Ever since Apple introduced the iPhone, other companies have been struggling to come up with another Smart phone that outdoes it in terms of cool features and performance. Moreover, while companies like RIM with their Blackberry Storm can rightly point to the deficiencies of the AT&T network that the iPhone uses, as of yet no one has been able to match the iPhone’s feature set. The iPhone is another huge success for Apple, to go along with their iTunes store and iPod.
Now along comes the Google Droid phone, which uses Google Inc’s software platform known as Android. This open-source software allows many companies, such as Motorola and HTC, to come up with their own versions of this phone. (It should be pointed out that the software is not quite as open-source as Google would have you believe, however.) As the clever ads point out, there are a number of things the Droid can do that an iPhone can’t, such as run more than one third-party application at a time. It can also shoot reasonably high-quality video, and can take pictures that are substantially higher-resolution than what the iPhone shoots. The Motorola version also has a nice, big, high-resolution screen that has been getting good reviews, and a built-in FM radio. On the other hand, with both the Motorola and HTC versions, you have to pay extra for e-mail, which is a big negative for business users.
These Droid phones are more of a menace to Canada’s RIM, maker of the Blackberry line, than they are to Apple, according to the majority of those analyzing the new product. The Blackberry Storm performed much more poorly than hoped, so this is not good news for RIM. However, this is the first generation we are seeing, and the Google Droid phone may yet pose a threat to Apple. Which would be a good thing.
Apple still holds a commanding lead with the number of applications available for the iPhone versus the number that are currently available for the the Droid phones. Apple has been encouraging and growing the developer network for iPhone applications for several years now and has ammassed a considerable inventory of applications that can be downloaded through the iTunes store. And Apple still has a lead in the number of music and movie titles that are available for both the iPhone and all of the different iPod devices. So the Google Droid phones have some catching up to do in several significant areas. But, from the look and functionality displayed on this first version of cell phone, the Droid phones are off to a blazing start.
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