This post was published 2 months 3 days ago. This info might have changed or might have become outdated.

In my time I have seen a lot of campaigns aimed at tech enthusiasts or, and I use the term lovingly, your average geek. Mainly they can be found on the back pages of gaming magazines, or slipped into the commercials for TV shows geeks may like but not enough to TiVo. However, the weirdest thing is not that the new DroidDoes anti-iPhone campaign from Verizon is the most geek friendly marketing push I have ever seen from a mainstream company, but that they are aiming it directly at non-geeks…I mean they apparently aired the initial ad in a baseball game, for god sake.

Not in a commercial during Chuck, or FlashForward…but a BASEBALLGAME? A playoff game yet. They plan to air it during football games today as well, I have heard.

Amazing.

The campaign, as has been noted all over the web (as well as HERE at MobilitySite) is focusing on the shortcomings of the iPhone but it is looking like it is going to go a good deal further than that.

Here is the opening salvo from Verizon, the initial ad..

I really loved this ad (even though at least half of the points made against the iPhone are solved by jailbreaking it). I loved the happy hip/bouncy music during the opening part (sort of Katrina and Wavesesque…would have been even crueler to make it John Mayer). I loved the wicked Terminator/Transformers transition, though I admit I am hard pressed to see the counterpoint appealing to the average “Dude, I got one of those Apple phones!” type.

The transition brought this song by Jonathan Coulton to mind…tough to get more geeky than that.

The website at www.droiddoes.com gets even geekier!

“When compromise has been deactivated”? Whoa, AWESOME….I have NO idea what that is supposed to mean, serious Borg babble here. A trademark shoutout to Lucasfilm for the name Droid? Exxxcelllent.

Best part are the little dancing symbols, with no explanation whatsoever as to what they mean or represent. Of course, they must have known the interweb would not let that mystery last long, and the first I know of to work it out was Christopher Daggett (wow, what a BSG name) commenting on Engadget, who stated that it was a code indicating a countdown to a date…

So something will be released by Verizon on October 30th…or that is the date that Verizon destroys the world, one of the two.

Let’s opt for choice number one…but what will they release.

It appears that the long rumored Motorola Shoals, which was briefly tipped to be released as the Tao. will finally see the light of day as the Motorola Droid on Verizon. Everyone who has gotten their hands on early versions of this device have said it will be a major event, and a serious upgrade for Android.

Here are the specs of the Moto Shoals/Tao/Droid

OMAP3430 – 600 MHz ARM Cortex A8 + PowerVR SGX 530 GPU + 430MHz C64x+ DSP + ISP (Image Signal Processor)
Dimensions 60.00 x 115.80 x 13.70 mm
Weight 169 g
Battery Li-ion 1400 mAh.
Standby 450 hours, talk time 420 minutes
3.7-inch touch-sensitive display with a resolution of 854×480 pixels (16:9), 16 million color depth. Physical screen size is 45.72 mm by 81.34 mm.
512MB/256MB ROM/RAM
16GB built-in storage
microSD / microSDHC expansion slot
Flash support
Camera: 5.0 megapixel with autofocus, video recorder and dual flash
Connectivity: USB2.0, 3.5mm audio jack, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, Wi-Fi
Operating System: Android 2.0 (with Eclair, no Motoblur)
Package Contents: Phone Motorola Sholes, battery, charger, USB cable, 8GB MicroSD memory card and other literature

The Boy Genius Report has gotten a hold of the following video which apparently shows the Moto Droid powering up with Android 2.0.

Wow…between the ad campaign’s early days and the phone itself, there is some POWERFUL geek symbolism going on here…I am loving this.

Now I wonder if such all of this technodoomsday geekchic is going to fly with the mainstream consumers who go for iPhones?

Either way, this is going to be SO FREAKIN COOL…*coughs*…sorry

Stay tuned for more, I can’t think Verizon will stay silent until the 30th at this point. For one thing, how are they going to top this? “Hello, this is C-3PO, human/cyborg relations, speaking to you for Verizon Wireless” How about a Dr. Horrible endorsement? Will Wheaton testimonials?

Will the UK release ads feature the new Doctor using the Moto Droid to remotely control the Tardis? Will the UK version say “Ex-TER-min-ATE” when you boot it up instead of Droid?

This is FANTASTIC…BEAM ME UP VERIZON