Droid Beats iPhone 3GS For Time Magazine's Top Gadget Of 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
In a bit of a surprising twist, Time magazine has named the Motorola Droid the number one gadget of 2009 on their list of top tech toys for the year. The device beat out the iPhone 3GS, who's predecessor took the top slot last year. The main reason they give for the honor of number one is that in their opinion, it's the first device to pair the hardware with the Google Android OS, positioning it to be the first real iPhone competitor.
Their praise of the iPhone 3GS was less than glimmering, noting that the new device boasts little more than a speed increase.
"Take the iPhone. Make it faster. There, you're done," the story said. "Yes, the 3GS has a better camera — with video. And it has a compass and voice control. Those are all improvements over the original. But the main point of, and the best thing about, the new iPhone is speed. It has more of it. Period."
Source:http://www.iphonealley.com
Main Story:http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1945379_1944278,00.html
"The Droid is a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don't miss it," the magazine said. "The Droid's touchscreen is phenomenally sharp and vivid, it has an actual physical (not great, but good enough) keyboard, and best of all, the Droid is on Verizon's best-of-breed 3G network. It's Android's first credible challenge to the iPhone."
Their praise of the iPhone 3GS was less than glimmering, noting that the new device boasts little more than a speed increase.
"Take the iPhone. Make it faster. There, you're done," the story said. "Yes, the 3GS has a better camera — with video. And it has a compass and voice control. Those are all improvements over the original. But the main point of, and the best thing about, the new iPhone is speed. It has more of it. Period."
Source:http://www.iphonealley.com
Main Story:http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1945379_1944278,00.html
Labels: Google's Droid, iPhone News, Motorola Droid, Verizon Motorola Droid
Droid on track to sell 1 million by year end
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Motorola and Verizon are on track to selling 1 million Droid phones by year end, a huge success for both companies. The company has sold between 700,000 and 800,000 units in the first month of its release, beating early predictions of only selling just over half a million in 2009.
The Droid runs on Android 2.0 from Google, which offers numerous feature list, including ones missing from the iPhone. Android 2.0 debuted on the Droid at the beginning on November, adding dozens of features over the previous version, including a new interface.
Droid had a $100 million marketing campaign push to help promote the new smartphone in the North American market, something that seems to have paid off. The Motorola Droid estimated to sell only 600,000 units by the end of 2009, but has already passed expectations.
Even though the Motorola Droid failed to beat iPhone sales, it managed to sell roughly 100,000 in the first two days; it didn't come near the estimated 1 million iPhone 3G and 3GS sold in their opening weeks.
The Droid and Android comes feature packed and includes a 3.7-inch multi-touch screen, sliding QWERTY keyboard, 5-megapixel camera, MicroSDHC support, an interchangeable battery.
Motorola Droid starts at $199.99 US, same retail price as the iPhone 3GS 16GB.
Source: http://www.neowin.net/
The Droid runs on Android 2.0 from Google, which offers numerous feature list, including ones missing from the iPhone. Android 2.0 debuted on the Droid at the beginning on November, adding dozens of features over the previous version, including a new interface.
Droid had a $100 million marketing campaign push to help promote the new smartphone in the North American market, something that seems to have paid off. The Motorola Droid estimated to sell only 600,000 units by the end of 2009, but has already passed expectations.
Even though the Motorola Droid failed to beat iPhone sales, it managed to sell roughly 100,000 in the first two days; it didn't come near the estimated 1 million iPhone 3G and 3GS sold in their opening weeks.
The Droid and Android comes feature packed and includes a 3.7-inch multi-touch screen, sliding QWERTY keyboard, 5-megapixel camera, MicroSDHC support, an interchangeable battery.
Motorola Droid starts at $199.99 US, same retail price as the iPhone 3GS 16GB.
