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Patience nets Droid reward

Patience pays off

Date published: 11/21/2009

INEED a new work phone bad, and, ordinarily, that wouldn't be good.

But a rare display on patience on my part may make it a good thing.

My work Treo, a God-awful device that freezes up and needs to be rebooted at least 60 times a month, has been on its last legs for a while, and I've been eligible for an upgrade. But I've been holding out for the right replacement.

Our carrier is Verizon Wireless.

So I'm delighted that I now have the option of choosing the Motorola Droid or the HTC Droid Eris.

And experts believe there's a decent chance later that Apple, which has offered the iPhone exclusively via AT&T, will strike a deal with Verizon to make an iPhone-like phone, in part because it's feeling some heat from the Droid. So add that possibility to the mix.

Reports say that Motorola sold 250,000 Droids during that smart phone's launch week. And Motorola believes it will sell a million of the $200 (after a $100 rebate with a two-year contract) Droids by the end of this year.

I think I'm going with the brickish Droid, which has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard (even though it's a so-so one) in addition to a touch screen. The HTC Droid Eris is more iPhone-like, with a cooler, rounded, thinner form factor and a touch screen only.

But I'm impressed enough with the Motorola Droid's combination of functionality and versatility not to even think about holding out to see if iPhone comes to Verizon.

As I've said before, the iPhone won't be going away because of Android phones. But, like Apple, Google, which developed the Android operating system, simply gets it, which means they keep it simple.

And I like the fact that Android software is open source, allowing great freedom to users and the potential for developers to let their creativity run wild.

Because of that, even though Android isn't anywhere close to the 100,000 apps Apple now offers for the iPhone, it should make up ground in a hurry and offer a lot of options Apple won't.

I liked the Motorola Droid a lot when I had a loaner for a review recently. I'm pretty sure I'll be using it daily soon. So expect an update soon.

We'll see if the thrill is gone after a month or so. If so, you Verizon Wireless subscribers may want to hold for a while and see if the iPhone really does come over.

Michael Zitz: 540/846-5163
Email: mikez@freelancestar.com

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Date published: 11/21/2009