Image from Wikimedia.

While most companies are still striving to pull themselves out of recession slumps, Apple is back and better than ever. The company posted sales of more than  $10 billion for the past three months. That puts Apple earnings somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.7 billion in profit for that quarter.

Apple earnings are 46 percent higher for the past three months than they were for the same quarter last year.  The market for instant cash loans is also seeing an increase as Americans struggle to maintain financial stability, but many other retail and manufacturing sectors are still seeing declines in earnings.

All hail the iPhone

Despite the state of the economy, Apple earnings reflect the highest-ever sales of iPhones and Mac computers. This isn’t particularly surprising in the case of the iPhone, which has not been around very long. As some people have started to see smartphones as a necessity rather than a luxury, sales of iPhones have skyrocketed.

Not surprisingly, sales of the iPod have gone down slightly as sales of iPhones increased. Who would want a plain, old mp3 player when you could get a phone that has one built in? Increased sales of Mac computers are somewhat surprising, considering the emergence of inexpensive NetBooks, but apparently Apple has figured out how to recession-proof the popularity of its products.

Will Droid put a dent in Apple earnings?

In fact, Apple’s products such as the iPod and iPhone have made such an impact on consumers that they are being directly targeted by competitors. Verizon has started running commercials for Droid, its answer to the iPhone. The slogan for the Droid is “Everything iDon’t, Droid does.”

The “putting a lower case i at the beginning of a word” fad is so deeply ingrained in American consumers, in fact, that after word started traveling about the Droid commercials, people began searching for “iDroid” on Google.

How long will we have to wait for the Droid?

Verizon has made no bones about it: The Droid is its answer to the iPhone, and the company is doing everything it can to point out the superiority of its product, most notably in the Droid commercial that recently came out.

However, this Droid commercial has created a strange phenomenon. The commercial features mostly black text on a white background. The phrases, which change every few seconds, all beginning with “iDon’t.” For example, one says “iDon’t run widgets.” The end of the commercial says “Everything iDon’t … Droid does.”

However, it seems that Verizon’s Droid commercial might be backfiring in a way, as there have been millions of Google searches today for “iDroid.”

Do Droid commercials cause brand confusion?

So clearly Verizon has achieved its goal of linking the Droid to the iPhone, but it appears possible that consumers believe these products are related, not in competition. Would a loan company want to be so closely associated with its competition? I suppose that depends.

Because iPhone is already such a well established and popular brand, letting consumers think that there is such a thing as an “iDroid” might be a good thing for Verizon’s sales. However, it is clear from the Droid commercial that Verizon wants people to differentiate between the Droid and the iPhone. However, making an advertisement with such a specific target appears to be having the opposite effect.

Does Droid commercial convince consumers?

From the Droid commercial, consumers can infer that the Droid runs widgets, allows open development, takes pictures at night, has interchangeable batteries and has a real keyboard. However, that is all the information you get.

Even the Verizon web site doesn’t say when this Droid will come into existence. There are no photos of what the Droid will look like, either, which I believe contributes to the “iDroid” confusion. The only images consumers have that represent the Droid is a text pattern similar to the competition’s naming scheme.