Source: http://www.neowin.net/
Labels: Motorola Droid, Motorola handsets, Verizon Motorola Droid
Motorola probably sold 250,000 Droids in first week, Flurry says
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Motorola probably sold 250,000 Droids in the first week, making it the Android platform’s first legitimate challenger to the iPhone, according to analytics firm Flurry. Those figures are more than four times what HTC and T-Mobile were able to do with the MyTouch phone and about one-sixth of what Apple pulled off with the iPhone 3GS in their first weeks. (Keep in mind that Apple launched that model in eight countries, not one like the Droid, and already had a base of users ready to upgrade from older versions.
Flurry made its estimates through the analytics service it provides for more than 10,000 apps. The company says the apps that it tracks are on two out of every three iPhone and Android handsets worldwide. So it derived an estimate from the number of new Android handsets it detected that week and cross-checked its methodology against actual sales numbers for Apple’s iPhone 3GS.
Flurry’s estimates are also broadly in line with others’. Broadpoint AmTech’s Mark McKechnie said Motorola did 100,000 phones in sales during the first weekend, while Macquarie’s Phil Cusick said the phone had 200,000 sales in its debut weekend.
Flurry’s Vice President of Marketing Peter Farago wrote:
Image Source:http://blog.flurry.com/
Main Story:http://blog.flurry.com/bid/28266/Droid-Does-Deliver-Flurry-Uses-its-Analytics-to-Measure-Week-1-Sales
Source:http://venturebeat.com/2009/11/16/motorola-probably-sold-250000-droids-in-first-week-flurry-says/
Flurry made its estimates through the analytics service it provides for more than 10,000 apps. The company says the apps that it tracks are on two out of every three iPhone and Android handsets worldwide. So it derived an estimate from the number of new Android handsets it detected that week and cross-checked its methodology against actual sales numbers for Apple’s iPhone 3GS.
Flurry’s estimates are also broadly in line with others’. Broadpoint AmTech’s Mark McKechnie said Motorola did 100,000 phones in sales during the first weekend, while Macquarie’s Phil Cusick said the phone had 200,000 sales in its debut weekend.
Flurry’s Vice President of Marketing Peter Farago wrote:
The launch of Droid signals the beginning of a viable platform alternative to the iPhone as Android builds critical mass. As major companies continue to vie for a piece of the exploding Smartphone market, the consumer has never had more choice and innovation in the mobile industry. With Droid, Motorola has raised the bar for Android handsets, contributing to an ever-growing base of Android handsets upon which applications developers can build a business.
Image Source:http://blog.flurry.com/
Main Story:http://blog.flurry.com/bid/28266/Droid-Does-Deliver-Flurry-Uses-its-Analytics-to-Measure-Week-1-Sales
Source:http://venturebeat.com/2009/11/16/motorola-probably-sold-250000-droids-in-first-week-flurry-says/
Labels: iPhone 3 GS, MyTouch phone, Smartphonesmarket, Verizon Motorola Droid
100,000 DROIDS And Counting
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Estimates are in, and according to Broadpoint AmTech Inc representative Mark McKechnie, Motorola and Verizon Wireless probably sold 100,000 Droid phones in the opening weekend of the device’s launch. Stores were initially stocked with 200,000 and about half of each store’s inventory was depleted, with the 100,000 figure being a logical and unscientific extension.
Check out what Citigroup’s Jim Suva had to say on the matter:
Are you doing the same math as me? Motorola themselves will sell about 1/3 the number of Android Phones as Apple will sell iPhones next year. And then you’ve got Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony Ericsson and all of the other phone makers driving Android Phone sales.
Read full story here: http://phandroid.com/2009/11/10/100000-droids-and-counting/
Check out what Citigroup’s Jim Suva had to say on the matter:
- “It wasn’t as good as the iPhone, but anybody that was expecting that had their expectations too high,” said Suva, who recommends buying Motorola shares. Traffic in Verizon stores through the first three days was “continually good,” he said.
Motorola may sell 1.3 million Android phones in the fourth quarter and 9 million next year, Suva said. Apple will sell 8 million iPhones this quarter and 28.5 million next year, he predicts.
Are you doing the same math as me? Motorola themselves will sell about 1/3 the number of Android Phones as Apple will sell iPhones next year. And then you’ve got Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony Ericsson and all of the other phone makers driving Android Phone sales.
