Look Sir, Droids!

You may have heard a couple of weeks ago that Verizon, the No. 1 cell phone carrier in the United States, will soon carry smartphones running Google’s Android operating system. At the time of the announcement, neither Verizon nor Google revealed any details about upcoming handsets running the OS. As we shift toward the holiday season, information is beginning to appear. One of the new handsets is called the Droid.

The Droid (a phone from Motorola formerly known as Sholes) features a physical QWERTY keyboard and will run on Android 2.0. It also has a 5-megapixel camera with a built-in flash, among other interesting specs. But to me, the most interesting thing about the Droid is how Verizon is advertising it.

Recently, Verizon launched an advertising campaign that hypes the Droid by tearing down the iPhone. Here’s the ad I’m talking about:

Not exactly subtle, is it? Then again, Verizon has an uphill battle — the iPhone has a pretty strong lock on the minds of consumers. Most people I talk to seem to think of the iPhone as the sexy, cool smartphone on the market. And the Droid phone never even appears in the commercial! Verizon’s Web site for the phone doesn’t offer much more information.

Another tactic Verizon employs is to throw stones at the cell phone carrier in the United States that has exclusive rights to the iPhone: AT&T. Currently, Verizon has the most subscribers out of the four top cell phone carriers in the United States. AT&T is No. 2 (Sprint and T-Mobile round out the list at three and four, respectively). One of Verizon’s recent ads takes aim at AT&T’s 3G network while tweaking a tag line used in iPhone commercials. The original line is “There’s an app for that.” Here’s the commercial:

Is this the right strategy for Verizon? I’m an unapologetic Android fanboy and I’m excited to see the OS hit more handsets in the United States. But even with my enthusiasm I tend to wince when I see commercials that advertise a product or service by attacking a competitor. Still, it’s not like Apple hasn’t been guilty of the same thing — the PC/Mac spots Apple is famous for have blazed that trail for years. Hopefully we’ll see ads that actually feature the Droid phone so customers can decide if it really is a worthy opponent of the iPhone juggernaut.

Learn more about smartphones at HowStuffWorks.com:

How Smartphones Work

How the iPhone Works

How the Google Phone Works