They’re bubbling with excitement in Redmond, as Microsoft prepares to release Windows Phone 7 into the wild.
Happily, we can start our own celebration early — as two commercials have already popped up on YouTube. One of which I’ve posted here.
Just in case it gets yanked (which seems to have happened to similar links already), here’s your executive summary:
In a series of clips, we see a variety of people so consumed by their phones that they are oblivious to the world around them — often with amusingly tragic results. It all builds to the ending, when Mr. Voiceover says:
It’s time for a phone … to save us from our phone. New Windows Phone. The first phone designed to bring you the stuff you need — and get you back to what matters.
What matters, of course, is the traditional family dinner we see at the end.
As always, it’s important to note that there are two ways one can react to commercials — as an innocent member of the mass market, or as the technology-obsessed types we are.
For the innocents — it’s a pretty good spot. Nicely produced. Fun soundtrack. The better commercials somehow capture a human truth, and this one does. We can all nod our heads as we see people glued to their phones. So the line It’s time for a phone to save us from our phone will resonate. It’s a nice piece of writing.
Like I said, that’s for the innocents.
For those who look one level deeper, well … it’s a spectacular display of wishful thinking.
The reason people are absorbed by their iPhones and Androids is that they’re actually getting all the stuff they’ve been craving. They’re being more productive, better informed and better entertained. The ability to do these things is the very essence of the smartphone revolution. It’s the reason why the phones that can are killing off the phones that can’t.
So, after years of watching the revolution from the sidelines, Microsoft’s big contribution is a phone that allows us to just “glance and go”? That bit of superficiality is delivered by Ms. Voiceover at the end of the second commercial.
Hate to burst their bubble, but if glancing and going is your thing, there’s an app for that. With iPhone’s 250,000 apps and Android’s 80,000 apps, you can be absorbed to whatever degree you wish.
It’s condescending for Microsoft to tell us we’re spending too much time with our phones, or suggest that we’re missing what’s really important in life. Many of us use our phones precisely to stay on top of what’s really important — including getting closer to our families.
The real problem is that Microsoft has missed what’s important in the phone market. Had they joined the fun in any meaningful way two or three years ago, they wouldn’t have to dream their way into the party today.
The odds don’t look good.
Just yesterday, the tech stocks took a beating because a Goldman Sachs analyst lowered MSFT from buy to neutral, citing “concerns about the company’s mobile-device business.” Not exactly a vote of confidence on the eve of the Windows Phone 7 launch.
So, now that the engineers have had their way with Windows Phone 7, the marketers will take over. If these commercials represent the official company line, it won’t be surprising if most consumers take one glance … and just go.
[Thanks to Nate for the tip.]
Tags: ken segall, microsoft, windows phone 7
