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Though T-Mobile's G1 smartphone - introduced last year - and this year's Verizon Wireless Droid, have both seen precedent-setting, Android-based smartphone launches, Verizon's Droid campaign has attracted more web traffic than T-Mobile's G1 did last fall, according to an analysis by Compete.

The reason? Verizon Wireless teased consumers by withholding the pricing information until shortly before the launch. It also had a shorter window between the initial announcement and product rollout, which kept consumer interest high.

An Educational Approach

The different marketing paths taken by each product in the buildup to their respective launches are worth examining as the web-traffic figures are analyzed. The G1 was the first high-end smartphone to use Google's much anticipated Android platform. This meant its campaign, by necessity, took a more educational approach.

As an example, G1 marketing focused on the deep integration with Google's platform and search functionality. The campaign kicked off with an expansive two-day ad buy on AOL's Platform-A during which approximately 81.5 million consumers were estimated to have been exposed to the device. T-Mobile did acknowledge the competing iPhone in some marketing spots, but never to a significant degree.

Droid Does

Verizon Wireless did not dance around the iPhone, instead taking aim at the Apple/AT&T offering directly. In an ad series called the "iDon’t", Verizon points out all the features that the iPhone is lacking. Lines include "iDon’t take pictures in the dark", "iDon’t have a real keyboard" and "iDon’t take 5-megapixel pictures". It ends with "Droid Does."

Indeed, some of the Droid's popularity is thought to be tied in part to a larger  high-profile battle between Verizon Wireless and AT&T over Verizon's derisive 'We've Got a Map for That' ad campaign. AT&T tried unsuccessfully to have the spots pulled, claiming that they were misleading about AT&T's 3G network.

Teasing the Audience

Those issues aside, Compete's analysis of the G1's and Droid's respective web traffic shows additional factors also at play. T-Mobile announced the G1 a full month before its availability but didn't follow up with any additional news in the ensuing 30 days, while Verizon announced the Droid 20 days before launch and followed up with pricing details just nine days before the device's availability, Nina Current writes at the company's blog. The traffic followed accordingly.

Additional traffic details:

• The G1 saw roughly the same traffic spike both on announcement day and launch day (180,000 unique visitors on announcement day; 164,000 on launch day).

• The Droid saw a second spike in traffic 11 days after the initial announcement when Verizon Wireless announced the price of the phone.

• The Droid saw a 40% increase in traffic on the day of launch compared with the announcement day (220,000 unique visitors at announcement; 367,000 at launch).

"Clearly, between the two phones, the Droid comes out ahead in terms of overall interest around launch," Current concluded. "But the G1 did very well in terms of interest on T-Mobile's site - and still continues to attract its fair share of interest a year later. It will be interesting to see how the Droid fares in its life-span at Verizon Wireless."