After a bit of a false start, in which details about the Motorola Droid were leaked in advance, Verizon Wireless has officially announced that the new smartphone, running Google’s Android 2.0, will arrive on Nov. 6.
“We’re proud to work with Verizon Wireless and Google on the first
smartphone to feature Android 2.0,” said Sanjay Jha, Motorola’s
co-chief executive officer of Motorola Mobile Devices, in a statement.
“Droid by Motorola delivers a rich consumer experience with warp-speed
Web browsing, a mammoth screen and Motorola’s expertise in design and
voice quality. Combined with Android’s open, flexible graphical user
interface and the power of Verizon Wireless’ 3G network, Droid is a
smartphone that simply doesn’t compromise,” Jha added.
The Droid is a thin slider phone with a full qwerty keyboard, GPS,
Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, voice recognition and a multiwindow HTML
browser.
The display is 3.7 inches and features a width of 854 pixels, reducing
the need for side-to-side panning, Verizon explains, and featuring more
than 400,000 pixels total. At more than twice the norm, it should make
for some brilliant video watching.
The Droid can also run up to six applications at once, can be customized with widgets and the growing number of applications in the Android Market,
and can perform voice-dictated Google searches and relate them to the
user’s location. More traditional searching can also include the device
as well as data within the user’s applications.
There’s a 5-megapixel camera with DVD-quality video capture, an
included 16GB of memory that’s expandable to 32GB and reportedly a
550MHz processor, if the original leaked specs are to be believed.
(“Officially” Verizon simply refers to it as a “fast Cortex A8
processor.” The Palm Pre’s processor is also based on an ARM Cortex
A8.) Integrated Gmail and Exchange push e-mail are also included, as
are Google tools such as Google Maps, which can also be put to work via
voice.
“Droid by Motorola gives customers a lifestyle device with access to
more than 12,000 applications that will help them stay in touch,
up-to-date and entertained, using the best 3G network in the country,”
said John Stratton, Verizon Wireless’ executive vice president and
chief marketing officer, in a statement.
Analysts also have high hopes for the Droid, with Technology Business
Research’s Ken Hyers calling it a likely “serious challenger to the
iPhone” and possibly the first to be able to go head-to-head with
AT&T’s darling and hold its own.
If priced competitively in the $100 to $200 range, Strategy
Analytics Analyst Neil Mawston also told eWEEK that while the Droid was
no iPhone or Pre killer, it could at least “give both companies a sharp
jab in the ribs.”
It will be interesting, then, to see how the Droid will fare if, in 2010, the iPhone joins it on Verizon’s network.
In an Oct. 28 research note, Broadpoint AmTech Analyst Brian Marshall
wrote, “In our view, Apple is the best technology company on the planet
with numerous catalysts on the horizon…” He continued, “the iPhone’s
importance and success in the U.S. wireless market is undeniable, and
we believe [Apple] will benefit tremendously from increased U.S.
penetration if [Verizon Wireless] is added to [Apple’s] carrier partner
network in [the second half of 2010] after AT&T’s exclusivity
agreement expires (we believe in June 2010).”
Indeed “competitively priced,” the Motorola Droid will be available for
$199.99, after a $100 mail-in rebate, with a new two-year service
contract.
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