Motorola Droid X, Apple iPhone 4 Launches Show Contrast in Approaches

The introduction of the Motorola Droid X June 23 couldn't have been more different than Apple's unveiling of the iPhone 4 three weeks ago. One comprised a group of company leaders lavishing praise on each other; the other consisted of one man hyping up a device that is already wowing users. Can you guess which is which? Android is gaining share, but Apple's hardware and software approach continues to keep Android at arm's length and close the distance between itself and RIM in the United States.

News Analysis: The unveiling of the Motorola Droid X June 23 reinforced the notion of devices built with Google's Android operating system as a team effort created by an ecosystem of partners possessed with making smartphones under the team concept.

Contrast that with the introduction of Apple's iPhone 4 June 7, just a few weeks before it went on sale to the public June 24.

This device was unveiled by none other than Apple CEO Steve Jobs, a fitting introduction for a phone forged by a man possessed with a passion for creating great consumer electronics devices.

Jobs tossed around superlative sentences such as, "This is beyond doubt one of the most precise, beautiful things we've ever made," and "I hope you love it just as much as we do."

The "we," of course, was and is, and always shall be, Apple. That's just the company's style: make the software, make the hardware, and wow the customer. Jobs could have also been using the royal we and few would have been surprised.

With 600,000 iPhone 4s on preorder and lines around corners across the world's Apple retailers today, no one can argue that what Apple has done with the iPhone 4 doesn't work. Though some fear the approach will one day bite Apple, so to speak.

Indeed, Apple's is not the model applied to smartphones based on Android. Top executives for Verizon Wireless, Motorola, Google and Adobe met in New York City to herald the July 15 coming of the Droid X, a 4.3-inch display smartphone born for multimedia consumption and video recording and playback in particular.

The Droid X, whose Android 2.1-based operating system will be upgraded over the air to Android 2.2 this summer, was the topic du jour but came with side orders of praise by the partners for the partners. 

John Stratton, executive vice president and CMO for Verizon, introduced "several of our distinguished colleagues from some of our important colleagues," including Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha, Google Vice President of Engineering Andy Rubin and Adobe President and CEO Shantanu Narayen.

"Each of these men and their businesses have been incredibly important to the development of the product that we're here to announce today," Stratton said.

He then noted Verizon's October strategic partnership with Google and the "importance of our respective initiatives to drive innovation in the mobile space."

Stratton then recognized Google CEO Eric Schmidt for bolstering the companies' partnership and invited him to speak.

Schmidt joined the group on stage and lauded partners for helping Google build out its cloud system for Android.