Droid: Can Verizon Topple AT&T with the Newest Smartphone by Motorola
Well, by now you probably have seen the commercials. The first commercial began with a children’s lullaby playing in the background as a series of “i don’t” phrases appeared on a whiteboard. This was just enough to catch one’s curiosity when the final “i don’t” phrase dissolves into an eerie Sci-Fi fuzzy screen and a voice is heard announcing the coming of Droid. As a fighter pilot wannabe, the second commercial was much more to my liking. A squadron of what look to be 2nd or 3rd generation stealth fighter-bombers is flying in formation when the order is given to release the pods. A shower of what appears to be meteors fills the skies. Upon impact the locals gather around each crater and the pods begin to open when the background voice announces the arrival of Droid.
Last Friday Verizon’s iPhone killer went on sale. Motorola’s Droid has a mobile open source
platform on the Verizon network. Michelle Megna reports for Internetnews.com on the impending battle between Apple, the maker of the iPhone, and the PC community in her article entitled “Droid First Step in iPhone Fade Away?”. Megna quotes Tim McLaughlin, CEO of Siteworx, a mobile app and Web development company,
"History shows that unlike Apple, PCs gathered the ecosystem of profitable companies, such as Dell and IBM, thanks to its open technology. Apple, however, only develops systems that benefit itself. It all comes down to economics, and the only company interested in making the iPhone ubiquitous is Apple. On the other hand, you have Google, Verizon, Motorola, all these big companies together, the cumulative market value is huge. You put all of those resources together, and even though it's less effective because it's not centralized like Apple, it will still have a huge impact"
Brad Reed and Matt Hamblen have done their due diligence research on the product and have come up with a nifty review in their article for Computerworld entitled “Four reasons to buy (and one reason to avoid) the Droid”. I’ll try to provide a brief summary of their five points:
1. Droid is the strongest device on the Verizon Network with the following three characteristics:
a. Mobile browsing capability
b. A very good voice recognition functionality
c. The largest 3G data coverage network of Verizon
2. The Google connection: The open platform will stimulate development of new apps and allow users to switch to new carriers while maintaining the same device.
3. Ability to run two applications simultaneously: iPhone can’t do it. Once Droid develops the appropriate security features, then Blackberry will need to pay attention as Droid could become the device of choice for the enterprise user.
4. Connection to the internet through Wi-Fi: Also use of the same processor as the iPhone will allow a fast and smooth browsing experience.
5. AND the one reason to avoid this device is the keyboard: Droid has the touchscreen capability, but in order to get that feel of hitting the keys, they have also developed a slide-out keyboard. This feature allows enough room for a larger display screen. Reed and Hamblen report that users do not get the same feel with this shallow keyboard.
