Motorola and Verizon invited comparisons, and that's what they got

Photos: Motorola, Apple

The Droid lands in stores Friday, and on Thursday the heavyweight reviewers — which is to say the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg and the New York Times' David Pogue — weighed in.

Given that Motorola (MOT) and Verizon (VZ) pitched the Droid in its first TV ad as everything Apple's (AAPL) and AT&T's (T) iPhone was not, it was perhaps inevitable that every reviewer so far, including these two, treated its arrival as a grudge match.

Mossberg's review is positive but tepid — especially the video version. He plods through the comparisons item by item like a slightly boring homework assignment. His top-line summary:

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New software transforms your phone into a GPS device – and a pretty good one, too

Navigon's MobileNavigator app for the iPhone has features some standalone units lack. Photo: Navigon.

As my wife will tell you, I have a comically bad sense of direction. I once got lost driving home from the mall.

This makes me a prime candidate for a GPS device. I’ve used a few for brief stints, mostly on long road trips, but never got into the habit of using one for everyday errands. There are a couple of reasons for that. For one, it’s a hassle to dig the thing out of the glove compartment. For another, entering an address on most of these things is a crazy-making experience.

My perspective changed recently, though, when I bought a new GPS unit for $70. Well, that’s not exactly what happened. I actually downloaded a GPS-based iPhone (AAPL) app for $70.

Yes, 70. Seven-zero. I’ll be the first to admit that it sounds crazy to pay that much for software that runs on a phone. The overwhelming majority of phone apps out there cost between 99 cents and $10. More

Apple has 93,000 to Android's 11,300. But how many applications do you really need?

Photos: Motorola, Apple

In the flurry of quickie reviews that appeared overnight after Wednesday's unveiling of Motorola's (MOT) Droid — Google (GOOG) and Verizon's (VZ) latest answer to Apple's (AAPL) iPhone — little has been said about how the two platforms stack up in terms of apps.

At first glance, it seems an unfair comparison. Apple has spent a small fortune promoting those famous 85,000 iPhone applications — a number than has since grown to roughly 93,000 and is on track to hit 100,000 in a matter of weeks.

Source: AndroidLib.com

But it's not as if there are no apps for the Droid. As of Thursday morning there were 11,284, according AndroidLib.com's unofficial count of the offerings in Google's Android Market. Moreover, that number too is growing by the thousands. Android developers added 2,333 new apps in September and another 2,431 so far in October.

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The largest smartphone maker you've never heard of wants to capture the hearts – and dollars – of the U.S. consumer.

Motorola's (MOT) Droid phone is getting a ton of buzz, and that’s by design. Verizon Wireless (VZ) chief Marketing Officer John Stratton has said the marketing campaign behind its iPhone competitor will be the largest in its history.

But the Google (GOOG)-powered device isn't the only smartphone the company is likely to begin selling at the start of November. Though no one has officially confirmed, the carrier is expected to announce a second device that will also run on Google's  Android operating system at half the price: the HTC Droid Eris.

Haven’t heard of HTC? You aren't alone. More

Verizon Wireless' subscriber rolls are growing, but not as fast as AT&T's

Source: Company reports

In the quarterly report that Verizon (VZ) issued Monday, the number that's getting the most attention is 1.2 million.

That's how many new wireless subscribers Verizon added over the past three months. And it's being compared unfavorably with the 2 million that AT&T Mobility (T) gained in the same period.

Verizon, with a new total of 88.8 million subscribers, still has the largest wireless network — something its ads never tire of reminding us. But AT&T, with 81.6 million, is catching up, and there's no mystery why. AT&T activated a record 3.2 million iPhones in the third quarter, nearly 40% of which belonged to customers new to AT&T.

Meanwhile, Verizon's total churn rate is going up (from 1.33% last year to 1.49% this year) while AT&T's is going down (from 1.69% to 1.43%).

But AT&T's momentum may be short lived. More

Motorola's Droid. Source: BGR

Just in time to rain on Apple's (AAPL) 2009 earnings report, a prime-time TV ad and a series of well-timed leaks have put the spotlight on Motorola's (MOT) Droid — a yet-unreleased smartphone that is being described by sources who have played with a prototype as the iPhone's first serious competitor.

The ad, which premiered Saturday during the Yankees-Angels pennant game, is pasted below the fold. The challenge to Apple couldn't be less subtle; it's a series of "iDon't" screens listing key features the iPhone doesn't have — from a physical keyboard to interchangeable batteries — that the Droid does.

