The Hero was uglied up for the US market, the nexusOne “Google” phone is dead ugly and this is just another version of that phone.

Say what you will, but Apple knows how to make a product look amazing … the competitors are not even close. Sure I want a phone that performs but I want it to be sexy as hell.

These phones fail that test.

For what it’s worth, it’s only 14 new phones (not 25) by the end of 2009.
Of those 14, they have the:
1. Droid
2. Eris
3. Storm 2
4. Imagio
5. Chocolate Touch
leaving 9 currently unaccounted for.

My bet is that there are at least 4 android devices before Christmas.. heck before dec 10th even.

@Brad – While i will agree that Moto/HTC releasing their own Andriod Phones makes for a competitive market which i stated before and agree with…if HTC releases two phones, they are only competing against themselves for Business. If one of HTC’s had a physical keyboard and the other didn’t, then so be it. This is the exact same product on different Hardware from what i have heard so far. Which means one of these phones (if released together or very close to…) will not sell very well AT ALL. Look at all the people above who were content with getting the Desire/Sholes for Verizon, but are now waiting until this gets released! Think Verizon cares? Heck no! Whatever people buy; Verizon is making money…

It was also stated from a different source that the Desire would have updated hardware when compared to the Hero. I do not have the source URL handy, however that is also still speculation.

I reckon the only thing we can do is put aside our rather small petty differences and both hope that this thing comes out on Verizon…and soon! Because i really want to take a sledge hammer to this Storm! Seen office space? Then you know what i am getting at!

“Its the HTC Dragon! Well, sort of. It’s actually the CDMA version of the HTC Dragon that is headed to Verizon and going to be called the HTC Passion.”

This is the CDMA version… so maybe we will see this on more than one carrier…

or something like it

all of these phones are making things really interesting…i hope the droid increases the profile for android in general…there needs to be more devices like that to really hammer it into the minds of the general public

Dude, please, go look at official pictures of the HTC Imagio. The “3G” icon is CLEARLY displayed in the top status bar. The 3G icon is proof of nothing at this point, other than that it’s a 3G device, which is a given regardless. Also, the spy photo of the HTC Desire/Eris, which has the Verizon logo on it and will most likely NOT be a world phone, also has the 3G icon displayed. It’s been reported that all next-gen mobile operating systems (WinMo 6.5, BB OS 5.0, Android, WebOS, etc.) will standardize on the 3G icon, instead of using the 1X/EV icons, and I say it’s a very smart move to avoid consumer confusion. They don’t care what technology it is providing the speedy service, and 3G is a lot more recognizable term than EV-DO.

As for releasing these phones all back to back, it makes perfect sense. I’m sure for launching a new platform, Verizon wants enough devices so there’s something for everybody, both in features and price points, because not everybody wants the same features on a phone, or can afford the high-end devices. The HTC Desire/Eris would most likely be a low-end device, somewhere in the $150-180 range, subsidized (Sprint’s Hero goes for $180). The Moto Droid will be around $200, I’m guessing. The HTC Passion, being a high end device, I’m guessing will go for $250-300. That’s three price points. Also, the HTC phones look to be touchscreen only (unless the alleged Passion has a keyboard we can’t see yet), whereas the Droid has a slide-out keyboard for those that prefer that to a virtual keyboard, and it would of course be lacking Sense UI, in case somebody doesn’t like it and wants plain vanilla Android 2.0. And then for performance the Desire/Eris would be the slowest, the Droid in the middle, and the Passion on top, providing it has that 1GHz screamer under the hood.

That said, I still have my doubts about this one, specifically due to the lack of a Verizon logo anywhere on this device, and also because absolutely no details about the “research” have been revealed that would give any credibility to the claim. Still, I hope to see more info/pictures of this device soon. If Verizon really does get this device, that would mean they’ve finally gotten serious about getting some good hardware in their arsenal of phones.

if you look at the pics Boy Genius Report posted of the Droid it says “3G” and that is definitely coming to verizon, so you’re incorrect on that front, still, that only means it’s possibly verizon

i wouldn’t analyze the picture so much, the only thing the picture proves is that the person starting the rumor has access to the device, which makes their word on carrier and release date more credible

i’m also pretty skeptical though, not so much that it’s coming to verizon but about the release date, it’s possible that it’s been kept well under wraps but htc isn’t known for its secrecy and usually we find out about a device quite a few months before it’s released

6 months ago i thought verizon would never see a full featured android phone, now the droid will be the best android phone at the time of its release and this might arguably top it soon after

my question: if this comes out so soon after the desire, how do they expect to sell any desires unless they make them like $100?