Droid Dominates XMas Downloads
The Motorola Droid for Verizon Wireless is selling very, very well… there is no denying that. Exactly how well? That’s up for debate, but only a month ago there was speculation that 600,000+ Droids would be sold during the last 2 months of the year. Owners of those phones are downloading a HECK of a lot of applications: a new report by Flurry claims that on Christmas, Droid owners accounted for nearly 50% of all Android Market downloads:
read the full story on Phanaroid.
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iPhone beats Droid in Manhattan speed tests
Note to New Yorkers: Carry your new Droid phone to Wall Street, Grand Central Terminal, Union Square, or Madison Square Park, and you may find AT&T iPhone users — the ones who are always complaining — are actually downloading data at four times the speed of your Verizon phone.
A new report from mid-market investment banking firm Piper Jaffray rebuts the notion that the new Verizon Droid phone gives better service than AT&T’s iPhones. The three analyst authors summarized, “While there were certainly locations where the iPhone was bested by the Droid, two-thirds of the time the iPhone had much better throughput.” They went on to rate AT&T’s stock as overweight, meaning you should buy more of it despite the conventional wisdom that AT&T’s iPhone deal with Apple has brought down the company’s value.
The Droid did better in Times Square, Central Park, and Rockefeller Center, among other locations. The iPhone failed the worst in Times Square, missing its connection on two of five time trials and crawling to an average 39 kbps, versus the Droid’s 703 kbps.
Read the full report on the Venture Beat.
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Should Motorola And Sony Ericsson Merge?
The idea: in view of Motorola’s and Sony Ericsson’s low global handset market share – less than 5% each – shouldn’t they merge? The geographies work: Sony Ericsson has a decent market share in Europe (12.4%), Motorola has a good share of the U.S. (17.3%), Sony Ericsson does OK in India (10%), while Motorola is fine in China (10%).
There would naturally be cost savings from merging R&D and marketing functions. Currently, Sony Ericsson will spend around 15% of revenue on R&D and 13% of revenue on SG&A, and it’s estimated that Motorola spends around 33% of revenue on operating costs for devices.
Sanford Bernstein estimates, that by merging, the companies could reduce operating costs by 10%. This would be a useful uplift as last quarter – admittedly a poor one for all industry players – Sony Ericsson had an operating margin of minus 12%, while Motorola’s was 2.3% after being slightly negative the previous quarter.
But there may be another factor: Next year, there will be a whole new raft of phones based on Google’s Android operating system.
Android has only been up and running commercially since the summer and is a long way behind Apple Inc.’s iPhone by any metric. But only around a dozen handsets have been available so far and around 30 more are expected next year, many of which will come from Asian suppliers.
Read the full story on WSJ
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Android Hits Consumer Radars
The slew of Android phones entering the market this year, particularly the Motorola Droid, have helped the Google operating system register with consumers, comScore said.
The market-research firm said in a new report that 17% of American cellphone shoppers are considering an Android device in the next three months, compared with 20% who said they’re planning to buy an Apple iPhone (either 3GS or 3G).
Android phones, which include the Motorola Droid as well as the Motorola Cliq and Samsung Galaxy, represented only 3.5% of the smart-phone market in October, comScore said, but the platform has gotten buzz with multiple device launches, as well as the increasing attention that app developers are paying it.
Read the full story on WSJ
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RIM May Feel Android Effect
The growing number of smartphones using the Android operating system, like the Motorola Droid, is expected to impact the BlackBerry maker’s quarterly report
Verizon Wireless made clear from the start that its Droid smartphone was designed to put pressure on Apple, the maker of the iPhone, and AT&T (T), the exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier. As part of a $100 million marketing push, Verizon Wireless enumerates several ways it believes the Droid outperforms the iPhone.
Yet analysts say the Droid and other devices that sport the Android operating system may also take a toll on Research In Motion, the maker of another smartphone, the BlackBerry. “It’s clear there’s been a lot of marketing at Verizon around the Droid, so that is going to hurt RIM,” says Raymond James (RJF) analyst Steve Li.
On Dec. 17, investors will get a glimpse of how big an impact, if any, when Research In Motion releases results for the quarter that ended Nov. 28. Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group, began selling the Droid on Nov. 6. Other Android phones have been available longer, but the Motorola phone carried by Verizon Wireless has received some of the most glowing reviews and is generating the greatest buzz.
Mobile analytics firm Flurry estimated that the Droid sold as many as 250,000 units its first weekend on the market. Droid sales neared 1 million by the end of November, according to RBC Capital Markets analysts. Neither Motorola nor Verizon Wireless has released an official tally.
Read the full story on BusinessWeek
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Will you keep your Droid when the iPhone comes?
- Image via Wikipedia
The column that was the first to report that Verizon will indeed get the Palm Pre in early 2010 despite rumors to the contrary, reports that the same source that gave them this exclusive information more or less confirmed that Verizon will get the iPhone in 2010 – most likely in late June or early July.
Will you keep your Motorola Droid or switch to the iPhone when it finally arrives on Verizon?
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In new ad, AT&T, Luke Wilson say Verizon is slow
The battle between AT&T and Verizon has been peppered by startling doses of objectivity. So to demonstrate the clear, obvious, incontrovertible fact that Verizon’s 3G is but a Wendy’s-stuffing, cake-loving, 15-beers-a-night slob when compared with AT&T’s Usain Bolt, Wilson performs a side-by-side that would put the Pepsi Challenge to shame.
Source: Cnet
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Droid Ad MOCKS iPhone As ‘Digitally-Clueless Beauty Queen’
The first set of ads for Verizon’s Motorola Droid phone ripped apart the iPhone, taking shot at it for all the things it couldn’t do, but which “Droid does.”
The new Droid commercial takes the nasty up a notch with some serious name-calling of the iPhone (presumably: It refers to Apple’s competitor through hints, and not directly by name).
The new ad refers to the iPhone, Droid’s big rival, as a “tiara-wearing, digitally-clueless beauty pageant queen.”
The Droid, by comparison, compares itself to a “racehorse duct-taped to a skudmissile,” with enough speed and power to “rip through the web like a circular saw through a banana.” A “robot” of a phone that “trades hairdo, for can-do.”
[Source: Huffington Post]
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Following up: A month with Verizon’s Droid
Rob Pegoraro from the Washington Post has an update on his Droid review. Here are some of his points:
* Motorola didn’t build the sturdiest phone ever. As you can see in the photo, the paint on the top edge of the Droid has already begun to wear off from sharing the occasional pocket with change or car keys — a treatment that has yet to inflict any scratches on the iPhones Apple has loaned for my reviews. I’ve also noticed that the Droid’s battery cover slides off too easily.
* The Droid’s slide-out keyboard feels a little too spread out and too flat for fast thumb-typing, compared with the models on such competing Android phones as Sprint’s Samsung Moment or T-Mobile’s Motorola Blur. This has been the No. 1 complaint I’ve received from readers about this phone.
* The Droid’s voice-search feature is borderline amazing — it correctly heard me say “directions to Washington National Airport” in a crowded bar — but beware of invoking this option accidentally by holding down its search button.
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Free Eris Droid
@VZWPRDC just twitted:
New #Droid offer: Dec 4-Dec 7 Buy 1 droid phone (#Motorola or #Eris) and get 1 Droid Eris free (buy online or in stores) More info to come.
I guess we, the early adopters, got to pay more but not to enjoy a free phone. We hope that VW will compensate us like Apple did with the iPhone.
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