The creators of “iDon’t Care,” a video spoofing Motorola (MOT) and Verizon Wireless’s (VZ) “iDon’t” ad, said some of their detractors are missing the point.

Three Boston-area ad-agency staffers developed “iDon’t Care.” They said they aren’t affiliated with Apple (AAPL) or any of the other companies involved in the original campaigns–they are, however, iPhone and Mac loyalists, said Jon, one of the video’s editors (they declined to give their last names, citing fears of legal action from any of the companies woven into their spoof). They decided shortly after the Droid campaign broke that they could easily replicate it.

“It was inescapable,” said Shawn, a creative director. “It became something we all were immediately speaking about.”

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Verizon Wireless (VZ) is holding a media event today to share more details on its Google Android-powered Droid handsets. Below is a live-blog of the event.

9:20 a.m. EST: Attendees are filing in to a small conference room at the W Hotel in New York. Not much on display, other than a poster reading “Droid Era Begins in 00:00 Seconds” that shows the device. Motorola (MOT) and Verizon branding are prominent, with four icons at the bottom of the screen. Someone in the room is talking about the “iDon’t Care” spoof of the “Droid Does” ad campaign.

9:32: Jim Gerace, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, kicks off the event, introducing Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha and Verizon Wireless CMO John Stratton.

9:33: “This is a pretty exciting day for us,” Stratton says. Motorola has been “a critical part of this story,” calling Motorola, Google (GOOG) and Verizon Wireless three great brands that have come together on Droid.

9:34: “We get to a pretty intriguing device” because of this partnership, Jha says. Running multiple applications at the same time, broadband capability, a robust Web browser that renders pages the way they look on desktop PCs, will all become increasingly important, he says. Also messaging: Voice, Exchange email, Gmail, other POP and IMAP interfaces, he adds

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The smart-phone wars are heating up. Handset makers are releasing a wave of new devices backed by a flood of advertisements, as some fight for survival in the fast-growing but increasingly crowded market.

Companies such as Motorola Inc. (MOT), Palm Inc. (PALM) and HTC Corp. are hoping new phones will help them reclaim market share from the reigning iPhone and BlackBerry. To do that, they will need a mix of impressive devices, shrewd pricing and aggressive marketing, analysts say.

Motorola has bet its future on a lineup of new phones that run Google Inc. (GOOG) software. On Wednesday, it is expected to unveil a highly anticipated device dubbed the Droid on the Verizon Wireless network. Verizon (VZ) has been touting the phone in TV ads attacking the iPhone.

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With Apple (APPL) posting record profits last week, thanks in large part to brisk sales of its iPhone, it may seem downright crazy to mount a smartphone challenge at all, let alone one that takes direct aim at the iPhone. But that’s just what Verizon (VZ), Google (GOOG) and Motorola (MOT) are doing.

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Until this summer, U.S. consumers interested in owning an Android-powered cellphone were limited to T-Mobile’s G1. But the Google (GOOG) operating system is appearing in a slew of new handsets by HTC, Samsung, LG and Motorola (MOT).

The specs for Samsung’s newest Android phone, the I5700 Galaxy Lite, leaked in an online video that made its way around the Web Tuesday. The lower-cost, touch-screen device will have 1 GB of memory and a 3.2-megapixel camera. Its predecessor, the Galaxy I5700, also running Android, has 8 GB of memory and a five-megapixel camera. It launched in Europe over the summer.

Also Tuesday, HTC introduced its fourth Android mobile phone, the Tattoo, which will be available in Europe in October.

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All ears will be on what Motorola (MOT) has to say about phones using Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system when the company reports Q2 earnings this Thursday, writes Broadpoint/Amtech analyst Mark McKechnie in a note to clients today. McKechnie has a “Neutral” rating on the stock and believes the business excluding handsets–meaning embedded and networking products–is worth about $5 per share, with the rest of the value being an “option” on success with Google down the road.

McKechnie’s estimate for the June quarter is a bit above the Street, at a net loss of 3 cents per share on sales of $5.7 billion versus the Street at -$.04 and $5.6 billion. He also believes the company can deliver more than expected in the September quarter as Android-based handsets begin to show up in its results.

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Motorola (MOT) shares are getting a boost from Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst Tai Liani, who this morning raised his rating on the stock to Buy from Neutral, setting a price target of $9, up from $7.

He cites four reasons for the upgrade, most of which boil down to a belief that the company is on the verge of staging a turnaround in its troubled handset business:

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Is Motorola (MOT) planning to hold a fire sale?

Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron observes in a research note that the company continues to plan the spin-off of its crumbling handset business sometime next year. But he says checks suggest the company is in the middle of strategic planning process that could lead to other asset sales as well over the next 12 months.

