Skip to main content

Bond wouldn’t carry Android, Daniel Craig says, declines $50M product placement

james bond rejected android in spectre
Image used with permission by copyright holder
James Bond films are a hotspot for product placement, but sometimes the cost is not worth the potential damage to the character. After the out-of-place $45 million Heineken promotion in Skyfall, the Bond franchise decided to cut back on product placements in Spectre.

That included not giving Bond a smartphone, rejecting offers from both Sony and Samsung made earlier in the year. Sony offered $5 million for Bond to carry the phone, with an $18 million bid to be the exclusive vendor. Samsung offered the same $5 million deal for Bond, but beefed the total payment to $50 million. Both offers were rejected by Bond actor Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes, after judging the phones to be too lackluster for Bond.

Recommended Videos

“Sam and Daniel don’t like the Sony phone for the film,” said president of worldwide business affairs Andrew Gumpert in an email that was scooped up in the Sony Pictures leak. “In their minds, the Sony phone is not the ‘best’.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

It seems Mendes and Craig — who received the first co-producer credit as James Bond — had enough power to overrule the business folks at Eon Productions. The success of Skyfall in 2012 cemented the film duo’s position in the Bond franchise, with the producers of James Bond eager to bring both back for Spectre.

Sony did get the chance to run a mini-series  featuring Moneypenny holding the Xperia Z5, but the phone was not featured in Spectre. Even Q, Bond’s gadgeteer, didn’t show off a smartphone in the film, instead offering him an Omega Master watch.

Super high-end phones like the Vertu Signature Touch for $6,500 run Android, but most people know the platform for its price accessibility. That makes it a tough sell for James Bond, the man that rides the latest Aston Martin and wears the most expensive Tom Ford suits.

Viruses and malware could be another image problem for James Bond if he were to choose Android. The Stagefright vulnerability only happened a few months ago, and recent reports paint a rather bleak picture for security on the open-source platform.

Spectre managed to surpass Skyfall, the previous Bond film, in the opening week at the box office. The film reached $80.4 million in the UK alone, with its debut in U.S. cinemas coming later this week.

David Curry
Former Digital Trends Contributor
David has been writing about technology for several years, following the latest trends and covering the largest events. He is…
The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera crushed its old rival in our test
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Galaxy S25 Ultra's cameras.

Is the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra worth an upgrade if you own the last Ultra phone? Equally, if the Galaxy S25 Ultra is on your buy list, understanding how Samsung has improved the camera this time around will be an important point to understand before splashing out on it. To help answer these questions, we put Samsung’s latest Ultra phone against its predecessor, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, in a serious camera battle.
Camera specs
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (left) and the Galaxy S25 Ultra Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The first thing to understand is not much has changed on the hardware front. Both have a 200-megapixel main camera with an f/1.7 aperture, phase-detection autofocus (PDAF) and optical image stabilization (OIS). It’s joined by a pair of telephoto cameras on both, one 10MP telephoto with OIS for a 3x optical zoom, and another 50MP telephoto with OIS for a 5x optical zoom.

Read more
The Garmin Lily 2 Active has a $50 discount, but don’t wait!
Garmin Lily 2 smartwatch being worn on wrist.

Smartwatches have become quite a popular fitness tool over the last several years, but these gadgets can do far more than help you count calories. Some of the best models can even receive notifications from your phone, allowing you to stay connected when you’re out for a casual stroll. And when it comes to smartwatch deals, one brand we’re always glad to see promos from is Garmin.

As a matter of fact, we came across a great Garmin offer earlier today: For a limited time, when you purchase the Garmin Lily 2 Active through Amazon, Crutchfield, or Best Buy, you’ll only pay $250. The full MSRP on this model is $300.

Read more
Samsung could reinvent the S Pen for its next foldable phone
Rear view of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition.

Samsung is reportedly making a major stylus input change for its next book-style foldable device as it moves forward in pursuit of slimmer phones. According to a report from ET News, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will switch the stylus input to a format similar to that of the Apple Pencil.

Citing industry sources, the Korean outlet mentions that Samsung has decided to remove the digitizer element from the upcoming phone’s display assembly. The digitizer is a pressure-sensitive layer that converts the physical input from a stylus and converts those strokes into digital information.

Read more