Droid X Marks the Spot
A day before the iPhone 4 officially ships, representatives from Verizon, Google, Motorola and Adobe were on hand for a news conference to announce the release of Droid X with the tag line "Droid X: Droid Does neXt". After the opening introductions, Eric Schmidt of Google walked in from the back as a surprise guest. According to Schmidt, the “most powerful services are now mobile ones, not desktop ones.“
For this latest in the growing market of Android phones, Verizon announced a deal with Blockbuster where users can both rent and buy movies. Verizon’s VCast video will also be available as well as NFL Mobile App, Skype mobile and Back-up Assistant on the new Droid. The first Apple tweak (besides the timing) came when discussing Flash on Droid X.
Next to speak was Sanjay Jha, Motorola CEO, who played a video and then shared some of the features of the Droid X including a 8MP camera, HD capture, HD playback via HDMI. The Droid X will have a 1 GHz processor, 8 GB memory and a 16 GB card that is expandable to 40 GB total. The screen is 4.3” edge-to-edge with 854x480 resolution and 400,000+ pixels. Here’s where the second Apple dig came as Jha stated that people care more about screen size than resolution. As he said, "We're going to deliver an unparalleled smartphone experience."
The Droid X will also have what was described as true multi-touch keyboard that is pre-loaded with SWYPE. For additional $20 a month, your Droid X can be a WiFi Hotspot and connect up to 5 other WiFi devices, including PCs. It also has “high performance diversity antennas” because as Jha pointed out, "We realize that people still use phones as phones." The Droid X will also have three microphones for better sound clarity and support for Exchange and GMail Enterprise. Battery life is similar to the original Droid even though it has the larger screen and there was talk of a bigger battery pack option.
Andy Rubin from Google was next. As he put it, phones are a hits business. The Droid X is a hit thanks to Verizon, Motorola, and Google. Every day, over 160,000 Google enabled devices sold. That number was 100,000 just last month. The new Froyo Android OS (2.2) will be adding more cloud computing access and it is being open-sourced today. The Droid X comes with Advanced Task Killer preinstalled and running. As Harry McCracken of Technologizer pointed out, that fact is "depressing, but realistic."
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen was next and started by saying that “Flash is the "World's Most Pervasive Software." In the third Apple swipe, he threw in that Farmville runs on Flash. Adobe 10.1 is their best ever and moves the mobile version to all of the capabilities of the desktop version. While much was made about the X being able to run Flash, it won't at first. Instead, it's "Flash Ready" since Android 2.2 is required for it to be able to run Flash.
Droid X will ship on July 15th. The cost $199.99 after a $100 rebate. It’s $29.99 for the Smartphone service data plan with unlimited data and, as mentioned before, it’s $20 additional to add the Mobile HotSpot capability. The biggest surprise was the announcement that anyone with a Verizon contract ending in 2010 is eligible to upgrade on July 15th. The Droid X ships with Android 2.1 but will get 2.2 (Froyo) in late summer. The original Droid will also get Froyo then. There is no word on a pre-order date or even if there is going to be one.
We won’t know how the X will compare with the other phones in the Android family until we have one to test ourselves. Hopefully, that will be soon and we’ll let you know all about it!