Read full story here: http://phandroid.com/2009/11/10/100000-droids-and-counting/
Labels: Android, Android Market, Google's Droid, Verizon Motorola Droid
Review: Google's Droid could be iPhone killer
Monday, November 09, 2009
Apple’s iPhone has dominated the smart-phone market the past couple of years, tearing down would be “iPhone killers” almost on a monthly basis.
This could soon change with the new Droid. Coupled with Google’s open-source software, Verizon's blazing network and Motorola’s new-age design, the Droid makes for a powerful Apple-directed dagger.
Structure
The phone is made up of two main pieces, the large, glass display up top, and the slightly longer keyboard / mainboard lower half. Above the 3.7-inch touch screen -- a full glass display with a large 480-by-854 resolution (slightly bigger than the iPhone).
There are four main buttons at the bottom of the display: back, menu, home and search. The top section slides smoothly upward to reveal the QWERTY keyboard.
The phone also has a 3.5-mm headphone jack and a power / sleep button, and camera button, a micro-USB port; a 5-megapixel camera (and flash), a thin, gold crosshatch strip that hides the Droid's speaker.
The thickness of the Droid is striking. It's just a bit thicker than the iPhone 3GS, which is impressive, considering it sports a full keyboard, a bigger screen than the iPhone and a flash-based camera.
Speed
The Droid sports a 600 MHz Arm Cortex A8 CPU 600MHz, with 256MB of RAM. That’s enough to browse the Internet, take a call on the speaker phone, while chatting it up on G-chat.
The phone was consistently responsive to opening and closing applications, switching between landscape and portrait modes, and multi-tasking. Users can further speed up their phone by turning off animations and effects.
Keyboard
The Droid’s built-in keyboard is a blessing for those still not comfortable with the virtual counterpart. The keyboard has shallow, but responsive click keys.
Although the keys can feel a bit cramped, typing on the Droid is an easy experience that will come naturally after a couple of days of use.
If you’re into the onscreen keyboard, you won’t be disappointed. The buttons are relatively large, and most importantly pretty accurate. You won’t be using the delete button as much as many iPhone users complain they must.
Camera
Motorola has outfitted the DROID with a 5 megapixel camera with an LED flash. The camera features the Android software that controls auto focus, flash settings, white balance and effects.
The biggest problem is that the camera is e painfully slow to focus and take pictures. Users can tweak the settings between close-ups and landscape photos to try to speed up the camera speed, but it's not an easy thing to do on the fly.
The quality of recorded video is one of the Droid's biggest assets. The Droid shoots at 720-by-480 resolution that produced some impressive shake-free videos and clear videos. The camera was able to handle shooting in bright sunlight, at night and even on a rainy day.
The Droid won’t replace the camera you use for weddings or formal social events, but it’s one of the sweetest phone cameras around.
Software
So what did Google do to support all the hardware pushed by Motorola? The biggest thing that will jump out to iPhone users is the multi-application support.
Users can read their Gmail, while listening to Pandora radio, while the built-in GPS tracks their location.
Gmail and Gchat setup is as easy as signing in to your Google account during the initial setup. After that, the phone will be continually connected to both (unless you choose otherwise). Users can also easily setup POP / IMAP / Exchange email accounts on the Droid.
Facebook account integration is built into the Android, so that all your friends will sync on your contact and calendar list. (Thankfully, this is only an option.) As for the application itself, you get a widget with the news feed, photos, friends list, profile, notifications, and an option to take a picture to post.
The contact list is straightforward. The quick contact function allows users to tap on someone's name and get a menu with jumps to the various ways you can reach out; if you're friends with someone on Facebook, you'll be given an option to message them there, along with SMS, phone, and e-mail choices.
APPS
At the opening bell on Friday, the Droid will have about 25,000 (free and paid) applications available, ranging from Facebook and Twitter to hundred of games.
While the iPhone claims over 100,000 apps, it will only be a matter time before the Droid hits the six figure mark. With Google’s Android’s open source software, it will probably be sooner than later.
