The Motorola Droid, an iPhone-challenging smartphone running Google's Android operating system, will arrive on the Verizon Wireless network on Nov. 6 for $199 after a rebate and with a two-year contract. Verizon has been hyping the Droid with a television ad that highlights everything the iPhone lacks—but the Droid possesses. These include a keyboard, interchangeable batteries, the ability to run simultaneous applications and the option to customize the device with widgets. Analysts are saying the Droid may be the first smartphone to hold its own against the iPhone. Palm had such hopes for the Pre, but was partly undone by its meager application offerings, as apps have become as important a part of a mobile device's appeal as its hardware or operating system. Google, meanwhile, has been industriously expanding its Android Market store, which now sells over 12,000 applications.
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Meet the Motorola Droid, Verizon's First Google Android Smartphone
by Michelle Maisto
The Motorola Droid features a 3.7-inch high-resolution touch screen with a width of 854 pixels, to reduce the need for side-to-side panning. It boasts a total of 400,000 pixels. The iPhone, by comparison, offers 480 by 320 pixels, for a total of 153,600 pixels.
Unlike the touch-screen-only iPhone, the Droid features a slide-out, four-row QWERTY keyboard. There's also a multiwindow HTML browser, support for Gmail and Exchange, a 5-megapixel camera (the camera on the iPhone 3GS is 3 megapixels) and voice-activated Google searching.
Unlike the iPhone, the Droid has a battery that can be removed. It also features GPS and is the first device with Google Maps Navigation, which offers turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free complement to Google Maps. Users can interact with it using voice instructions, such as telling it where they want to go.
The Droid's screen can be customized, and users will have access to what Verizon says are hundreds of available widgets and more than 12,000 applications. Like the Palm Pre—but unlike the iPhone—the Droid lets users navigate between up to six open applications at once.
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The Motorola Droid, an iPhone-challenging smartphone running Google's Android operating system, will arrive on the Verizon Wireless network on Nov. 6 for $199 after a rebate and with a two-year contract. Verizon has been hyping the Droid with a television ad that highlights everything the iPhone lacks—but the Droid possesses. These include a keyboard, interchangeable batteries, the ability to run simultaneous applications and the option to customize the device with widgets. Analysts are saying the Droid may be the first smartphone to hold its own against the iPhone. Palm had such hopes for the Pre, but was partly undone by its meager application offerings, as apps have become as important a part of a mobile device's appeal as its hardware or operating system. Google, meanwhile, has been industriously expanding its Android Market store, which now sells over 12,000 applications.