In particular, he thinks the company is considering narrowing its focus to the government and enterprise markets, and gradually transitioning its carrier and cable businesses. He says the company is “in advanced discussions” with Huawei on a sale of all or parts of its wireless infrastructure business, and that it is also reviewing the possible sale of its set-top box business.

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Is Motorola (MOT) going to dust off its plan to spin off its handset business as a separate public company?

Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron thinks so. In a research note this morning, Kidron asserted that “management could revisit the planning process for the Mobile Device spin-off in the near future, which would signal growing confidence in the upcoming [handset] portfolio and raise the likelihood of unlocking the unit’s value.”

Kidron today repeated his Outperform rating on the stock, and increased his target price to $7, from $5. He said the company is not likely to miss estimates for Q1, and adds that there is even “a small chance for upside as both handset ASP and margins could be better than expected.”

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Nortel Networks (NT) the once multibillion-dollar telecom vendor now trading as a micro cap, may be considering offers of as much as $1 billion for its product portfolio of gear that lets phone companies string Ethernet networking to homes and businesses, according to a report in the Toronto Globe & Mail. Avian Securities’ analyst Avi Cohen argues the most likely bidders are Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia’s (NOK) Nokia Siemens, and Cisco Systems (CSCO), with Alcatel Lucent (ALU) and Motorola (MOT), less likely because of their own titanic problems.

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Tessera Technologies (TSRA) shares have fallen nearly in half in late trading after the company announced that the Administrative Law Judge overseeing its patent infringement case before the International Trade Commission asserting violation of its wireless patents by a group of semiconductor companies had found no infringement.

The company said that the Initial Determination of the judge upheld the validity of the patents, but found no infringement. Tessera had asserted infringement against the ATI Technologies unit of Advanced Micro Devices, Fresscale Semiconductor, Motorola, Qualcomm, Spansion and STMicroelectronics.

Tessera said it is “disappointed” in the ruling and will review the decision before determining its next steps.

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For Motorola (MOT), the darkest days may still lie ahead.

Tero Kuittinen, an analyst with Global Crown Capital, this morning repeated his Underweight rating on Motorola, and cut his price target on the shares to $2.50, from $3.50. He thinks the company will miss its Q4 guidance, and fall short of the 2009 consensus “by a wide margin.” In short, Kuittinen contends that “Motorola is now on the verge of losing its status as a global handset brand.”

Kuittinen says that recent discussions with AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) “imply a clear slowdown in sales, just as the level of U.S. competition is vaulting to a new level with the launches of LG Incite, Samsung Eternity and other appealing and conspicuously cheap November debuts.”

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Global mobile phone unit sales grew a disappointing five percent in the third quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. It was the weakest quarter for the industry since 2002. The firm noted that four of the top six vendors grew at a five percent rate or less; Apple (AAPL) and Samsung outpaced the market.

• Nokia (NOK) shipped 118 million handsets, up five percent. The company lost market share in all regions, with smartphones “a major weak spot.”
• Samsung shipped 52 million handsets, up 22 percent. Its market share reached an all-time high at 17 percent, up from three percent in 1998. The company was strong in North America and Western Europe, weaker in emerging markets.
• Sony Ericsson (SNE, ERIC) shipped 25.7 million handsets, down one percent. With a five percent sequential increase, the company passed LG and Motorola (MOT) to become the the third largest company in the industry by units.

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In landing a new chief executive for its troubled mobile device business, Motorola Inc. is clearly banking on the old adage that “you get what you pay for.” Sanjay Jha, the co-chief executive of Motorola, managed to seal a compensation deal that The Wall Street Journal estimated could be worth $94 million, including restricted stock, options, base pay and a special payment. That’s more than nine times what he was earning at Qualcomm Inc., his previous employer, and would put him easily in the upper echelon of the country’s highest-paid CEOs, according to rankings by Forbes.

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What do CEOs say to each other in private? Mean Street intercepted an (imaginary) email sent this morning by Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain to Sanjay Jha, newly appointed co-CEO of Motorola.

Dear Sanjay,

Many congratulations on your new job–and welcome to our ranks. It is a rare privilege to be CEO of a desperate company.

I’ve been at it now for almost nine months at Merrill Lynch, and I’ve learned a thing or two that you might find useful.

I hate to start on a sour note, but Monday’s announcement could have been handled better. Your arrival at Motorola was trumpeted a bit too loudly.

“A stunning win for Motorola,” cheered the Wall Street analysts. And your recruitment alone added more than $2 billion to the market value of Motorola.

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