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Verizon Confirms Droid's Release Date and Pricing Info

Posted 10/28/09 at 12:20:07 PM  by Paul Lilly

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If we're to believe the hype (and it's awfully convincing), Motorola's upcoming Droid smartphone could be the first handset to truly challenge Apple's iPhone. We'll find out soon enough, as Verizon today confirmed Droid will arrive next Friday, November 6, for $199 with a 2-year contract and $100 mail-in-rebate.

"This is an exciting announcement for Verizon Wireless, as the Droid by Motorola is the first device that we are bringing to market under our ground-breaking strategic partnership with Google," said John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless. "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."

Built around the all new Android 2.0 (Eclair) platform, the slim (0.5 inches thick) smartphone has a lot going for it, including a 3.7-inch, 854x480 capacitive touchscreen, a built-in 5MP camera, DVD-quality video recording, a TI OMAP 3430 processor based on ARM's Cortex-A8 architecture and capable of racing along at up to 600MHz, Microsoft Exchange support, HTML5 support, and a bunch more, all of which will be heavily marketed.

"The marketing campaign that will support the launch of the Droid will be the largest in our history. We're going to put significant energy behind this product," Stratton added.

If Droid lives up the hype, the marketing may take care of itself.

Image Credit: Motorola

COMMENTS:5
TAGS: operating system, Software, Smartphone, open-source, OS, Verizon, hardware, android, droid
COMMENTS
avatarEverybody buy this phone

Submitted by rclamp on Thu, 10/29/2009 - 5:44am

I hope this phone sells like mad so it forces Apple to get it in gear and fix the lingering iPhone issues: lack of multitasking, worthless "slide to unlock" screen that could be a great info dashboard, terrible battery life, lack of customization, etc.

I'm already fairly committed to the iPhone, so it would take something major for me to switch, but these new Android devices in the pipeline are looking more and more tempting.

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avatarGonna get it!

Submitted by Carbon on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 12:32pm

I'm on T-Mobile with un-limited minutes so hopefully this thing will be able to be un-locked and used on the Tmo network.

I'm in, if so!
I've squeezed every ounce out of my G1 and need more now!

 

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avatarI'm due for a new phone this

Submitted by festre on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 9:58am

I'm due for a new phone this november and this should be a much improvement over my current motorola "CRAZER" phone. QWERTY board on this new phone looks a bit flat....i hope its just the pic doing that.

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avatarLooks very nice. I got rid

Submitted by wetjet550 on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 9:54am

Looks very nice. I got rid of my iphone because I didn't like the keyboard, email functions, and the battery life was a joke! Hopefully this device will get me back to a nice smart phone (and away from at&t!) I'll have to go play with one.

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avatarSlick looking phone. If only

Submitted by neo1piv14 on Wed, 10/28/2009 - 9:45am

Slick looking phone. If only they would have had that phone before I renewed my contract with Tmobile... Oh well, still loving the G1

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