Droid details, photos leaked by Motorola
Call it the case of the itchy trigger finger.
Five days ahead of schedule, Motorola temporarily posted photos and specs of its Droid smart phone, which has until now remained under tight wraps. Just as quickly, the company yanked down the offending information – but not before a handful of tech sites, including PC Magazine, managed to grab some screen-shots.
Earlier this month, the Boy Genius Report posted images of the Droid, along with a hands-on review. “The Droid, even in its non-final form, is the most impressive phone we’ve used since the iPhone. It’s positively amazing," the folks at BGR noted. The BGR images showed a phone that resembled a Sidekick, with a touchscreen that slides open to reveal a QWERTY keyboard.
Today's slip-up seemed to prove that those BGR were accurate. Here's PC Mag on the full specs:
Its color will be "licorice w/brown sugar accents." The phone has an unusually high-resolution, 3.7-inch 480-by-854 touch screen; the iPhone's touch screen is only 320x480 resolution. The Droid's OS is Android 2.0, as Verizon previously showed on their teaser Web site for the device. It is the first Android 2.0 phone. The Droid has a 550-MHz processor, according to the site, which didn't describe the processor architecture.
Verizon has set a release date of Oct. 30 for the Droid, which is being billed as an Apple iPhone killer. A series of commercials, aired during NFL games and the MLB playoffs, have questioned the usefulness of Apple’s best-selling phone. (See Droid video below.)
“iDon’t have a real keyboard. iDon’t run simultaneous apps. iDon’t take night shots. iDon’t allow open development,” reads copy posted on the Droid website. “iDon’t customize. iDon’t run widgets. iDon’t have interchangeable batteries. Everything iDon’t, Droid does.”
The Droid has churned up a good deal of buzz among bloggers and analysts. Most tend to see the Motorola smart phone as a credible threat – with a lot of ground to cover before it can push past the iPhone. Over at CNET, Matt Rosoff points out the Droid won't have access to iTunes, which could make all the difference:
Verizon, Motorola, and Google haven't said much about music for the Droid. Maybe they still have a musical trick or two up their collective sleeves. But without some sort of equivalent to the iTunes desktop application, the Droid may be a great phone, but it won't be a great music phone.
Are you sold? Or will you be standing by your iPhone? Drop us a line here, or on Twitter, @CSMHorizonsBlog.
