By With the release of the HTC Droid Incredible on Verizon, you would think that demand for the flagship Motorola Droid would decline, but today Moto’s Sanjay Jha revealed that they too are suffering from manufacturing shortages due to high demand. While no information was discerned about the components that may be causing the shortages, Jha offered, “If I could build more, I’d sell more.” I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that Verizon has been offering the phone as a buy-one-get-one-free deal and that Cellular South is launching the device shortly under the Motorola Milestone name.
In the same Executive Club presentation in Chicago, Jha mentioned that Motorola would be releasing two to four phones with front facing cameras this year even though he isn’t a strong believer in the demand for video conferencing. One of these we know to be the Droid Xtreme, after spying the front facing camera in leaked shots.
If there was any question as to whether Motorola was waning in Android relevancy Jha wants us to know that simply isn’t the case.
[via Reuters]
No surprise…the Moto Droid is a solid phone.
I know it completely changed my outlook on smartphones; now I have the Incredible. I kinda miss my Droid tho.
Probably doesn’t help the supply issue that Google gives them away like most people give away t-shirts. Android dev days, Google IO…Pretty much any Google event in the past year it seems :P
Its a good phone.
Would be nice if there were more about in the UK.
Well the Droid does have a better GPU than the Snapdragon…Overclock it and it blows Incredible Away
Many people still want the slide-out keyboard. I’ve met people that bought the Samsung Moment over a Hero/EVO because of the keyboard. I have also met two people that are regretting their Incredible purchase due to the lack of a keyboard.
No matter how good the virtual keyboards get – there will ALWAYS be a market for people that want physical keys.
I use my Droid keyboard all the time becuase I like to see the webpage I am on when entering information rather than just seeing a text box, then accidently submitting something because I tapped on the wrong field.
yes I want a keyboard and it makes an Android phone something that doesn’t look like an iPhone clone.
first thing that came to my mind? QWERTY. i myself am considering a mytouch slide over the N1 on tmo. so many reasons to like physical keys. i wish HTC would make an EVO or N1 with a keyboard!
the keyboard on the droid sucks, but i would not trade it for any phone out right now. i love my droid loaded up with overclocked froyo.
@dp:
i’m witcha on that one…HTC needs to make an EVO, Incredible or N1 with a physical keyboard like the one on the HTC Touch Pro 2!!
people like keyboards and naked android. Plus they are dirt cheap through amazon
@fernando
Have you ever used an Incredible? An overclocked Droid gets smoked by the much smoother, quicker Incredible.
Not to mention the Droid marketing is out of this world.
Yeah, even though some of the commercials are referring to the android OS, people are still relating that to the DROID phone.
Got an incredible, used a DROID before but don’t want it, but I respect what its done. Not a fan of the keyboard, and the new virtual keyboards out are every bit as good once you get used to it.
Kinda off topic but…I have a friend who wants to buy a Droid but cant get the discount because he is in the middle of his Verizon contract period…does anyone know if you can get a new Droid for less than the $550 retail price? He already has a contract, so he cant get the contract discount.
As for the incredible…meh. It felt plastic-y to me. I do like HTC Sense, but dont like that it delays updates. The Droid is metal and glass, and I love that. After a month, my glass screen looks brand new still, even up close. Not even tiny scratches on it.
virtual keyboards are not as good…because they take up most of the screen!
And I’m a PC gamer so I’m really hoping for games that use every key on the keyboard.
@ irishpride the quadrant standard benchmark tests prove that the moto droid overclocked to 1ghz like the incredible consistently scores higher overall. And the moto droid on froyo scores higher than the incredible on eclair regardless of clock speed.
Yeah, that will always be a limitation of virtual keyboards…they take up screen real estate. Thats the main reason I dont like them.
Its nice to have them as a backup though. I do use the virtual keyboards occasionally. If I need to type something quick and uncomplicated.
the moto droid was my 1st smartphone and i love it. don’t know how i lived this long without one.
build quality is top notch, much better than any htc i’ve ever touched. kudos to motorola for finally making a comeback….can’t wait for the droid 2
JeffDenver wrote on June 9, 2010
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Hehe…I said I “kinda” miss my Droid; but I wouldn’t go back to it from the Incredible.
IMO – the Incredible is extremely fast, and very fluid with regards to live wallpaper, and just from app to app, vs. the Droid. Also, I can understand the impression of ‘plastic’ coming from the Droid’s metal, but trust…it’s a very well made phone, compact, light, and powerful.
I couldnt imagine not having a physical keyboard. Till I tried the EVO. The screen size is a gamechange for me in that aspect I can alomst type as fast with the on screen as I could with my cliq!
