Mobile Presence

By: Angela Soric

The Droid, Motorola’s most anticipated phone since the RAZR in 2004, was released today with much enthusiasm. 2,000 Verizon Wireless stores opened early this morning for the release.

“This is the first handset that truly realizes the full potential of Android” said Jeff Dougan, the OMAP 3 product marketing manager at Texas Instruments.

Droid Features
• The device is 4.56 by 2.36 inches and weighs just under 6 ounces.
• The phone features 3.7-inch, 854-by-480 pixel touchscreen display.
• It has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 5-megapixel camera with DVD-quality video recording.
• The Droid utilizes an Arm Cortex 550mHz A8 processor with 256MB of built-in memory. It has a 16GB microSD card and can be expanded to 32GB.
• Running the Android 2.0 operating system, the Droid is capable of multitasking and features unique options such as integrated turn-by-turn GPS navigation.
• The Droid connects to Google’s Android Market, which features roughly 10,000 downloadable apps.

An added bonus for Droid users is the ability to use the device to tether, something the iPhone is not capable of. Tethering allows the mobile device and its data connection to be used as an Internet connection for another system like a laptop.

Motorola’s Droid will force the market to think in a new way about real and potential competitors to both the BlackBerry and iPhone. It also means that Google’s Android 2.0 operating system, with the promise of being open for developers and a new ecosystem that can focus on personalization and customization, is now making good on its promise. [ChannelWeb]