The leaks are being funneled primarily through the Boy Genius Report, a blog with unusually good sources in the telecommunications industry. On Friday the site published an illustrated walk-through of Google's (GOOG) Android 2.0 — the new and reportedly much improved version of the open-source operating system that powers the Droid. Then, overnight Monday, Boy Genius posted a hands-on review — complete with photo gallery — that describes it as "the Android device to beat, and easily the most impressive."

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Back to the future: Straight Talk phones like the LG 200C might be dowdy, but growth in the prepaid market could eventually squeeze carrier profits. Photo: LG.

Look out, U.S. wireless carriers: Wal-Mart is teaming up with billionaire Carlos Slim’s América Móvil to train its price-crushing might on cell phones.

In time for the holiday season, the mega-retailer on Wednesday announced a nationwide roll-out of the new prepaid Straight Talk service, offered through América Móvil subsidiary Tracfone Wireless. Unlike mainstream wireless plans that pair cutting-edge phones with higher monthly fees and multi-year contracts, pre-paid services like Straight Talk offer cheaper phones, lower fees and no contracts.

Wal-Mart will offer two Straight Talk options: a $30 monthly plan that comes with 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts and 30 megabytes of data, and a $45 monthly plan with unlimited voice, texts and data. Straight Talk uses Verizon’s (VZ) wireless network. More

Skype on the iPhone. Photo: iTunes

AT&T's (T) surprise decision Tuesday to reverse course and permit low-cost Internet calls over its cellular network is good news for iPhone owners, but it leaves Apple (AAPL) with some explaining to do.

Apple was quick to welcome AT&T's change of heart. "We are very happy that AT&T is now supporting VoIP [Voice over Internet Protocol] applications," said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris. She promised that the company would get updated versions of Internet-calling apps — such as those made by Vonage (VG) and eBay's (EBAY) Skype — up on the iPhone App Store soon as possible.

But Apple had nothing new to say about Google (GOOG) Voice, the high-profile telephone management application that Apple declined to approve last August — triggering a government inquiry that revealed that it was Apple, not AT&T, that blocked it.

So why is Apple OK with Skype and Vonage, but not with Google Voice?

Many observers have commented on the inconsistency, but none more bluntly than TechCrunch's Michael Arrington.

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The Verizon (VZ) and Google (GOOG) joint webcast Tuesday announcing the two companies' plans to challenge Apple's (AAPL) iPhone was long on enthusiasm but short on detail.

"This partnership is a big big deal for us," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who shared the virtual stage with Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless, to formally announce a partnership 18 months in the making

According to a press release issued earlier Tuesday morning, the two companies are co-developing applications, services and devices that promise to "leverage the Verizon Wireless network and the best of the Android open platform."

But there were no devices announced at the press conference, and there will be only two released before the end of the year. Eventually, said McAdam, Verizon will be selling whole families of "game changing" Android products — feature phones, smartphones, PDAs, netbooks — and attracting "thousands of developers."

For details — costs, manufacturers, voice and data pricing plans — we'll have to wait a few more weeks.

And to attract developers in the numbers Apple claims to have — 125,000, according to Steve Jobs — Google and Verizon will have some catching up to do.

See also: Verizon vs. AT&T: There's a map for that

Video: RockBandit

UPDATE: Since this was posted, AT&T has sued Verizon in a U.S. District Court, claiming false advertising and petitioning for restraining orders that would keep this ad off the air. See here.

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Borrowing a line from Apple's (AAPL) "There's an app for that" TV ad campaign, Verizon (VZ) launched a high-profile attack on rival AT&T (T) last night in the middle of Monday Night Football's Viking-Packer game.

"If you want to know why some people have spotty 3G coverage," goes the voice over, as a scruffy-looking character frowns at his iPhone. "There’s a map for that."

A YouTube version of the ad — captured, ironically, on an iPhone 3GS — is pasted below the fold.

The campaign begins at a moment of high drama in the smartphone wars. It was launched on the eve of a Tuesday morning press conference at which Verizon discussed its plans to compete against Apple with devices running Google's (GOOG) Android operating system. (See here.)

And it follows both a new wave of complaints about AT&T's sluggish service and a widely-read estimate by Morgan Stanley that if Apple were to sell the iPhone through both AT&T and Verizon, its share of the U.S. handset market could rise from less than 5% today to more than 12%. (See here.)

Below: Verizon's new TV ad.

See also:

• Google and Verizon go after Apple

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