I owned a G1 from Day One, then a Droid from Day One, but I no longer use the physical keyboard — almost never open it. I use speech to text most of the time, but even when typing, just use the virtual keyboard and like it fine. I no longer need a physical keyboard.
Having said that, I feel the build quality of the Motorola phones seems to be superior to HTC phones. The HTC phones seem to have connectivity problems of varying types, depending on the model.
So I will probably upgrade to a faster Moto Android fone with a bigger screen, plain vanilla Android, and no keyboard, once such a phone hits Verizon.
Nice, this was the 2009 best phone smartphone, maybe in 2010 will probably be DROID 2.
I needed a physical keyboard, and the droid was the best solution
The proximity sensor on my droid just pooped out on me and I stopped by to get a replacement today. I had to have one shipped to me because none of the Verizon stores in town had any in stock. I also agree about the slide out keyboard. I am leaning toward the Droid Xtreme, but am wondering if I really want to give up the keyboard since I find myself using it all the time.
I doubt I will ever buy a smartphone without a hardware keyboard. I hope this information reaches manufacturers, and that they realize there is still very much a market for physical keyboard-loving consumers :)
Droid’s keyboard leaves a lot to be desired, but is still much better than a virtual keyboard for me (YMMV). IMHO, one of the negative side effects of the iPhone’s success is the proliferation of devices with only a virtual keyboard.
For light use (a couple of words/web address), virtual is OK – but if I have to write an email the physical keyboard always comes out.
Besides that, the Droid is just such solid hardware. It almost feels like it should be stored in a tool box when not in use.
Lol yeah the droid is badass can’t wait to see how a bigger screen droid looks like keyboard or without.Those Moto guys sure can make a good phone
I love my Milestone and I hope that the Droid 2 / Milestone 2 will have a querty keyboard and an 8mp camera. A hardware querty is absolutely necessary for everyone who types more than an url. I don’t want to get used to a software keyboard or swype. the Droid looks like a little notebook when the keyboard is open, thats cool.
There will always be people who prefer a physical keyboard. I can also tell you that if you have sweaty hands like I do, the film of water on your fingers can make a capacitive touchscreen less than responsive. I like my Hero and the concept of touchscreen devices, but there are times I wish I had a physical KB.
I type pretty damn fast on my Droid’s keyboard, especially now with Better Keyboard fixing common errors. Plus in general I feel much more accurate with it.. while on the iPhone I might have been close in WPM I’d end up spending a minute or two just fixing wrong words and errors.
I just hate the on screen keyboard on Android, It might be the higher res screen of the Droid vs my older iPhone 3G but I just can’t type on it for anything
Plus, it saves screen real estate..
And more importantly.. the Game Gripper is amazing.. I’ve found myself playing a game (at this moment, Metroid Zero Mission) and actually forgetting I’m playing on a phone.
I don’t type alot with the physical keyboard but use it exclusively when surfing. The Dpad to scroll pages and select links is great. It was odd and annoying to me having to swipe and tap, it would often result in accidently hitting links or bypassing content. The Dpad is more accurate. I’ve had a couple of iPhoners say they wish they had a Dpad or even a trackball like the N1. Perhaps it’s because I used the wheel on my Blackberry prior to my Moto Droid. When slid out the keyboard also provides a better grip on the phone to me.
I’d like to get a Droid or even the Incredible (?) but without the Verizon contract and without paying in three digits. Am I looking for the impossible? You never know without asking. I’m pretty sure that if I got an unblocked one I could run it with my carrier (Straight Talk by WalMart as they use the same Verizon towers). Might be a good way to get a great phone on a great carrier. So, I’ll spend a little time investigating the possibilities before resigning myself to simple functionality that I have now.
@John B Interesting. I personally hate to surf with slid out keyboard, because it just doesn’t fit good in my hand that way. I use keyboard for texting alot though.
The only time I use the physical keyboard is when the software one gets a little buggy. Sometimes when I fill out a data field in the browser (and to a lesser extent when texting) using the software keyboard I type but nothing appears on the screen. I fix this by opening up and using the physical keyboard and what I typed using the software keyboard either appears when I start typing or never shows up at all and I have to start over using the physical. I have never had this happen when using the physical kboard. I feel like the bug was most common using 2.00-2.01 stock os, and decreased somewhat when I rooted with sholes, and continued to decrease in frequency with each new sholes rom and especially when sholes became droidmod (but still happened maybe in 1 out of 30-50 browser data fields.) Since I’ve been on the second froyo build and then bbv.01 I haven’t seen it once and with insane browser use….
Sorry for the novel! Anybody else have a similar issue?
I’d come to acquiesce with you here. Which is not something I usually do! I enjoy reading a post that will make people think. Also, thanks for allowing me to speak my mind!