Verizon Droid Is The Real Deal

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/18/verizon-droid-is-the-real-deal/

by davidw • 17 years ago

73 54 17 years ago

techcrunch.com

acangiano• 17 years ago

These are the droids that you are looking for. :)

cbetz• 17 years ago

Actually, they had to pay Lucasfilm just to use the word!

See for yourself (and signup if you want)

http://www.verizonwireless.com/droid

[EDIT]

This is part of the email you get after you sign up:

"But you don't need a smartphone, you need a supergenius in your pocket. A phone that listens better than the person on the other end of the call. Apps of every shape and size. Emails that let you know what they are before you read them. The greatest web experience on a phone. All working together to get things done."

Wow. That's a lot of hype.

hyperbovine• 17 years ago

Quality = 1 / hype

pieter• 17 years ago

I wonder what the Verizon-Motorola deal means for customers outside the US.

jrockway4• 17 years ago

The better CPU is what makes this a better Android phone. I have used Android on an HTC Magic, where the performance is OK, and I've used it on an Archos 5, where the performance is amazing. Web pages load as fast as they do on a desktop, screen rotation is instantaneous, and so on. It's very nice.

And FWIW, the HTC Magic performance is about the same as the iPhones I've played with... so the "Droid" could definitely be the "iPhone killer". (Because it's as fast, has the same basic functionality, and has persistent apps. It is nice to have "push" Google Talk, and it's also nice to ssh port-forward from your phone, and then run an IRC connection over the forwarded ports. All possible with Android, none possible with the iPhone.)

hxa7241• 17 years ago

That all seems reasonable, but Apple has a powerful brand at the moment. That must be factored-in too.

mhb2• 17 years ago

And Verizon has the best network.

hackoder2• 17 years ago

which HTC Magic did you try out? I have the one with the larger RAM and I find the performance to be really good.

jrockway4• 17 years ago

I have the T-Mobile myTouch 3G. But I should point out that I also find the performance to be good... it's just that with more CPU/RAM it's like using a desktop machine.

IMO, Android does a lot for the minimal hardware it runs on, which could be bad for the iPhone -- iPhone OS requires more expensive hardware and is not as featureful.

sanj• 17 years ago

Paper tigers certainly are frightening.

paul92902• 17 years ago

I'll believe it when I see it...

Though after owning a HTC Hero for four days (had 2 both headphone jacks broke) I liked you could customize the device (though took hours to do so), multiple screens with widgets (Twitter, Facebook, Mail, Pandora & last.fm all controlled via widgets on phone's desktop) and the ability to run background apps, which allowed for real time updates of widgets mentioned.

Ultimately I returned both Hero's cause of issue with headphone jack and the thing ran so slow; booted up even slower. If this Droid fixes those issues I might take back iPhone (30 day trial now).

EastSmith• 17 years ago

Well, I've been using HTC Hero for more than a month now and I usually spend about a hour or more a day browsing, and I found it ... fast. And the browser is great.

What's this with the boot time? I rebooted it once I think, since buying, and it was when I had to put another card on it temporally.

paul92902• 17 years ago

Well as noted there is a headphone issue with the Hero, I got two in Hero's in four days and had same headphone jack issue. For me having these types of devices connected my car stereo to listen INternet music services is very important, thus I couldn't keep Hero because it has headphone jack malfunction issue.

I liked a lot of things with it, but no doubt it's slow and laggy, as well the virtual keyboard felt clumsy comparative to the iPhone. Let's hope this Droid provides all the best things I liked about the Hero, while solving what I had issues with.

bcl• 17 years ago

Competition is good. One small nit to pick -- The iPhone is capable of multitasking. It does it now. They just don't allow every app to do it. Battery life is bad enough as it is.

I wonder how Droid's battery drain will compare.

Also remember that most customers aren't geeks. They don't care if you can ssh and port forward from their phone.

spot• 17 years ago

there are all kinds of customers. android's true strength is that it's not tied to one brand, one manufacturer, one feature-set, and one network.

iphone's multitasking is hobbled. with my G1 i can run mytracks and go jogging, taking calls, photos, and using the web browser along the way. when i get home i get a map of my route with time/elevation/speed data. and that's without any privileged api.

hackoder2• 17 years ago

Exactly. This is android's strength. It does everything the iPhone does, but more. It gives devs and users more power, IF NEEDED. If you want, you can build the same user-friendly, no complex-options kinda apps. And if you want, you can build apps to please the geek crowd too. Its the perfect mixture of iPhone and windows mobile.

netsp• 17 years ago

I'm going to nitpick. Adroid's strategy is that it's not tied to one brand, one manufacturer, one feature-set, and one network. Time will tell if it is a strength.

Apple has not launched an Iphone strategy that is the opposite by chance. It is deliberate.

natrius• 17 years ago

I like to think that I'm capable enough to select which applications to run at the same time to do what I want without sacrificing too much battery life.

Customers do/will care when their friends show them what they can do with Google Voice that they'll never be able to do on their iPhone.

j79• 17 years ago

Two ways to look at that:

1. Apple hasn't had any real competition up to this point. When customers start seeing Google Voice on other phones, the demand will force Apple to rethink their approval policy. Google Voice may not be on the iPhone yet, but saying it will never be on the iPhone is a stretch.

2. Some customers may respond, "Sure, Google Voice is cool...but can your phone do this?", and then have a conversation with you in an auto-tuned voice using an iPhone app (of course, no one would blame you for smacking them...but there is a segment of iPhone users who will stick with the iPhone purely for the apps...)

