Popular Mechanics- Why Motorola's Droid Is a Sure-Fire Hit: Analysis

[Stangs55]

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Why Motorola's Droid Is a Sure-Fire Hit: Analysis


Maybe the stakes are just higher now, but it seems like every major cellphone launch these days is billed as a "Do or Die" proposition

 

[michaelk]

...
This desire is why Verizon could sell enough units of the original BlackBerry Storm to consider the phone a hit, despite the fact that it was a barely usable mess of bugs when it first came out. ....

man that is accurate.

Hopefully the droid does well becasue it's great not becasue it's the best thing verizon happens to have in their weak stable of smartphones.

 

[knickerbocker]

My favorite quote from a review so far:

With Android 2.0, we’ve come to a very difficult crossroad. No longer can we recommend one handset over the other simply by its feature set. At this point, it’s all about the person who will be carrying it. For you, dearest TechCrunch Network reader: Yes, I’d probably recommend the Droid over an iPhone. Would I recommend it for your mother, father, or little sister? Nope. If you want a phone that just works and does damned near everything you could want and don’t mind Apple’s closed garden: by all means, get the iPhone. If you can handle a bit of complexity for the sake of flexibility and don’t mind having to tinker a bit: by all means, get the Droid. At this point, I honestly feel that either choice would make any sane person incredibly happy.

 

[DGalt]

My favorite quote from a review so far:

With Android 2.0, we’ve come to a very difficult crossroad. No longer can we recommend one handset over the other simply by its feature set. At this point, it’s all about the person who will be carrying it. For you, dearest TechCrunch Network reader: Yes, I’d probably recommend the Droid over an iPhone. Would I recommend it for your mother, father, or little sister? Nope. If you want a phone that just works and does damned near everything you could want and don’t mind Apple’s closed garden: by all means, get the iPhone. If you can handle a bit of complexity for the sake of flexibility and don’t mind having to tinker a bit: by all means, get the Droid. At this point, I honestly feel that either choice would make any sane person incredibly happy.

Completely agree. I've avoided the smartphone market up until now because I refuse to leave verizon but so far their smartphones have been meh at best. Finally there is not only a decent phone, but a highly competitive phone. Yay for not being forced to a crappier service just to get the best phone out there

 

[dmodert66]

Completely agree. I've avoided the smartphone market up until now because I refuse to leave verizon but so far their smartphones have been meh at best. Finally there is not only a decent phone, but a highly competitive phone. Yay for not being forced to a crappier service just to get the best phone out there

Exact same thing here...I've been using an Alias (talk about a cramped, small keyboard) for almost 2 years now...Since my "upgrade" is coming up in December, I was just going to get an EnV Touch, but then news of the Droid started leaking...I'm very happy I waited, and I will not leave VZ for a phone. I prefer not to have dropped calls and pay a little more for my plans. Since I had the $30 all you can eat net/navigator/text it is only going to cost me $10 more a month (drop my line price from $30 to $10 then add $30 Data plan). Great article, and I agree with most of what he said...

 

[johnlgalt]

Completely agree. I've avoided the smartphone market up until now because I refuse to leave verizon but so far their smartphones have been meh at best. Finally there is not only a decent phone, but a highly competitive phone. Yay for not being forced to a crappier service just to get the best phone out there

Exact same thing here...I've been using an Alias (talk about a cramped, small keyboard) for almost 2 years now...Since my "upgrade" is coming up in December, I was just going to get an EnV Touch, but then news of the Droid started leaking...I'm very happy I waited, and I will not leave VZ for a phone. I prefer not to have dropped calls and pay a little more for my plans. Since I had the $30 all you can eat net/navigator/text it is only going to cost me $10 more a month (drop my line price from $30 to $10 then add $30 Data plan). Great article, and I agree with most of what he said...

Same boat as both of you - my sister has an iPhone w/ AT&T and loves to say "It's so simple!" "It works all the time!" "I've never had any of those problems the other people complain about!"

Yeah, right. She has been moaning about not being able to access 3G, has had major OS issues with the phone twice now (and both times it has taken more than a couple of hours on the phone (concurrently speaking) to get it fixed), and she herself admits that she stays one generation behind to let the bugs out of the current generation get worked out....

I, OTOH, have not had a smartphone yet. The closest I came to that was an iPaq 2490c that I had for data since it has WiFi (barely - B only) but I am thoroughly excited about this Droid. This is the first time I have been this excited about a smartphone (presumably b/c before I knoew I would never get one).

The $199 price tag is not daunting in any way - the GPS alone pays for that ....

 

[CRPercodani]

Oh yeah, with the iphone I never dared upgrade when itunes told me to. You never know what kind of trouble you might get yourself into. Even when I was in Boston I wouldn't keep a 3G signal, it would always go back to edge. I'm excited about the Google GPS, if it is really good like everyone is saying then I can sell my Mio.