Browser
The Web browsing might be one of the biggest selling points of the Droid. Surfing the net on this thing is virtually painless. Compared to the Apple’s ATNT network, the Verizon 3G network is blazing.
The Droid’s browser had no problem quickly loading graphic intensive sites like Newsday.com.
Coupled with the Droid’s massive display, its responsiveness, and speed, browsing and navigating the Internet is pretty easy and painless.
GPS
The Droid features fully realized turn-by-turn navigation which integrates with Google Maps. If you're familiar with Google Maps, the navigation is intuitive and easy to learn.
Google has gone all out with the GPS extras, providing a rich mixture of its satellite, map, traffic, and location info with text-to-speech directions.
Google also added layers like parking info, ATM spots, restaurants, and gas station locations like most dedicated GPS devices.
Probably the most important part of the Droid’s GPS services, its free.
Battery
My biggest disappointment with the Droid was its relatively short battery life. If you’re thinking of using a lot of screen time or heavy application usage, the phone will let you down.
About 30 minutes of listening to Pandora radio through a headset, pretty much drained most of the phone's battery. If you’re considering the Droid, be prepared to buy a couple of sets of chargers (home, office, vehicle).
Overall
The Droid is an excellent smart-phone with many of the features that a modern user would expect, and for Verizon customers, there isn't a more action packed device on the network.
Coupled with Google’s smooth software, Verizon's killer network, and Motorola’s new-aged design, the Droid makes for a powerful tool.
Full Story:http://www.newsday.com/
This could soon change with the new Droid. Coupled with Google’s open-source software, Verizon's blazing network and Motorola’s new-age design, the Droid makes for a powerful Apple-directed dagger.
Structure
The phone is made up of two main pieces, the large, glass display up top, and the slightly longer keyboard / mainboard lower half. Above the 3.7-inch touch screen -- a full glass display with a large 480-by-854 resolution (slightly bigger than the iPhone).
There are four main buttons at the bottom of the display: back, menu, home and search. The top section slides smoothly upward to reveal the QWERTY keyboard.
The phone also has a 3.5-mm headphone jack and a power / sleep button, and camera button, a micro-USB port; a 5-megapixel camera (and flash), a thin, gold crosshatch strip that hides the Droid's speaker.
The thickness of the Droid is striking. It's just a bit thicker than the iPhone 3GS, which is impressive, considering it sports a full keyboard, a bigger screen than the iPhone and a flash-based camera.
Speed
The Droid sports a 600 MHz Arm Cortex A8 CPU 600MHz, with 256MB of RAM. That’s enough to browse the Internet, take a call on the speaker phone, while chatting it up on G-chat.
The phone was consistently responsive to opening and closing applications, switching between landscape and portrait modes, and multi-tasking. Users can further speed up their phone by turning off animations and effects.
Keyboard
The Droid’s built-in keyboard is a blessing for those still not comfortable with the virtual counterpart. The keyboard has shallow, but responsive click keys.
Although the keys can feel a bit cramped, typing on the Droid is an easy experience that will come naturally after a couple of days of use.
If you’re into the onscreen keyboard, you won’t be disappointed. The buttons are relatively large, and most importantly pretty accurate. You won’t be using the delete button as much as many iPhone users complain they must.
Camera
Motorola has outfitted the DROID with a 5 megapixel camera with an LED flash. The camera features the Android software that controls auto focus, flash settings, white balance and effects.
The biggest problem is that the camera is e painfully slow to focus and take pictures. Users can tweak the settings between close-ups and landscape photos to try to speed up the camera speed, but it's not an easy thing to do on the fly.
The quality of recorded video is one of the Droid's biggest assets. The Droid shoots at 720-by-480 resolution that produced some impressive shake-free videos and clear videos. The camera was able to handle shooting in bright sunlight, at night and even on a rainy day.
The Droid won’t replace the camera you use for weddings or formal social events, but it’s one of the sweetest phone cameras around.
Software
So what did Google do to support all the hardware pushed by Motorola? The biggest thing that will jump out to iPhone users is the multi-application support.
Users can read their Gmail, while listening to Pandora radio, while the built-in GPS tracks their location.
