Verizon, Motorola Accidentally Leak Droid Specs

Verizon Wireless began building interest in the Motorola Droid, its first smartphone running Google's Android operating system, with a few well-placed television ads criticizing the iPhone. The Droid is scheduled to go on sale Oct. 30—though perhaps now with a bit of its built-up suspense deflated, as the Boy Genius Report has released full specs for the device, which it says Motorola did a rather Inspector Clouseau job of hiding on its Website.
 
The slider-style Droid reportedly runs Android 2.0 and supports CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) 1X 800/1900 and EvDO (Evolution Data Optimized) Rev. A networks. It weighs 6 ounces, measures 2.4 by 4.6 by 0.5 inches and features a full QWERTY keyboard and a 3.7-inch WVGA 16:9 widescreen that's 480 by 854 pixels.
 
There's a 550MHz processor, A-GPS is on board, the battery offers 385 minutes of continuous usage time, there's a 16GB MicroSD card pre-installed and up to 32GB of expandable memory is supported.
 
The Droid additionally has an accelerometer, a 5-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, auto-focus, image stabilization, dual LED flash and 720 by 480 video capture, and users get all of the Google-related goodies—such as Google Maps and Google Calendar—as well as built-in access to the Android Market and applications for viewing QuickOffice documents and Facebook and other popular social media sites.
 
There's support for IMAP, POP3 and Exchange e-mail, instant messaging and SMS (Short Message Service), and data access, 802.11 b and g, and Bluetooth 2.1.
 
And finally, two peripherally notable details: The color is described as "licorice brown with sugar accents," and the Droid name, while generally understood to be a shortening of Android and associated with Google, is a word trademarked by Lucasfilm—maybe giving it more of a "Star Wars" bent.
 
While many a smartphone has been positioned as a threat to the market-dominating iPhone, analysts are saying the Droid may truly be one, describing the Droid as "likely to be a serious challenger to the iPhone," and capable of offering both Apple and Palm Pre a "sharp jab in the ribs."
 
Also working in the Droid's—and Verizon Wireless'—favor is the Android Market. While it doesn't come close to Apple's over 85,000 offerings, Android Market is the second-largest mobile application shop, with well over 10,000 applications. In September, Google additionally released "discoverability improvements," which are said to be likely to attract more developers to the open-source platform, particularly as more Android phones become available.
 
In a Sept. 30 report, AdMob, which measures handset use, reported that Android use was significantly on the rise.
 
"Android continues its strong growth in both North America and Europe," AdMob wrote in a blog post on the findings. "Ad requests from Android devices grew 17 percent month over month in August, following a 50 percent increase in July. Given the new devices launching in [the fourth quarter], it could be a huge holiday season for the Android platform."