Verizon Droid unleashed on NYC: 'We're gonna need more phones'
Filed under: Company News, Technology, Google , Motorola, Apple, Verizon
After weeks of build-up, Verizon Communications's (VZ) Verizon Wireless unleashed its new Google (GOOG)-powered Droid smartphone on Friday, and New York City retailers were selling out of the device -- billed as the first legitimate challenger to Apple's (AAPL) iPhone's first legitimate challenger -- on the first day."We're gonna need more phones," Amanda Leavelle, a Verizon Wireless store manager in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, said around 2 p.m. "I just checked, and our inventory is running low, so I've got to call for some more."
The Droid, a sleek touchscreen phone with a slide-out keyboard, is set to provide former cell-phone leader Motorola (MOT) with a crucial boost as it enters the all-important holiday season.
Droid-hunting consumers filled retail outlets across America's largest city Friday, many arriving at 7 a.m. to wait outside the SoHo store in the chilly fall weather. That location had the additional advantage of being smack in the path of the hundreds of thousands of New York Yankees fans, who filled lower Manhattan to honor the World Series champions with a parade.
"When the parade ended, the traffic just exploded in here," Leavelle said, as blue-and-white-clad Yankee fans roamed her store. She said she has recently joined Verizon Wireless after a job on Wall Street -- and that Friday afternoon's traffic was "four times" the average she'd seen since starting.
Meanwhile, at the Best Buy (BBY) electronics store just north of Houston Street, consumers who had pre-ordered the Droid eagerly awaited the chance to pick up their new phone. A store manager said the outlet was only filling pre-orders; no Droids are available for walk-ins.
Andy Kim, 25, a video -game developer, said he was attracted to the Droid by Android, Google's open-source mobile operating system, which has gained remarkable traction in the two years since it was launched. Kim has planned to switch from his Verizon Wireless BlackBerry to the Droid -- the iPhone never entered into the equation. "I would never get AT&T" (ATT), Kim said.
Kim was not swayed by Apple's recent boast of passing 100,000 iPhone apps, he added -- a supposed selling point over the Droid, which "only" has 12,000 apps on the Android Market. "That makes no difference to me, because I'm not downloading 100,000 applications," Kim said. "If they said they had one million apps, it wouldn't matter. I think 10,000 applications should be sufficient."
Perhaps not surprisingly, neither Best Buy nor the Verizon Wireless store were bastions of pro-AT&T sentiment. "In New York City, AT&T service is terrible," said a 35-year-old civil servant who was picking up a Droid -- and switching to Verizon Wireless from AT&T.
"Nationwide, the stores are reporting a steady stream of customers," said a Verizon Wireless representative. "We have plenty of inventory and plenty of on-site staff, so customers are able to get in and out of stores quickly. We are very pleased with sales so far. We don't share sales numbers."
Droid's apparently successful first day of sales -- some consumers in New York City began lining up as early as midnight -- comes against the backdrop of a fierce battle between Verizon Wireless and AT&T. In a new TV ad, Verizon continues its strategy of trying to portray the Droid as a tougher, cooler alternative to Apple's iPhone, which is available exclusively with AT&T service.
AT&T sued Verizon Wireless on Tuesday, calling Big Red's new "There's a Map for That" campaign, which highlights AT&T's spotty 3G coverage, "misleading." The campaign mocks Apple's "There's an App for That" spots and aims to show that Verizon's coverage area is far more extensive than AT&T's. But AT&T says the maps in the ads display huge spots of blank space in AT&T's coverage area, which are designed to show a lack of 3G service but instead falsely imply a lack of any service at all.
Judging by sample of consumer sentiment in New York Friday, many cell phone users do not need any further evidence to convince them that AT&T's coverage is a source of frustration.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-06-2009 @ 6:03PM
Bill Shade said...
I echo the frustration with AT&T's 3G coverage. We purchased a wireless card 14 months ago and were told by the AT&T retailer real 3G service would be available in our area within a few months. Still isn't here, and Verizon has it. Would switch in a minute if we can get out of the 24 month contract with AT&T.
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11-09-2009 @ 10:18PM
Rob said...
I agree with you I have a Verizon Aircard and cell phone and they even work at my cabin in upstate New York which is very impressive since my friends barely even get a signal with their ATT&T and Sprint phones.
11-07-2009 @ 11:59AM
sabrina said...
Check out how much it cost to break your contract. I just got out of mine for $100. Less than what I was paying a month for nothing.
11-06-2009 @ 7:11PM
pee tee said...
Speaking of finance...
So its judgment day today for Droid, was it? According to Cnet it was a little bit slow nonetheless a good start of droid, other "critiques" says otherwise. But I say, "Hell yeah! droid conquered US for a couple of hours today". We just hope that their ROI is profitable compare to the hunderds of thousand worth of ads they spend during the promotion period and err.. did I say, their impending "lawsuit" with AT&T too?
Collation of info about droid release today: http://bit.ly/did-droid-conquered-USA-today
Hope Droid will serve as a hand of midas to Verizon Corp. Soweet
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11-06-2009 @ 8:00PM
Eric said...
just got back from verizon wireless i thought the droid was a iphone killer i think not this had to be the biggest piece of cheap manufactured junk ive ever tried to play with come on verizon please get a phone that the people want you guys need to focus on getting apple to build a phone for youre network instead of trying to create a killer...verizon customer for 10 years and im seriously going to switch to atnt for the better quality built iphone
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11-07-2009 @ 4:28PM
advanceking said...
Your an idiot. The Droid is high quality, built with actual metal, not plastic, has a great screen, and is on the far superior network. If you want an iphone, and your calls dropped every couple minutes, by all means go to att. Besides, Morons cant use smartphones. Thats why there are still dumbphones out there, for people like you
11-06-2009 @ 8:10PM
Randy said...
