim Cramer, and they have often used their bully pulpit to bash Apple with ridiculous claims. Remember who floated the rumor of a 1M iPhones sold goal at the iPhone launch in 2007? That was Moritz and theStreet.com.
I agree, ‘beleaguered’ needs to be used as regularly as possible (and practical).
For those who don’t know or understand why we like this word so much, read what WindozeKiller has posted…
Thank you and goodnight.
@ WindozeKiller
It’s more than that. For quite some time, long after Steve’s return made Apple profitable again and on the rise, the Windows slanted “analyst” in the media continued to use the word beleaguered whenever they wrote about Apple as a way to discount what Apple was doing. As a result, many in the non tech press continued to also use the word long after it was no longer appropriate.
Kind of like IT monkey see monkey do in the Windows world.
I love the word “beleaguered”!!!!
Shove it in their face and down their throats.
If you don’t understand why, then you don’t understand the history of the word beleaguered and how it relates to Apple.
Ahhh, beleagured…
Yes, I’ve been with Apple since the eighties, and I remember when they were deemed to be so.
I never stopped my Apple evangelism though. In the late nineties people would say stuff like, “I heard they were going out of business,” or “Are they still around?”
I also remember Michael Dell’s picture on Steve’s dart board.
My, how times have changed.
I use to hate Macs. Then I had to use the new Mac Classic II when it came out. Been hooked ever since. It has been a wonderful ride. We ain’t beleaguered no more.
If you are new to Mac, be sure to check out:
http://www.folklore.org/
Full of great stories.
Forget the cow bell, more beleaguered!
“I swear to God I’m going to pistol whip the next guy who says ‘beleaguered’…”
“Beleaguered”
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beleaguered’.beleaguered’.beleaguered’.beleaguered’.beleaguered’.
ogre – whip me…please.
Beleaguered, Bothered, and Befuddled.
I love the smell of beleaguered in the morning … It smells like victory!
…”T-Mobile is very silent in the midst of all this smartphone rollout.”
Silverhawk, Have you NOT seen the massive advertising for “MyTouch (by Google)”? They got several well-known Hollywood people plugging it (Molly Shanon, Chevy Chase, Woopie Goldberg, Dana Carvey and several others).
It is called HTC Magic in non-US markets, and is essentially the same as G1 except:
No physical keyboard (thus thinner)
Longer battery life.
Other things are same (same RAM, same ROM, same screen size/pixel count, same microSD card size — 4GB, same HSDPA/HSUPA, WiFi and BlueTooth, same camera…). And same OS (Android 1.5, a step below Droid’s 2.0).
@ Predrag
And T- mobile is the only other major US carrier that could put the Iphone on their network now. T-Mobile and AT&T;are GSM
And for All those Verizon folks that wish for a CDMA I-phone- keep wishing. It ain’t gonna happen. Why?
Globally GSM is 80% – CDMA and others – 20% . Only in the US is CDMA and others about 67%of the users, and 33% GSM. –
( source: Wireless Intelligence 4Q08). Apple doesnt’ think nationally but globally so – Why should the spend r&d;resources on developing a phone that will only work in 20% and the Cell networks in the world.
IHaving said that ,I wish that T-mobile would carry the I-phone like the already do in Germany, Just so that there was some price competition between two carriers. Plus more G3 Network
CDMA is no obstacle. Chipsets have long existed and are extremely cheap, as is the engineering. Apple most certainly does NOT need to re-invent the wheel. Many phone makers have done this many times before (same model, two variants — GSM, CDMA).
Apple is locked in with AT&T due to the massive subsidy. All other smartphones fetch up to $250 from the carriers in up-front subsidy, which is then recovered by the carrier through the $70+ monthly voice+data plan over 18-20 months. Apple is getting $450 from AT&T. That subsidy cannot be recovered during the term of the initial two-year contract (it takes around 30 months to get it back).
If T-Mobile (or anyone else) also got the iPhone, AT&T would immediately have to lower that subsidy. Otherwise, they would risk never getting it back, since customers tend to jump carriers often, whenever there’s a good enough incentive (free or cheap phone, better plan). If people end up jumping to T-Mobile, they’d leave their iPhones behind (you can’t hand the old iPhone down to your kid if you have a family plan on T-Mobile). Most of those iPhones will end up in drawers, or overseas. Most of them won’t continue to recover that subsidy.
Until Apple figures out how to significantly reduce manufacturing costs, and accept reducing margins a bit, we won’t see multiple carriers in the US. Nobody wants to pay $400 for an iPhone; today, $200 is the upper limit.
@Predrag
“Apple is getting $450 from AT&T;. That subsidy cannot be recovered during the term of the initial two-year contract (it takes around 30 months to get it back).”
Can you provide a source for the 30 month recovery info?
Sigh. Ok, Fine. I’ll be the one to say it;
B…b…b…but but but multi-tasking!
There now are you all happy?