Droid launch party could be cut short by arrival of new iPhone

Verizon is touting its Droid phone as an Apple killer. But one blogger says that a cheaper iPhone is close to release – and it could run roughshod over the big Droid launch.

Droid launch day is here, and it couldn't come soon enough. For weeks, we've been digging through the waves of buzz surrounding the Android 2.0 Droid – the iDon't commercials, the photo leaks, the Droid Eris, the official list of specs, a massive Droid launch event in New York City, and that cool Droid advertisement with all the stealth bombers.

Sorry folks, but the Horizons team has Droid launch fatigue.

So imagine our happiness when we turned on the Internets this morning and discovered that someone else feels the same way. According to the team over at Boy Genius Report, Apple is in the final stages of prepping a bargain-basement priced iPhone, which would undercut the Droid, and bring the Droid launch party to a screeching halt.

BGR is filing their report under the category of "whisper," but it should be said that BGR is rarely wrong – this is the blog that had the Droid specs before anyone else, and the site has been exceptionally snappy with picking up gossip on all manner of smartphone. If BGR is correct, Apple would launch a $99 8GB iPhone 3G S sometime in the next month.

The idea is pretty clear: A sub-$100 iPhone, priced for Christmas shoppers, and rolled out right in time to flatten the Droid launch parade. (It should be said that the $99 iPhone would obviously only come in at $99 if you bought the thing with a 2-year contract.)

Meanwhile, many bloggers have whipped themselves into a frenzy over a second Droid smartphone, which is being manufactured by the Taiwan company HTC. The Droid Eris, which will also be sold by Verizon, will reportedly get a price tag of $100, less than half the cost of the Motorola Droid, and right in line with the BGM estimate on a cheaper iPhone.

Among the features on the HTC Droid Eris are a Qualcomm MSM 7600 528MHz processor, a 5.0 megapixel auto focus camera, and a 3.2 inch 320×480 HVGA capacitive touch screen.

Are you sold? Or will you be standing by your iPhone? Drop us a line here, or on Twitter, @CSMHorizonsBlog.