Droid Phon Views

General Goods

In the United States, the handset is distributed exclusively by Verizon Wireless. Features of the phone include Wi-Fi networking, a 5-megapixel low light capable digital camera, a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, interchangeable battery, 3.7-inch 854 x 480 touchscreen display. It also includes microSDHC support with bundled 16 GB card,[3] free turn-by-turn navigation from Google Maps, sliding QWERTY keyboard, and Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor.[2] The Motorola Droid runs Android version 2.2.[4] The phone does not, however, run the re-branded Motoblur interface for Android, instead providing the Google Experience skin and application stack.[5][6]

Verizon explicitly promoted the Droid as an Apple iPhone-alternative. Launched on October 17, 2009 TV spots and an associated website made entertainingly combative claims[10] listing features lacking on the iPhone, e.g. iDon't multitask , only mentioning the name of the Droid in the final frame, reading Droid Does .[8] At the official launch event on October 28, 2009 Verizon's Chief Marketing Officer John Stratton described the campaign as a spoof of Apple's iPhone ads, intended to wake up the market. [11]

Analytics firm Flurry estimated that 250,000 Motorola Droid phones were sold in the United States during the phone's first week in stores.[17] Flurry also estimated that 1.05 million Motorola Droids were sold in first 74 days of the launch. This number is greater than that of the original iPhone which sold one million units through day 74.[18] Flurry also reported that Droid sales did not match the newest Apple release, the iPhone 3GS, which sold 1.6 million in the first week.[19]

After some apparent discussion by Motorola over whether they would provide an Android 2.2 Froyo upgrade for the Droid and Milestone, it was confirmed that the Droid would get the upgrade, and a staggered roll out began.[25] This roll out began on August 3, 2010 and updates the phone to Android 2.2 build number FRG01B. Another update for the Droid began on August 24, 2010, and it included some minor bug fixes. This update's build number is FRG22D.[26] A third update was released on December 6, 2010, with a version number of 2.2.1 and a build of FRG83D. A fourth update was released on March 9, 2011, with a version number of 2.2.2 and a build of FRG83G.[27] The Motorola support page reported the Milestone version would get an update to Android 2.2 in the Q1 2011, and indeed on March 15th an update was made available.[28] Motorola warn and some users confirm that the update will slow the operation of the phone.