The Droid Invasion is Going to Rock

You're all probably seen the commercials for Verizon's new Droid phone by now. They're running them constantly, and they're making a lot of promises. It's a huge buzz campaign, and it's a lot to live up to.

The Droid delivers.

You know I've been in the market for a new phone, and phones based on Google's open source Android operating system were high on my list. After a thorough study of the current and upcoming contenders, I settled on the Droid. I'm currently using it for a two week trial period. I can return it for a full refund if I'm not satisfied, but I don't suspect that will happen.

The phone and the operating system rock! I really do believe this phone could finally blossom Android into the iPhone killer it promised to be. And since I wanted an iPhone but couldn't live with switching back to AT&T, I'm pretty ecstatic about that. The phone is gorgeous, zippy and feature-packed, and while it lags far behind the iPhone in total number of Apps, it's does have a large collection, one that's quickly growing. The fact the Android is open source is a huge boon in that department, and will mean that, as more people adopt Android phones (and as more and more developers get sick of Apple's selection process), App development for Android will skyrocket.

The Droid is a slick phone easily worthy of consideration as an alternative to the iPhone for anyone sick of or unwilling to join up with AT&T. Granted the ultimate "iPhone on AT&T" killer would be the "iPhone on Verizon", or really any other network, but that won't happen until the middle of 2010, and not until 2011 if the exclusivity contract renewal rumors are true. I'm not willing (or able, my phone is falling apart) to wait that long. The Droid is as good as the iPhone in most respects and better in others (it has a virtual keyboard AND a physical keyboard, for one). Yeah, it doesn't have multi touch, which sucks. But the phone does support it. There are Apps available that operate just the iPhone in that capacity. The operating system itself supports it, too. It's just unimplemented. I think Google is afraid of legal repercussions. But, as I said, Android is open source, so it's only a matter of time before someone designs an App that unlocks multi touch system wide.

So yeah, I'm keeping the phone and switching to Verizon. Let the Droid invasion begin!