Gmail and Gchat setup is as easy as signing in to your Google account during the initial setup. After that, the phone will be continually connected to both (unless you choose otherwise). Users can also easily setup POP / IMAP / Exchange email accounts on the Droid.
Facebook account integration is built into the Android, so that all your friends will sync on your contact and calendar list. (Thankfully, this is only an option.) As for the application itself, you get a widget with the news feed, photos, friends list, profile, notifications, and an option to take a picture to post.
The contact list is straightforward. The quick contact function allows users to tap on someone's name and get a menu with jumps to the various ways you can reach out; if you're friends with someone on Facebook, you'll be given an option to message them there, along with SMS, phone, and e-mail choices.
APPS
At the opening bell on Friday, the Droid will have about 25,000 (free and paid) applications available, ranging from Facebook and Twitter to hundred of games.
While the iPhone claims over 100,000 apps, it will only be a matter time before the Droid hits the six figure mark. With Google’s Android’s open source software, it will probably be sooner than later.
Browser
The Web browsing might be one of the biggest selling points of the Droid. Surfing the net on this thing is virtually painless. Compared to the Apple’s ATNT network, the Verizon 3G network is blazing.
The Droid’s browser had no problem quickly loading graphic intensive sites like Newsday.com.
Coupled with the Droid’s massive display, its responsiveness, and speed, browsing and navigating the Internet is pretty easy and painless.
GPS
The Droid features fully realized turn-by-turn navigation which integrates with Google Maps. If you're familiar with Google Maps, the navigation is intuitive and easy to learn.
Google has gone all out with the GPS extras, providing a rich mixture of its satellite, map, traffic, and location info with text-to-speech directions.
Google also added layers like parking info, ATM spots, restaurants, and gas station locations like most dedicated GPS devices.
Probably the most important part of the Droid’s GPS services, its free.
Battery
My biggest disappointment with the Droid was its relatively short battery life. If you’re thinking of using a lot of screen time or heavy application usage, the phone will let you down.
About 30 minutes of listening to Pandora radio through a headset, pretty much drained most of the phone's battery. If you’re considering the Droid, be prepared to buy a couple of sets of chargers (home, office, vehicle).
Overall
The Droid is an excellent smart-phone with many of the features that a modern user would expect, and for Verizon customers, there isn't a more action packed device on the network.
Coupled with Google’s smooth software, Verizon's killer network, and Motorola’s new-aged design, the Droid makes for a powerful tool.
Full Story:http://www.newsday.com/
Labels: Google News, Google's Droid, Verizon Motorola Droid
iPhone 3GS vs Verizon Motorola Droid: what has better camera?
Friday, November 06, 2009
Now when it comes to the Apple iPhone 3GS and the Verizon Motorola Droid many are probably wondering what smartphone has the best camera, well here is a little insight with a few answers.
Verizon Droid vs. iPhone 3GS Side-by-Side Camera Showdown is what TiPB are calling it, right first up the Motorola DROID has a 5 megapixel dual LED flash which is better than the iPhone’s 3.2 MP camera, so on the spec sheet the DROID is better, NOPE afraid not.
Well apparently when you put photos up side-by-side of these two phones which you can see over on Flickr it seems the 5 MP is not as good as the 3.2MP. The iPhone produces and consistently produced prettier images and this is down to the software because the Droids software is easily bamboozled by uncooperative lighting.
For more information please get to : www.phonesreview.co.uk
Verizon Droid vs. iPhone 3GS Side-by-Side Camera Showdown is what TiPB are calling it, right first up the Motorola DROID has a 5 megapixel dual LED flash which is better than the iPhone’s 3.2 MP camera, so on the spec sheet the DROID is better, NOPE afraid not.
Well apparently when you put photos up side-by-side of these two phones which you can see over on Flickr it seems the 5 MP is not as good as the 3.2MP. The iPhone produces and consistently produced prettier images and this is down to the software because the Droids software is easily bamboozled by uncooperative lighting.
For more information please get to : www.phonesreview.co.uk
Labels: Android device, iPhone News, Verizon Motorola Droid, Verizon News