Junk, just like all of Verizon phones. I switched to an Iphone last month, awesome!
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11-06-2009 @ 9:23PM
dave said...
to much tech,such b.s.
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11-06-2009 @ 9:51PM
Derfctured said...
Eric are you an AT&T rep? The only downfal of the Droid is the flat qwerty keyboard. No countour to the keys. It's manufactured as well as any other phone on the market. Yes the contours aren't as comfortable as the Iphone, but it is an awesome device. Tons of apps all open source. Shouldn't be long before "there is an app" for that as well. Two thumbs up on design, functionality, and over all coverage. AT&T is so behind in their network that they will be done next year.
Derf
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11-07-2009 @ 11:29PM
destardi said...
The keyboard is fine...great.
It's a REAL keyboard; not just the virtual crap on most phones.
It's one of the reasons I bought the phone; the people calling this phone "junk" are obviously experiencing cognitive dissonance.
This is a first-class experience, on a first-class phone. It's not the jesus phone, but either is the iphone.
11-06-2009 @ 9:58PM
putoloco said...
I just got back from trying out the, so called Iphone Killer, The Droid. I was very disappointed. Well, where should I start, First of all the Droid looks, feels and it's packaging is CHEAP. I was playing with this phone and running multiple apps and guess what after 2 minutes it FROZE. Nothing but JUNK...it looks like it was the first PDA invented 5 years ago, not sexy like some describe. I also found it funny that 2 of the Verizon reps had Iphones....maybe that should tell you something. Motorola should stick to flip phones... if Blackberry and Palm could not kill the Iphone... NO ONE WILL!!!!! Good Luck to all Droid users cause you'll need it.
As a last comment the Tmobile's touch phone performs better.
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11-10-2009 @ 1:11PM
destardi said...
...why are you so angry?
11-06-2009 @ 10:11PM
Carl said...
I have an I-phone and live in Chicago and went to look at the Droid out of curiosity....Sorry, Verizon needs to try again, the I-phone is way better and I have great 3G service in the Chicagoland market....must be a New York thing.
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11-07-2009 @ 1:13AM
Mark said...
My goodness how many AT&T employees post on this thread?? Clearly anyone who is calling the droids "a piece of junk" haven't even seen one up close. Start quaking AT&T your number is almost up - the iphone is about to be eclipsed, you've been exposed for the shoddy 3G network you have and your lack of infastructure investment will be your death knell when Verizon's 4G kicks off in earnest with open network. What does that mean you ask? You will be able to bring over your iphones to the superior carrier if you still have a hard-on for Apple when 4G is up and with Verizon's bid for the higher MHTZ no other carrier will be able to physically beat them for data processing.
Laugh it up AT&T why you still can...
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11-07-2009 @ 7:32PM
Anne said...
Verizon had to tear at the at&t net work with falsehoods first to try and get their foot in the door for their droid.
Funny how they started to campaign with a negative comercial to promote their new phone(the map coverage), obviously they have little faith in their product. Were all you verizon reps reps credited with extra hours pay to post on here? You should not bother with at&t they can hold their own with even with verizons slandering . People want more minutes, there are alot of people that not do not need high tech phones and they are not being catered to. sprint is going to pass verizon up and verizon will move down to #3.
11-07-2009 @ 10:18AM
J said...
AT&T is just a bunch of crybabies since someone else is finally closing in. I was an AT&T customer from 2001 till 2006 and the Nokia phone was great but the service sucked in the area's I needed it in., The final straw was when I went to get a new contract( and I had 5 phones all those years ) they offered $50.00 towards 1 new phone. Verizon offered me 4 new phones free and more than half towards the 5th, no start up or any other bullshit fees. When I asked AT&T why they can't do any better for me they said they know if I leave I'll come back since their service is so superior to eveyone else. It's been 3 years and the whole family is still happy. nuff said
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11-07-2009 @ 3:05PM
cwa said...
Too bad Verizon does'nt run both of its two entities the same (Verizon Wireline, Verizon Wireless). Wireless customers are always taken care of in the most professional manner. As for the Wireline and Fios customers, well lets just say they spend a lot of money to attract a customer only to have that customer leave for the competion because they refuse to maintain that customer.
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11-07-2009 @ 9:54AM
Bill said...
This phone is probably a stopgap for the Verizon I-phone which I'm sure AT&T is doing anything they can to delay it. It's Apple's call.
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11-11-2009 @ 2:11AM
Anne said...
It's just like when the RAZR was introduced.Many people left verizon for Cingular now at&t. verizon was lost and did not rest until they also had the RAZR,they wanted the same sales numbers as at&t. By the time verizon gave their customers the RAZR at&t had already moved on to something better. If the droid is so much better then why would verizon need the i phone or worry if at&t is keeping iphone from verizon or not? By this do you mean to say that verizon is making much fanfair over a throw away phone and selling them to their customers while telling them another story?
11-07-2009 @ 10:17AM
Mike said...
Cell phones have become a very scary sickness. I just can't fathom what could be so important to people that they have to be on these things constantly. How did they get through life without these things before? How about lost time in the workplace due to cell phone use? And driving-------I can't tell you how many times I've had my driving experiences altered by some other driver being "off in space" on the cell phone. I really pity the poor soul who has to deal with me should someone get me into an accident and the cause was their use of a cell phone. Wonder of their dental plans will cover picking that cell phone out of their teeth and gums. It's time for the idiots and cowards at the federal and state level to ban all use of cell phones while driving. Accidents are happening and people ARE dying because of it.
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