Sprint has produced a series of ‘Instinct Wins’ adverts that show how their new Samsung Instinct beats the iPhone in a number of head-to-head scenarios. These include web page load times (with the Instinct on an EVDO connection vs. iPhone on Edge), shooting video and GPS with a sort of ‘Doh – the iPhone cannot do it’ effect on these, and downloading music when away from a WiFi connection.
Apparently Sprint is pumping a ton of money into these ads as well, with some reports initially suggesting a budget of up to $100 million. Here’s some of my quick thoughts after watching all five of the Instinct Wins ads:
- They’re pretty well-done. Short and snappy and they do highlight some good (current) feature gaps on the iPhone, especially video recording and GPS.
- A couple of them are more of a stretch though – bragging about being able to download music when away from a WiFi connection, but probably via an ultra-crappy Sprint proprietary store rather than via iTunes, does not seem a winner to me. I’d ask for a recount on that one.
- I like the comical ‘showdown’ themed music on the ads – one has a Spaghetti Western sort of track, another has Ninja / Samurai type sound effects, another a set of boxing ring sounds, and so on.
- The web page load speeds ad seems pretty pointless, since we all know a 3G iPhone model is going to hit very soon
Most of all though, what strikes me about these ads, and really about the whole smartphone industry’s desperate attempts to catch up to the new guy on the block and anoint a new ‘iPhone Killer’ virtually every week, is how much Apple has come straight into this brand new market and immediately acted as if they are The Leader.
I may be getting my history of advertising facts wrong, but it seems to me that it is nearly always ‘the other guy’ / the Number 2 player in a market who wants to make direct comparisons in advertising – while leading brands usually just say ‘here’s what we do, and we’re damn good at it’. From Day 1 of their entry into the cellphone market, Apple’s iPhone ads have been incredibly simple and have just highlighted what the iPhone can do. OK, maybe the occasional snide comments about ‘not the mobile internet, or the watered down internet …’, but they certainly didn’t come along talking about the iPhone as compared to a Blackberry, or head-to-head against the latest Treo.
I don’t picture Apple ever spending even 10 seconds thinking about how to whip up a response or comparison ad on the iPhone vs the Instinct, or any of the other pretenders. I imagine they’ll just continue to act like they know they’re the one to beat …
Check out the Instinct Wins ads HERE, and let us know what you reckon …
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