Of course, Android's market share may get to the point where developers will be happy working on two platforms (or shifting primarily to Android and it's range of devices...)

ygd_coder2• 17 years ago

We can SSH in to it!?

chaostheory• 17 years ago

Since this is on Verizon, the big question for me is "Will Droid have built-in wifi?"

ygd_coder2• 17 years ago

I know the Cliq will (T-mobile's Droid). So I'm guessing that the Droid will get it too.

iofthestorm2• 17 years ago

Err, I think the Cliq is actually a totally different phone for T-mobile but with a similar form factor. The hardware on the Droid is much better, eg. 848x480 screen instead of 480x320 screen. I don't think the Cliq has an OMAP SoC either, probably ARM11. And the Droid uses stock Android 2.0, whereas the Cliq has Android 1.6 or 1.5 with Motorola's MOTOBLUR on top. But the Droid will have wifi, since it's a higher end model, and Verizon has changed its policy of removing wifi now that they require data plans on smartphones anyway.

iofthestorm2• 17 years ago

All Verizon smartphones will now have wifi. This is because all Verizon smartphones now also require you to get a data plan anyway. Kind of meh, but it's not going to discourage me from getting this phone. Having a data plan is still fairly useful, and since I'm on a family plan I only would have to pay for the data plan anyway.

miles• 17 years ago

"All Verizon smartphones will now have wifi. This is because all Verizon smartphones now also require you to get a data plan anyway."

WiFi does not refer to Verizon's wireless data offering, but to 802.11b/g, etc. Most Verizon phones do not offer WiFi. The iPhone offers both EDGE and WiFi connections.

brg• 17 years ago

While the specs are nice, Google needs to get its app store in much better shape.

FreeKill• 17 years ago

Yeah, you still can't buy paid apps in Canada with the Google App Store. Only free apps...

jamesbritt• 17 years ago

It needs to be easy to find and buy apps without having to go through a One True App Store.

_cbsz2• 17 years ago

Price, price, price. I'll get excited when I buy a device at fixed cost, pay $30/mo for data, and that's it.

timf2• 17 years ago

You can do that on AT&T

nuclear_eclipse• 17 years ago

And on T-Mobile.

kingnothing• 17 years ago

Looks like T-Mobile is in the midst of creating almost exactly what you want. $60 / mo for unlimited data, voice, and messaging and no subsidies on the phones.

http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=15776&news=...

jimm• 17 years ago

Many friends have told me that Verizon cripples their phones horribly---removing or disabling features that are available in comparable phones on other networks.

Will this be true for the Droid?

mshafrir• 17 years ago

Knowing Verizon, until notified otherwise assume no WiFi and no built-in GPS.

fpgeek• 17 years ago

Allegedly, Verizon is softening on these fronts. I expect Droid to include WiFi and GPS at launch.

My arguments for that position: 1. Droid specs on phandroid (and other sites) include WiFi and GPS. Given Verizon's involvement with the phone's development it would (at the very least) strange if they crippled them. Also, do you think Google would have been involved with Droid (as opposed to letting Verizon run with the open-source code on their own) if they knew Verizon was going to cripple it?

2. How long would it take Apple to mercilessly expose the "iDon't" marketing campaign if the iPhone has features (WiFi and GPS) that Droid doesn't?

3. I remember reading (sadly, I don't remember where) that all future Blackberrys on Verizon will include WiFi. If that's accurate, Verizon must be softening on WiFi and there's no good reason to cripple Droid out-of-the-gate. In fact, I wonder if Droid's WiFi is what gave Blackberry the leverage to insist on WiFi for their phones as well.

jsz0• 17 years ago

I think Verizon is making a mistake getting so caught up with the iPhone. Android is in more direct competition with Nokia, RIM, Microsoft and Palm competing across multiple carriers. Apple is still a relatively smaller player in mobiles but has traditionally strong brand/customer loyalty. I'm not sure the average iPhone owner cares much about the technical differences/limitations. There's probably a much lower barrier of entry to Android for someone who isn't hung up on iTunes syncing for example.

stcredzero• 17 years ago

If Verizon could hold their own with Apple in terms of polish, they could go on to best them with better access to a better network and more liberal policies on how customers can use the hardware they just paid a lot of money for. (Background apps.) By doing this, they could win over the techie and hipster sets who are the trendsetters.

Unfortunately, I don't think it's in Verizon's DNA to do this.

b3b0p• 17 years ago

I don't understand the statement people are making when they say Apple has had no competition. They did not create the phone or smart phone market. Maybe I'm missing something, but didn't Apple only raise the bar in terms of usability for smart phones and marketing to the consumer? In what area does Apple not have any competition right now?

I have an iPhone 3G and I'm quite excited to see Android become more popular.

protomyth2• 17 years ago

One of the commenters of the article stated that the G1 cannot run Android 2.0? Is this just a bunch of FUD or is this true?

klocksib• 17 years ago

They may not be able to update the G1 due to the limited size of the G1's internal flash. http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/17/t-mobile-g1-wont-see-any-...

callmeed• 17 years ago

How do android phones sync with one's Mac? Is there different software for each phone/carrier?

enomar• 17 years ago

Sync what? Google devices like the G1 and MyTouch sync over the network to Google's services (apps, contacts, email, etc.) and over USB for things like music. I expect the "droid" to be no different.

Verizon Droid Is The Real Deal

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