Motorola Droid: Android 2.2, Ubiquity and A Sequel?
Verizon confirmed the Android 2.2 release, though not the exact day, to various news outlets late last week, meaning that the nine-month-old Droid will join the Google-branded Nexus One and the Sprint-carried HTC EVO 4G as phones with confirmed Android 2.2 upgrades.
Growth of Google's Android platform, already seen on some of the year's hottest smartphones and headed for many more in 2010, has been brisk. Google's 2.2 version of Android, however -- code-named Froyo in keeping with the tradition of Google naming Android releases after desserts -- is seen as a significant update, adding tethering, faster speeds and Wi-Fi hot spot support to what's already a fast-growth platform.
The trick for Motorola and Verizon now will be making sure the Droid brand stays ubiquitous: increasing the visibility of the Droid phones themselves while rising with the Android tide lifting everyone from Motorola to HTC and Samsung at present. Though it doesn't have Android 2.2 just yet, for example, Droid X has already been one of the most buzzed-about phones of the summer, sold out through Aug. 4 as Verizon and Motorola look to fill backlogged orders.
Now comes word that Motorola will make good on rumors that yet another Droid phone, dubbed Droid 2, is on the way. What appears to be an internal Verizon blog post showed up on several news sites late last week and was picked up all over the blogosphere. It indicates that the Droid 2 will arrive on Aug. 12 and will will include a physical keyboard, active Swype technology already installed, a 1 Ghz processor, and Motorola's Motoblur skin.
Perhaps most importantly, however, the leaked documents say that Droid 2 will have Android 2.2 at launch. If that's the case, it appears Motorola and Verizon have finally hit their stride in the nine months since the original Droid hit the market: a glut of state-of-the-art smartphones, with (not just promised) the latest OS software, on top of some legitimate buzz, encouraging sales figures and a small, yet not insubstantial wave of anti-Apple sentiment following the iPhone 4's antenna snafu.
How well Motorola and Verizon exploit their gains will determine how fast Droid continues to climb, but nine months in, Droid sure looks solid.