Droid could be Apple’s most serious challenger yet. Here’s why. You can track our previous post about this topic here.
Round 3: The operating systems
J.D. Power’s surveys of smartphone users have consistently given the iPhone operating system the highest scores for reliability and ease of use. The Android operating system, on the other hand, is still a relative unknown even though devices that employ it have been on the market for more than a year.
One reason Android is a wild card is that its performance so far has largely depended on the quality of the device on which it runs. If the Droid really does live up to the hype as the fastest Android smartphone yet to hit the market, we could see Android live up to its potential for the first time.
Edge: Until proven otherwise the iPhone operating system is still the top mobile operating system around. The release of the Droid, however, will give Android its first real showcase device along the lines of the iPhone, the BlackBerry Tour or the Palm Pre.
Round 4: Applications
This is another advantage for the iPhone, as Apple’s App Store has been a runaway success that has served more than 2 billion downloads and features more than 85,000 applications. When Google first developed Android as an open source mobile operating system, it said the platform’s goal was to spur innovation within the mobile development community and also to give users the ability to switch to new carriers without switching their mobile devices. So far, though, Google Android Market has not yet been able to create an online applications store comparable to the App Store, although that could change once Android becomes available on more devices over the next year.
Edge: This one goes to the iPhone, whose App Store has been a remarkable smash hit.
Round 5: Carrier quality
IPhone users love to complain about AT&T. And they’ve got lots of survey data to back them up, as Verizon has continuously come out ahead of AT&T in customer satisfaction rankings and studies on call quality and data coverage. The problem for Verizon is that it has lacked a home-run device such as the iPhone to drag away customers from rival carriers. With the BlackBerry Storm selling well initially but also receiving mediocre reviews, Verizon is hoping that either the Droid or the Storm sequel will give it the flagship device it has been looking for.
Edge: Unless Verizon suffers a massive network meltdown between now and November, the edge goes to the Droid. Also of note: Verizon will be the first carrier to start rolling out 4G LTE technology sometime next year.
The Final Verdict: While we obviously won’t know how well the Motorola Droid stacks up against the reigning smartphone champion iPhone until it gets released, it has a lot of things going for it that previous devices have not. If it performs as well as early reviews suggest, it could certainly become a big hit for Verizon and could be the device to launch Android into the mainstream for mobile device users.
Of course, as Jacqui Cheng at Ars Technica notes, none of the Droid’s dazzling tech specs and open-development platforms will matter much to customers who mostly care about a device’s ease of use and its overall performance in sending and receiving calls and data. If the Droid doesn’t get the basics down, then its flashy extra features won’t mean much.
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