PC World's Harry McCracken ponders the Droid II

[Bateluer]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/181585/is_it_too_early_to_start_designing_the_verizon_droid_ii.html

Is he serious? Portrait keyboards blow and I cannot stand any of the Blackberry keyboards. He compares heavily to the iPhone, which is to be expected because the Droid is targeting the iPhone.

 

[Kaido]

I was thinking about a Droid II when I was playing with my brother's new Moto Droid today. Thoughts:

1. Add HARDWARE buttons, not TOUCHSCREEN buttons. This is one thing the iPhone lacks - programmable hardware buttons. I only WISH I could control the iPhone from my pocket, without having to tap the home key to turn it on, tap the home key twice to activate the iPod controls, and then tap the "next" touchscreen icon on the screen (especially annoying in the car or while working out).

2. Put in a 1GHZ CPU. Android is sluggish, on both the Eris and the Droid. Beef it up, people.

3. Streamline the interface. It's close, but it feels like it lacks unification - kind of like when you hire a high-school kid to design your company's website: they're good at copying existing designs, but it doesn't quite have that extra polish you want to really make it hit home.

4. Swipe every single popular app for the iPhone. The iPhone has 100,000 apps (literally, 100k apps now), but most are crap. Get developers from the top ones to develop for the Droid. I was pleased to see Pandora on the Droid!

It's so close, but they kinda botched it because it's not perfect. If you're going to compete with a superstar (the iPhone), you can't just be "good", you have to be GREAT out the door. The Droid is good, but it's not at that level that the iPhone enjoys. Sorry, Motorola.

 

[Bateluer]

If you're going to compete with a superstar (the iPhone), you can't just be "good", you have to be GREAT out the door. The Droid is good, but it's not at that level that the iPhone enjoys. Sorry, Motorola.

Rose colored glasses? I'm guessing the Droid won't drop calls like the iPhone does, nor will it have overheating or exploding issues like the iPhone did. There's a lot to like about the iPhone, but its not on a pedestal and its not a superstar. Its proponents are just very very vocal.

 

[Kaido]

Rose colored glasses? I'm guessing the Droid won't drop calls like the iPhone does, nor will it have overheating or exploding issues like the iPhone did. There's a lot to like about the iPhone, but its not on a pedestal and its not a superstar. Its proponents are just very very vocal.

No, not rose-colored glasses - stone-cold sales figures:

1.) Over 21 million iPhones sold (as of Q2 2009)
2.) 100,000 apps available (as of Nov 4th, 2009)
3.) Over 2 billion apps downloaded (as of Sept 2009)

It's kind of like calling Britney Spears a superstar - you may not like her, but you can't deny that she's successful. For comparison, Motorola started selling the RAZR in 2003 and have sold 110 million units to date (they switched to the RAZR2 in 2007 according to Wikipedia). The problem is, they relied on the status quo and didn't keep up with technology - they should have released something like the Droid 3 or 4 years ago to stay ahead of the curve, but instead they were complacent. So now they have to compete with 100k apps and an existing userbase of 20 million iPhones, while selling an Android-based phone which only has 10k apps, costs the same as the iPhone, and has a similarly-priced service plan.

I think the Droid is a better phone (as far as the phone aspect goes), but it's going to be pretty hard to knock the iPhone from it's pedestal! I'm not saying it can't be done - case in point, Motorola sold 110 million RAZRS and then lost it all and almost dropped out of the mobile phone market - just that they have some very hard competition. People like easy. Having played with the Droid, I don't think that it's a smartphone I would recommend to my mom or my grandma, which leaves it to teens & young adults, and technically-minded people. Not saying the other demographics couldn't use it, but when faced with a choice of that or the iPhone, I'd recommend the iPhone for sheer usability. Although it makes for a crappy phone

Additionally, from a user perspective, the iPhone is extremely easy to use. My grandma is like 85 and can use my iPhone, and yet it has enough sophistication to keep me interested. I'm a fanboy, but even I agree the iPhone is not without its quirks - my three biggest complains with my 3GS are (1) useless speakerphone, (2) terrible AT&T service, and (3) random shutdowns.

btw, regarding overheating - the Droid has a metal vent on the rear of the phone :biggrin:

 

[Bateluer]

No, not rose-colored glasses - stone-cold sales figures:

1.) Over 21 million iPhones sold (as of Q2 2009)
2.) 100,000 apps available (as of Nov 4th, 2009)
3.) Over 2 billion apps downloaded (as of Sept 2009)

Here's the thing though. Of those 100,00 apps, how many are actually apps? Since the App Store (Android Market too), count ever track, manual, document, etc, as a single app, not all of those 100,000 applications are actually applications. Misleading figures, reminds me of how Blizzard calculates their WoW subscriptions. Furthermore, how many of that number are actually useful applications? Depending on who you speak with, 90% to 99% of the iPhone apps are useless junk, for every user.

Lastly, you'd give your grandmother a smartphone? My grandparents, even my parents, can barely figure out how to use the free introductory phones and TracPhones.

 

[Kaido]

Here's the thing though. Of those 100,00 apps, how many are actually apps? Since the App Store (Android Market too), count ever track, manual, document, etc, as a single app, not all of those 100,000 applications are actually applications. Misleading figures, reminds me of how Blizzard calculates their WoW subscriptions. Furthermore, how many of that number are actually useful applications? Depending on who you speak with, 90% to 99% of the iPhone apps are useless junk, for every user.

Lastly, you'd give your grandmother a smartphone? My grandparents, even my parents, can barely figure out how to use the free introductory phones and TracPhones.

FWIW, it says the App Store has over 100,000 apps, and another company independently measured that before Apple even said anything:

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/10/27/the-app-store-unofficially-breaks-100-000-approved-apps/

Current total individual apps available is 106,794:

http://www.appshopper.com/

As far as my grandma goes, that's why I said I'd only give her the iPhone - even corporate CEO's can figure out the iPhone :biggrin: