By now you may have seen the new commercials for the Motorola Droid, which looks to be the next competitor to the iPhone. What makes this viable is the fact that a phone with a nice form factor and runs Google Android is now on the Verizon Network. This first ad takes a shot at the iPhone – right in the mouth.
The iPhone looks great, but the experiences that my friends have with the AT&T Network has deferred me from getting an iPhone. I own the Verizon xv6800 (which is basically a rebranded HTC Titan), which I have been mostly happy with. However, Windows Mobile drives me crazy. The fact that Microsoft doesn’t seem to put any serious development into the Windows Mobile roadmap really leaves me wondering if I’m riding on a sinking ship. The fact the Microsoft has taken this long simply to release Windows Mobile 6.5 – let alone 7.0 – is pretty appalling.
At the end of the day: It’s the Apps, stupid. iPhone has all of these great apps that you read and hear about, that are capturing the attention of the Smartphone consumers market. Android looks to have a promising app ecosystem, especially with the fact that they have a free SDK and an open platform. Now, if they can continue to build up their compelling App inventory, we may have a viable competitor.
The key to this whole thing is Verizon. Verizon, which is notorious for crippling their devices, will need to let Android to have free reign over the hardware to make this successful. They have the strongest network by far, which has been the compelling reason for keeping me as a customer. If I can have a phone that has access to the GPS, allows tethering and lets me do all that my hardware is capable of – Verizon and Motorola will have hit one out of the park.
Now I’m simply left to wonder if this will be my next phone. I’m up for a renewal discount next month, maybe this will be it.